Racing the Storm (with Dolphins)

Making a short hop of about 40nm, we left Cherbourg with the afternoon tide. Before even getting beyond the breakwater of this large port, we were absolutely delighted to meet a small pod of dolphins. They enjoyed jumping in our bow wave and we were in awe of their playfulness and strength as they followed us while we tacked out.

On this turn we were able to really make the most of the current that carried us around the point to the Channel Islands. Racing many other sailors on the same course, we also enjoyed seeing the first of many high speed trimarans that we've seen in this part of France.

With the dimming evening light we were amazed to see fins poking out of the waves again. Suddenly realizing that we were in a huge pod of dolphins, we saw them jump more than 100 meters from the boat and everywhere in between even using their tails to playfully splash us at the bow.

The dolphins stayed with us nearly all the way to Sark slowly moving further north as we arrived in our bay to anchor just as the sun set. Spending the day at anchor to finish a few repairs we enjoyed watching this beautiful island disappear and reappear from behind the rolling fog.

Taking up anchor the following morning we experienced the channeling effect of the current between the islands that allowed us to reach speeds beyond 10kts as we raced southwest. Unfortunately, the wind was not in our favor for the remainder of the day with changing directions, speeds, and the growing waves, and we made a much slower pace toward the French coast than we had anticipated. We had to continue sailing through a dark, rainy, and gusty night.

In the morning, the wind increased to above 30kts apparent on a close course so we changed quickly to the smallest foresail and reefed the main. Finally, making good speed again land came in sight. With a tired crew and three wet sails we made use of a convenient harbor at Aber Wrac'h to wait out the coming storm the following night. Even in this very well protected bay the devices recorded wind speeds of 55kts, and we were very grateful for our fenders taking such force all night long on the quayside.

Finally, after some very careful planning to take into consideration the swell following the storm and the changing current around Finistère, we were very pleased to discover we had perfect timing to ride the current into Brest much ‌more quickly than we had estimated.

In this industrial city we had our first major crew change saying a sad goodbye to Peter, Sue, and Jasmin and welcoming Cedric and Katharina aboard.‌