In the harbour of our home port La Rochelle on the west coast of France, John sat with Sheila in the cockpit drinking a glass of wine with Louise and me saying:
‘Yes. I would like to buy your
catamaran, the lovely Prout 33 called Eloise but would you deliver it to Plymouth in the UK south coast for me’?
Thinking hard I considered the problem.
It's about 400
miles from Les Minimes marina in La Rochelle, France to Plymouth, about 3 days
and nights and it’s summer and she is a good sea boat..’
‘No problem. Provided
it is before the end of August I can do that easily.’
‘All right.'
said John. 'Let me have a
think about what the correct price is for me to pay and I will come back.
A few days later Louise and I had to go to London
on business. All of it was completed on the first day so
casually I said ‘Shall
we pop down to the
South Coast and have a look at some boats?’
‘The deal on Eloise is not done yet’ she replied ‘but it would be fun… I mean interesting!’
So off we went to look at some
‘blue water boats’ suitable for a voyage to Brazil, the straights of Magellan
and the South Pacific. We saw 3 on the
first day but the one we looked at first, PAW PAW,
a
Westerly Ocean 43, on the hard at Ancasta Brokers in Lymington, was love at first sight. The previous owner had begun to fit her out
for long distance cruising. Too much in the way of electronics and TVs and
sound systems but an absolutely lovely boat – 43ft of Westerly Ocean only 10
years old and two careful owners. I looked carefully at the inventory; I did my
own survey, there and then. Hull,
rudder, rigging, engine looked clean and looked after and the entire boat
sparkled. I was in love again.
A few days later John
negotiated a price for ELOISE that left me with ‘tears in
my eyes’ and I put in an offer on the beautiful
PAW PAW
which was not accepted and following the path of all star struck suitors, I
increased it to a level that was acceptable to her owner ‘Tony Fowler, who, I was
told, was sunbathing on a beach in the Bahamas. . He
wanted to keep the ‘sound system’ which was apparently a very good ‘Linwood’,
what ever that is and the deal was struck with a swift interbank transfer of funds
from my bank to Ancasta Marine - the Brokers based on the
inventory and the boat.
The biggest problem John had with buying Eloise, was that he did not trust me. Not in a bad
way but for him to hand an individual a large lump of dosh as a deposit and
subsequently even more for the actual boat frightened both him and Sheila. He
wanted to be 100% certain that I actually owned the boat and seeing various
bills of sale from previous owners including the bill of sale passing her to me
did not seem quite enough…. We met at a service station to sign the contract to
buy, subject to survey but he forgot his cheque book to pay the deposit. I
trusted him so I just signed the contract and asked him to transfer the 5%
deposit when he got home.
I was buying a boat for far
more money, via a very reputable broker from a wealthy man, with a salesman
from a reputable brokerage, who made me feel good about the deal.
So there it was – early
August and two deliveries were to be made. The first due north with the Prout 33 Eloise from La Rochelle to Millbrook
in Plymouth and then cross country to pick up our new boat the Westerly 43 Paw Paw and
deliver it from Lymington to La Rochelle. Perhaps
somewhat further but in a bigger faster vessel with the prevailing northerlies
to push us south… A breeze! I allowed 3 weeks in total for the two relatively
short deliveries.
The forecast for the next
weekend was excellent – south-westerly 3-4 for the next 3 days becoming
westerly in the Channel. I set a route outside the Islands of I'ile Dieu and Belle Ile together with avoiding the Raz de
Seine and Chenal du Four. No waiting for tidal windows for me. An
offshore passage like the old days, straight to Plymouth, leave Eloise in Millbrook
then drive over to Lymington to PAW PAW where Nick was arranging for her to be launched and
waiting for us on a visitors pontoon.
She was ready for a shake down passage to Cherbourg then more or less direct to La Rochelle depending on the time available. Say another 5 or 6
days. July is the perfect month as well!
Huh!
14th July With
supplies for 6 days sail and the fuel tanks topped up we Louise and I slipped at 08.30 from Les Minimes Marina at La Rochelle and headed north. A light north easterly enabled us
to be off Isle Dieu by that evening and a pleasant sail as every town in France let off fireworks to celebrate. Dolphins played around the bows and we made
between 4 and 6 knots during the night.
