52 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com NOVEMBER 2017Yachting Monthly’s founder Herbert Reiach wrote in the first issue in 1906:
‘We shall be glad to receive the best logs and cruising
stories offered to us from all parts of the world’
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‘We shall be glad to receive the best logs and cruising
stories offered to us from all parts of the world’
111 years later, nothing’s changed! We’re still publishing your cruising storiesReaders’
Cruising
Stories
There are few more
exhilarating feelings than
listening to the sound of the
hull swooshing through the
water and watching night
settle over the sea as the
wind pushes you towards
your destination.
This year’s adventure in
our Southerly 135, Moondance,
was to start in Guernsey from
where we would head south
to France and Spain.
We hopped on a ferry from
Poole for a three-hour trip
to St Peter Port with little
Woody, our King Charles
spaniel — the latest addition
to the family — in his travel
box on the car deck. Our plan
was to sail to the nearby island
of Herm in the afternoon for
a lobster dinner and head to
the north coast of Brittany the
following day. With sailing,
however, fl exibility is essential.
It was a beautiful blue sky
day on the ferry with a lovelywe sailors can get about
touching a speed marginally
slower than I can run). Wind,
sunshine and a pleasant sea.
Marvellous.
Having missed our lobster
dinner, Melanie had stocked
up on some wonderful
goodies for our tea as we
sliced through the waves
to France. The brie, pâté,
strawberries and cherries
tasted even better with a fresh
breeze blowing through our
hair, but it wasn’t long before
the woolly hats and hoods
went on. As the sun dropped
low on the western horizon,
a spectacular full moon rose
in the east, glittering on the
water as the sky darkened.
As blackness settled over
the water, it was disturbed
only by the odd wave brokeneither by the wind or by
the passing of Moondance’s
hull, and gannets fl ying into
the night sky.
The fi rst sign of France
appeared at about 2300,
the blinking lighthouses
warning of this treacherous
rock-strewn coast; much
of the danger has gone
nowadays, a little boat icon
marching over a screen
showing a highly accurate
chart; a far cry from the
sextant and dead reckoning.
By midnight we were
approaching the fi rst of
many green and red winking
lights marking the way
into the Tréguier river. As I
rounded the second channel
marker I was startled by a
sudden ‘phwooosh’; I looked
forward just in time to seeCroissants not
lobsters
northwesterly breeze, just
perfect for a trip to France,
but the forecast for the next
day had deteriorated to rain
with the wind shifting to the
south. A hard sail to France
into the wind and rain was not
very appealing. It was time
for a rethink and to enact Plan
B: we would skip on Herm
and head off to France that
afternoon instead.
As soon as the ferry docked
we dropped our gear on
the boat and hared round
St Peter Port at breakneck
speed, collecting everything
we would need for the next
few days. Two hours after
arriving in Guernsey we were
fuelled, watered, victualled
and off on the 50-mile voyage
to France, a different cuisine
awaiting us.
We were doing a cracking
six to seven knots with
the wind on our beam (it’s
amazing just how excitedWith perfect conditions but rain threatening,
Geoff Wrinch gets under sail just in time for an
idyllic evening cruise to FranceWhen he’s not sailing his
Southerly 135, Moondance,
Jeff, 54, from Hale, runs
an aluminium diecasting
plant in nearby Manchester.
Married to Melanie, 52, with
two sons, Jeff learned to
sail in dinghies and has had
several cruising boats over
the years. He plans to keep
sailing south towards the
Med in coming years.Jeff Wrinch
Moonrise as the sun
sets on a perfect
evening at seaAs the sun dropped low on the western
horizon, a spectacular full moon rose