Dandelion 81

 

In the lee of Ile Tudy, the roar of the wind falls silent. The heaving seas smooth to ripples.

Stargazer's day had started quietly enough.

Slipping out of Port Louis. Twelve knots of breeze on the quarter. Her skipper strolling about the deck, stowing lines and fenders.

The wind soon picks up, to the forecast twenty knots. But from the west, rather than the predicted north east. Giving Stargazer some work to do. For it is blowing from the direction in which we wish to travel.

Which also has the effect of increasing the apparent wind speed. Stargazer dutifully puts her shoulder down. Carving through the swell. Twenty five knots across the deck. Two reefs in the main.

Stargazer zig zags her way between Groix and the mainland shore. Sailing two miles, for every one made good, toward Benodet Bay.  Our first milestone is to clear the island’s toothy western tip.

On we beat. The breeze veering more northerly by midday. Giving us a 'gaining tack,' less than thirty degrees off the rhumb line.

Stargazer clears the Pointe de Trevignon and swoops into Benodet Bay. Our second milestone. 

Four tacks later, we sight the Benodet leading marks. (Top right). Standing close in, to the entrance. Which funnels, and accelerates, the breeze.

One last tack, sees Stargazer charging directly down the Loctudy channel. Toward shelter.

Our bows aimed squarely at the welcoming chequerboard face, of the Perdrix beacon.