For Louise it was a baptism of fire. She had made no overnight passages before but
had to stand watch alone for her 4 hour watch whilst I slept on the bunk in the
saloon. She actually enjoyed watching
the coast of France off to port slide past beneath the starlit sky.
Dawn saw the wind start to come round and I was forced to
start the engine to aid the close hauled sails and keep us going. Despite the spare fuel jugs tied to the pushpit there was not enough fuel for us to motor all the
way to Plymouth but equally I really did not feel like taking long
tacks in order to get us north.
The sky greyed over more
during the morning and by the afternoon the wind came up to 15 knots and we
bounced along making slow progress.
Louise did not feel like eating much and we were busy
putting on warmer clothing as we headed into the 2nd night. As
before she said she preferred to do 22.00 to 02.00 so I took the earlier watch
whilst she tried to sleep. At the change over the wind was up to 18 knots from
the north, the sea was picking up and visibility was misty… A big trawler came out of the mist about 50
yards ahead and kindly altered course slightly for us before disappearing again
and as another wave swept over the bows I really wondered if this was actually
worth it?
Half an hour later it was 20
knots on the nose and definitely not worth it. I went below and switched on the
laptop with its Russian version of C-map and waited for the GPS puck to put our position on the chart display – Off to starboard, about 4
hours sail away, was a large bay and inside it a couple of estuary ports the
nearest and easiest to enter in the dark being Benodet
with a couple of marinas in the river.
I laid off a course to the
landfall buoy at the head of the bay then another few waypoints to the river
mouth, went back into the cockpit and Louise put the helm over as I slackened
the sheets and turned off the motor as we headed East on a broad reach in 18-20
knots… What a difference of course. On
her best point of sail Eloise glided across the waves also glad to be heading for a
safe and not bouncy haven. Although I
had crossed Biscay some 7 times I had never ‘coasted’ it, always going directly
down to Bayonne or further.
The French coast between La Rochelle and Brest was a mystery.
A somewhat rocky and tidal mystery.
C-map enabled me to plot a course with 4 waypoints into the river mouth of the Benoit, between various
sand banks and rocks and I transferred the positions into the GPS. With the pair of us in the cockpit clutching a paper chart and the North Brittany pilot we fairly easily identified the buoys. Backed
up by the GPS position displayed on the laptop made a classic
approach to the river mouth some 4 hours later.. The river was not that easy to navigate on
the flood tide as the clouds and grey kept most of the moonlight away but we
eventually found what looked like a visitors’ pontoon at right angles to the
tidal stream with the only clear berth upstream. I turned into the stream and at the third
attempt managed to hold her alongside long enough for Louise to jump to the pontoon and secure a couple of lines.
Tired and cold we ‘hit’ our
bunk at 02.30 and slept soundly.
Basically we had ‘stalled’. What
was to be a three or four day passage to the UK was now going to be much longer and we were also at
the mercy of the ‘tidal gates’ of the Raz du
Seine and the
Chanal du Four. Added to this the wind was still in
the north the next morning, the barometer still falling. We filled the main
fuel tank from one of the spare jugs and looked at the option for the following day.
The problem was the tide at the Raz du
Seine. This is a considerable tide race between some
rocky islands and the mainland. Considerable over falls build up if there is a
suggestion of wind over tide and it is not a place to take lightly.
The problem was that even if
we left Benoit at dawn we would arrive at the Raz in
the middle and strongest part of the favourable tide but with the wind in the
North, although lightening, it could be a very bumpy ride. The tide would be foul at the Chenal du four so we would have to stop again before
crossing the channel to Plymouth.
Exploring Benodet was not a
long exercise and even crossing the river by the little ferry and wandering
around on the
other side only took a short time but was interesting.
The next morning, an hour before dawn, we made
our cautious way down the river and followed our track back out into the
bay. With the northerly wind there was
no option but to motor and a few hours later we joined the last of the boats
entering the Raz….
Quite impressive and I had plotted a very cautious track through the centre
keeping as far away from the over falls as possible. Strangely the lighthouse
off to starboard was difficult to identify and did not seem to agree with the
chart and we realised we were not the only ones having that problem as a UK
boat and a couple of French boats turned right much too soon and nearly ended
up on the rocks before realising their mistake and going quickly about..
