La Hirondelle 77

 

Stargazer slips past the beach at Kerneval, on the last of the ebb.

Port Louis away to port.

The cranes and skyscrapers of Lorient astern.

A breeze ruffles the glassy water, as we near the citadel narrows.

We hoist sail and swoop out over the swell. Groix a dark smudge on a grey horizon.

The sun playing hide-and-seek with mizzle bearing clouds.The remnants of yesterday's downpour, sheepishly moving on.

Each cloud brings a shift in the breeze, on arrival and departure. Stargazer tacks on the headers; eats up to windward, on the lifts.

Clearing the serrated western tip, of Groix, in five boards.

With clear sea room, I set to work on the foredeck. Making a Mkll repair, to a leak from the forehatch, which yesterday's rain had revealed. This time using brown parcel tape.

The water is finding its route in, where the internally mounted hinge attaches to the glass. Clamped by two bolts, which run through the glass and into an external moulding.

Mkl, applied during a brief lull yesterday evening, had been made using sail repair tape. It stuck well and conformed neatly to the curves, of the clamp assembly. But proved porous.

The improvised catch tray, above my bunk, containing an egg-cup-full of water, by morning.

Stargazer closes the mainland shore off Doelan.

Before tacking out, to clear the Pointe de Trevignon. The breeze backing from west to south west. Almost allowing us to clear it, ‘in one.’ We opt for an impromptu route, inside the outermost islets and reefs. Eyes glued to a well zoomed-in plotter.

Our reward is to ease sheets. Hugging the shoreline, as Stargazer sweeps deep into the north east corner of Benodet Bay. Wind on the quarter.

Making for Port La Foret. Home base for many an offshore racing campaign. Currently host to the Tour du Finisterre a la Voile. A well attended club racing regatta. Boats rafted four and five deep, on the events pontoon. In a thicket of masts.

Possessed of that rarest of things, in this age of on-line shopping, a comprehensively stocked, on site chandlery. Where, at seven o'clock on a Friday evening, I am able to obtain Gaffer Tape. Which I hope will provide a watertight, get-us-home fix, for the leaking hatch.