Email problems

We are having problems with our Outlook Email service. I have lost our Email address book. We have been receiving Emails but I have not been able to send anything out.
Please note that I can still send & receive Emails on line via Google mail. However we had planned to download all our Emails to Outlook, read them, write replies and send them all at the same time from an internet Café.
If you know of someone who has unexpectedly not heard from us, It may be because we have lost their address. Please get them to send an Email to us at demengel@googlemail.com

In the mean time I’m trying to get the Outlook problem fixed. So please be patient, it’s not always easy for us to get on line.

We plan to enter the Golfed u Morbihan tomorrow Wednesday 30th July.

Best regards

Dee

Audierne

We have spent a few days exploring the Rade de Brest and its tributaries.
The little we saw of the town itself was of no great interest or beauty, we were however very grateful for the help we got from a computer geek in an internet café (our first experience of this wonder of the modern age).


The Rade is of course jammed pack full of the French Navy and their war ships. Vast areas of it are marked on our charts, “Entry Prohibited”. We felt quite at home: it reminded us of the British Army in Castlemartin, Pembrokeshire!
Our favourite bit was without doubt the days we spent on the L’Aulne River. The only fly in this particular ointment was on passing a beautiful Monastery near Landevennec we turned a bend in the river hoping to find a quiet anchorage for the night, and discovered this!!!

After passing the Pont de Terenez, things improved no end, with mile after mile of wooded river valley reminiscent of the upper reaches of our own Afon Cleddau. The wind was mostly favourable and we were able to sail almost as far as the lock at Port Launay. We had a look at Châteaulin, but it was a bit busy for us, so we returned for a quiet night alongside a flower covered wall in the non tidal canal. We supped in the cockpit (and great shame on us finished the last of our Tesco's Australian wine) with a beautiful viaduct in the background.

Monday 21st saw us at anchor in the spectacular Anse de Pen-Hir and a four a.m. start next morning for the Raz de Sein. Despite the dire warnings of the severity of this passage, we had little or no wind and a favourable spring tide. So a quick and quiet passage leaves us at anchor bobbing in a mildly uncomfortable swell at Saint-Evette.

We plan to row ashore this afternoon and get some mild aerobic exercise, by cycling to the nearby town of Audierne.

Brest

A big thank you to Katrina for organising my perfect retirement party. Thanks also to all my friends and work colleagues who came along and said such nice things. The present of the Sextant, that you all contributed to, is just what I wanted. It will give me many hours of harmless pleasure and will remind me of how lucky I am to have worked with, played with, or just known, such fine people. (It’s just a shame I didn’t get the Sex toy I asked for).

Saturday brought Pippa and me down to earth. Strong winds and heavy rain: we weren’t going far. We eventually gave up trying to find space on board for all the paraphernalia we had loaded on to our poor old boat. In the end we just crammed things in and hoped for the best. Despite the very strong South East winds we just had to get out of Neyland Marina. Leaving the berth was almost an epic. I tried several times to use subtlety and gentle technique to no avail. Sula just wouldn’t turn her head through the wind. Nor would she countenance the ignominy of reversing out. In desperation before I lost all control, full steam astern, then tiller over and full steam ahead and hope for the best did the trick. Our first cruise as livaboards was a gentle mile to Mill Bay, just up the river from work and a perfect anchorage in such conditions.

Sunday saw us beating down river to Dale with welcome sunshine, good wind and a fair tide. The highlight was without doubt hailing a halloo to a boatload of ex work mates, Steve, Robin et all, the best qualified sailing crew in Pembrokeshire, who can tell a tale or two about ebbing tides and mud flats.

We finally set off after lunch on Monday and experienced exhilarating, frustrating, and exasperating sailing in equal measure on route to Newlyn (near Penzance in Cornwall).
The wind would get up, at one time requiring two reefs and a pocket handkerchief jib, before dying away to a light breeze, but with a large and confused sea. The last leg past Longships light and Lands End saw us on a beam reach doing nine knots over the ground.
(We had quite a bit of help from the tide)

The highlight of our stay in Penwith was alongside the wall in the drying harbour of
St Michaels Mount. We were too late to pay an arm and a leg to the NationalTrust and visit the grounds of the Medieval Monastery. Instead we walked around the Island below the Mean High Water mark and were rewarded by spectacular views of the Mount.

Our crossing to France on Monday 14th was a lot easier than Milford to Cornwall. We couldn’t lay a course to L’ Aber Wrach so changed course to Roscoff, and sailed at a good speed to arrive first thing in the morning. A bit too early, as it was still quite dark and misty. Oh what a lovely aid to navigation is GPS!

L’ Aber Benoit was our next destination, a lovely harbour and surrounding countryside. Though a lot busier than the last time I visited about ten years ago. We got our fold up bikes out and went for an explore. It was quite nice to get some aerobic exercise for a change.

We are now in Brest having arrived just in time to see (from a distance) the grand parade of sail that marked the end of the Brest festival of sail. We couldn’t count them all but we are reliably informed that there were three thousand sailing boats in all (Yes I did say 3,000).

We are going to rest up here for two or three days before heading of to southern Brittany.