There was about 5 knots of
wind directly over the tide and the over falls were significant… I tried to steer well clear of them but none
the less we took a couple of quite large waves over the side making Eloise shudder with the impact. Louise felt it was like running the rapids in a grey misty drizzle of a day. We
‘whizzed’ through at over 8knots over the ground on the powerful tide and were
relieved to come out to the north of the race.. Certainly
not a place to be in strong wind over tide conditions!!
Once through the Raz we followed the main channel to Camerat
where we eventually found a place to park on the very crowded town marina
pontoon not very far from our friend Stuart in ‘Freebooter’, an Achilles, who had left La Rochelle single handed some 3 weeks previously making a more gentle
return trip to his home port of Poole.
With the wind from the north
and the tides wrong for the Chenal du Four, we spent 48 hours refuelling and victualing the boat
and some convivial company in the local restaurants… We were only 240 miles out
of La Rochelle so despite a NE forecast for the winds, we left at
11.00 the next morning for the tidal gate at the Chenal.
Well actually 2 hours before the tidal gate but I thought it would be worth
making slow progress rather than just sit in the marina.
The Chenal
was easy. A huge fleet of boats both ahead and astern of us and wide well
buoyed channels and despite the wind over tide conditions none of the breaking
waves which we had found quite intimidating in the Raz
and in company with Stuart in Freebooter we ‘popped’ out of the northern end
and altered course for Plymouth. We eased the sheets and in a slightly bouncy
sea headed out on the last 112 miles towards the shipping lanes.
This was to be Louise’s second stint of watch keeping alone at night and she had never
crossed a shipping lane. At midnight the opportunity to learn this skill came up with a
vengeance. From clear horizons with the occasional sail in site suddenly there
were ships, very big ships, everywhere.
At first it was pretty straightforward. They were all heading for Ushant
shipping channel, heading south – from our starboard side… Well spaced out.
I put the radar on, which can
be seen easily from the cockpit of Eloise and explained to Louise roughly how
it worked and what the range rings meant and she quickly understood how to
watch the navigation lights of a ship and work out if it was going to clear us
or if it needed watching very carefully because the white lights were close
together or the red and green could be seen simultaneously. The wind shifted more to the West and Stuart in Freebooter called on the VHF to say he could now lay Dartmouth easily and was altering course as his eventual
destination was Poole.
After a couple of hours sleep
Louise called to say she was now seeing ships coming from her port side as well
as from starboard. We were now
approaching the eastbound shipping lane of ships coming up from the south into
the English Channel. Interestingly this area just after the end of the
shipping lane was much busier with some ships heading for UK south coast – some for northern France and others up channel to the North Sea.
From then on we kept
watch together, each letting the other get a few minutes or up to an hours sleep when
possible. We were motor-sailing for much
of the time partly to support the radar, lights and other electronics and partly
to be able to manoeuvre around approaching ships. Louise developed a technique of timing ships
crossing from one range ring to another so she could get some idea of how long
it would be before she would be able to see their lights.
It was a very busy night. I
have crossed the channel many times mainly between the Solent
and Cherbourg or the Channel
Islands but never
experienced so much traffic. There is a gap in the traffic lanes between Ushant
and Plymouth. In fact they actually make ships cross over if they
are going up or down channel and many are moving quite slowly. Not sure why.
With the aid of radar and a sharp look out we
eventually cleared most of the traffic and with dawn found ourselves
approaching the Eddystone light with Plymouth not far beyond.
Tired we were just about to
make some breakfast when a very large motor vessel approached at speed. Clearly
a military or official craft with a gun on the bows, all became clear when it
launched a big rib with some six persons on board who came up along side and
boarded. It was her majesties customs and excise. I carefully kept my mouth shut and did not do
jokes about illegal immigrants hidden in the heads or cocaine in the bilges. They looked very serious and without humour
although they asked all sorts of questions about our lifestyle, places we had
been, why we were out there, where we lived and what nice passports we had.
Really took a very polite interest in their hosts I thought…
We had been allowed to
continue towards Plymouth with the RIB and the cutter holding formation on us
so the visit by our uninvited guests did not delay our arrival at the
breakwater from where we proceeded clutching paper charts like road maps
towards the entrance to Millbrook.. The customs people
had got on the radio for us and found the time of high water for the day so I
was not in the least surprised to find the River almost dry with mud banks
everywhere… We waited for three hours on a empty
mooring buoy we picked up whilst packing our bags and tidying up the boat ready
for her new owners. After all we were
just delivery crew as Eloise was now in the ownership of John and Shelia.
With the flood tide we
motored gently up to the Multihull Centre at Millbrook, only running aground
occasionally and found an empty berth.
We tied up, finished packing then took ourselves down to the village for
a well earned drink and dinner in a pub. The next morning a hire car company
picked us up and we took the car onto Lymington and
our new boat.
Paw Paw
was launched and sitting on the visitors pontoon at Lymington
Yacht Haven looking just lovely.
Details @ Paw Paw here.
Louise and I went into the brokerage office to pick up the
keys and were given a gracious and warm welcome by the sales staff. Having
previously paid in full for the boat, just before leaving France, I was handed the new bill of sale with and inventory
attached together with the bills of sale from the 2 previous owners and another
copy of the boats specifications and inventory so we could check out our purchase.
We were told that ‘Tony
Fowler’ the previous owner, would arrive the next day to show
me how the boat worked.
On board we started to
prepare the boat for the trip back to the UK…Tony Palmer, the
previous owner’ was due to
arrive the next day I went through the inventory and checked off the items
listed and made notes of the things I did not understand or did not know how to
work. The life raft was missing but Nick told me it was on its way from being surveyed as was the dingy and
outboard. The sound system, as we agreed,
was sitting on the saloon table for ‘Tony’ to collect. So exciting to take over such a beautiful new boat – so
many systems, so many toys!
The next day ‘Tony’ arrived with the outboard and a very, very old Avon
Redcrest
dingy in place of the original modern one which was with Paw Paw. I started to question him about
how various things worked as well as the engine. It quickly became apparent
that his main interest was to recover his wet weather gear and the sound system
I had agreed he should take off the boat. Clearly
not much of a sailor,
he rushed around looking embarrassed and furtive checking various cupboards and draws, ending in the
galley where to my surprise he took out a carving knife saying ‘'That’s my
favourite’' and then proceeded to empty the entire draw of its contents. Despite the inventory including all cutlery
and equipment in the galley!!! Louise offered him a plastic bag for his ‘goodies’ and he
emptied the entire draw into the bag! A strange, odd and and nervous person, who looked I felt, a bit ashamed.
Having made various checks on
the boat we filled her with fuel and set sail.
27th July bound for Cherbourg as a sort of ‘shake down’ trip to find out how she
sailed and what systems worked or did not work. Having sailed Eloise northwards towards the wind most of the time I was disappointed to
have to motor sail into a very light south-westerly.
Halfway across the channel I
decided to have a general check of the bilges and engine compartment. I was shocked and surprised to find that it
had gone from being bone dry to containing nearly a foot of water in one part
of it beside the engine.. I popped back
on deck and asked Louise to look out for merchant ships as I had to bail a
very small quantity of water out of the boat…
None of the electric bilge pumps accessed that area and the bilges are
all portioned off to a height of about a foot.
With a bucket and small saucepan I bailed her out over the next hour so
until she was almost dry. Louis did a splendid job of dodging the big ships in the
traffic lanes. With the bilges dry we continued onto Cherbourg with my having to bail out again before we entered
the breakwater.
Once parked
I made a check of all the 7 sea cocks in the engine compartment and the stern
gland, which was a type I had not encountered before. Made by Volvo it is a rubber gland that fits around
the shaft and is sealed to the hull.. It was old but
with the shaft turning slowly did not seem to leak. I examined the engine and the
pipes running to the calorfier but could find
nothing. A job for the experts.
Accastilage Diffusion, the main yacht chandlers in Cherbourg have a repairs facility so I
approached them to have a look at the problem. Several other Brit boats were
also looking for engineering help so I was pleased when they arrive that
afternoon. After an inspection of the
engine compartment they diagnosed the problem as being the Volvo rubber gland
and arranged to have Paw Paw lifted out on the travel
lift the next morning… I prayed there
would be little wind as Paw Paw was on the limit for weight and beam so I would
only have about 18 inches on either side when entering the dock. 18 tons and 43 feet of boat that I hardly knew
persuaded me to ask a couple of fellow yachties from a Scandinavian boat to
give me a hand.
Dawn broke with a brisk 16-18
knot wind blowing across the mouth of the travel lift dock and after a couple
of ‘practice’ astern runs we successfully ran her in and she was lifted out for
the couple of hours it took to take off the prop, draw the shaft and put on a
new Volvo gland. Back in the water we motored back to the pontoon berth and the
engineers made the final adjustments, bailed out the compartment and the ‘shop’
relieved me of a quantity of Euros..
The next day we sailed for Alderney as Louise had never visited the Channel Islands. From there we planned to head out round Ushant
and down to La
Rochelle in one
‘hit’. I ran the motor for about an hour
and the rest of the time enjoyed a sparkling sail despite the ‘lumpy’
conditions. In round the breakwater we picked up a mooring buoy and settled
down for a well earned glass of wine. I
popped below to check the engine compartment to find to my dismay it was again
full of water. A happy hour or two was
spent bailing it out and drying the area then to bed. ‘I can hear water slopping around behind the
bed head’ said Louise. With a sigh I removed the big bed head panel in the
stern cabin to find to my horror that one of the compartments behind the bed
head was full of sea water. We now had two different leaks!
With that much water entering
the boat we clearly could not sail for La Rochelle without fixing the problems. The pilot book listed
several boat yards in Guernsey which is not far south of Alderney. The driver of the ‘boat taxi’ in recommend a
company called Marine and General and the next morning we rounded the
breakwater into the Swinge and with fair tide and
wind enjoyed a wonderful sail south to St Peter Port. She might make a bit of water but Paw Paw was proving to be an excellent sea boat and a pleasure
to sail.
Tied up alongside I called
Marine and General and they said to come round to St Sampson immediately. I
had never entered this small harbour just north of St Peter Port which looked
somewhat daunting with lots of isolated rocks. ‘No problem’ they said. ‘Call us
when you get close and we will come out in a dory and guide you in.’
A
few hours later I nosed Paw Paw bows first into the
very large travel lift dock at Marine and General’s yard, tied up and the
manager with some engineers came on board. Very professional and well organised
they examined the two compartments with water, bailed them out and searched for
leaks to no avail.
‘If
you motor her out of the port into the Swinge for
half an hour will more water come in?’
‘Almost certainly.’ I said
‘Right
lets go’ and I backed out, turned round and proceeded to motor round in the
fast tidal current.’
Despite
water clearly entering the engine compartment the source of the leak remained a
mystery so we headed back to the yard before the tide dropped and Paw Paw was lifted out onto the hard….
‘It
must be one of the sea cocks leaking’ I said and the management team agreed it
was 'perhaps' that.
‘I
have to get back to La
Rochelle within
the week’ I said.
‘We
can take out the rusty sea cock which really needs replacing anyway and then
look further. Why don’t you two go and have lunch at the pub and come back this
afternoon.’
Louis and I left the boat as the Marine and General team swarmed on board.
A
pleasant lunch and a few glasses of wine later we returned to the yard to find
the entire stern cabin of Paw Paw in pieces… ‘We’ve found the problem’ the
manager said.’ There was only one leak not two’.
The
base plate of the very big swan neck exhaust on the stern had, when the boat
was built, been bonded in with the neck in the wrong position. The swan neck pipe could
not be tightened properly as it then did not face the exhaust pipe so it had
been left ‘loose’. Whenever Paw Paw put her stern
down in a lumpy sea or the motor was running, the water would enter the swan
neck and spurt out into the stern compartment and then gradually ran under the
big double bed into the engine compartment. Clearly this problem had been in
existence since she was built but of course no survey out of the water would
reveal it and it had probably just got worse as the years went by.
Along with a few
other jobs that needed attention, the yard finished the work in stopping the leak
within 24 hours. I really cannot recommend Marine & General Engineers Ltd ,St
Sampson's Harbour, Guernsey, Telephone: 01481 245808, highly
enough. The bill was extremely modest
and very good value for money. As we were leaving, another British yacht was
being towed in by a friend from St Malo, where the local engineers were quoting
horrific amounts of money to fix a relatively simple mechanical problem.. If anybody has a
problem in the Cherbourg / Channel Islands area they would be well advised to contact M&G
first.
7th August with a not too bad forecast and an ETA at
the chenal du four just as the tide would turn south,
we left St Sampson bound for La Rochelle via the inland route just in case we
found other problem with Paw Paw.
A combination of sailing splendidly close
hauled into 15 knots and the occasional use of the iron sail to get us south to
France found us at midnight actually beating into 18+ knots in a
lumpy old sea. As the night advanced the
wind increased as did the sea state. Louis huddled inside the spray hood as waves
swept over the bows sending spray down into the cockpit. Really surprising how
small a 43 foot boat can seem when a large sea is running. One of the beautiful
things that happened was that a couple of seagulls flew in the darkness
alongside Paw Paw
illuminated by our masthead light. Several hours they flew at masthead height
as we pounded splendidly though the waves.
Dawn found us off l’Abravache
and we joined the yachts leaving the northern French ports bound of the Chenal du four.
With the aid of the wonderful navigation
system in Paw Paw the passage south
through the Chenal was easy and so early in the day we
found ourselves the top of the Raz du Seine before
the tide turned and this time it was like a mill pond as the gentle northerly
wind followed the direction of the wind. No overfalls
or breaking waves just a gentle lift south to the little anchorage off Auriny where we picked up a buoy for the night and
celebrated our return to French waters in our beautiful new boat,
9th August saw us departing
bound for the Belle Isle. A passage of some 50 odd miles Paw Paw showed her breeding by cruising
at a modest 7.2 knots in a 15 knot breeze. Such a lovely
boat.
The joy of sailing was shattered when
suddenly Paw Paw
sheered off course and started to come up into the wind. I switched off the
autopilot and took the helm bringing her back on course then tried the
autopilot again. Nothing except some whirring noises. Louis took the helm and I went below to
investigate. I discovered that the autopilot arm had dropped off the quadrant
and the remains of a very rusty split pin sat in the hole. I went back on deck
and asked Louis if she could continue to helm for a few
minutes whilst I fixed the problem. She took the wheel and began to teach herself
how to follow a compass course,
My tool kit was very limited as it
contained just the bare essentials I considered necessary for the two
deliveries we were making. I had nothing to poke or push out the old split pin
so I was left with the problem of removing the entire fitting from the quadrant
whilst Louise steered the boat! Fortunately she was
good at steering a compass course making only small adjustments… some time
later I took out the second bolt and took the fitting into the saloon to force
out the remains of the pin. The problem
then was to refit the piece of engineering to the quadrant and then attach the
push me pull me arm of the autopilot,,, Quite an interesting problem……….. In the mean time we were approaching the Gulf of Quiberon area at the height of the French summer
holidays.
The VHF announced that the main port on
Belle Ile – Le Palais was closed. Too many boats arriving so I
altered course immediately for Sauzon and raced
towards it on a fair wind making some 7 knots. The arrival in this
northern harbour of Belle Ile took away some of the romance. Sauzon was packed. We were now hearing on the VHF that all the
other harbours in the area were closed due to overcrowding so we desperately
looked for a berth. The harbour masters launch eventually came alongside and
led us to a pontoon
where we moored alongside another larger yacht. One of the
problems I was discovering was that to be in a pretty big boat – 43 foot
overall somewhat reduced the parking possibilities. We passed a pleasant enough
night without going ashore and at crack of dawn woke our neighbours on the
outside who smiled sweetly and cursed softly as the manoeuvred away with their
hangover singing to let us leave.
The arrival at the Ile Dieu in mid
afternoon was made slightly more difficult by the bow thruster stopping working
altogether..
Again I become more aware that Paw Paw was
made for tropical anchorages in sunny bays and not for
overcrowded
French marinas. We went ashore for a
lovely meal discovering when we returned that 15, yes 15 boats were rafted
up outside us!
When we eventually got away the next
morning a northerly F7 was forecast for ‘later’ and the slowly building winds
gave us a sparking sail down to our home port of La Rochelle. Paw
Paw was made for a bit of weather and the passage
was fun and exhilarating. We parked up
in Les Minimes before the wind got to full power and
wined and dined the night away, thrilled with our new beautiful boat.
