Our departure from Morlaix was on Sunday at 19:37 CEST in the locks there. Winds light from the SW, and a forecast showing a large depression West of Ireland, bringing stronger SW breeze in the early hours of Monday. Swell almost 2 meters from the West in the channel.
The passage was a bit bumpy with the swell, but all in all we had enough wind and managed to average 6.5 knots without much effort, and using only twin head sails for the second half of the trip.
The autopilot does a good job, and energy consumption is around 1.5A, which we quickly recovered the next day with the solar panels. The wheel drive unit is from Raymarine, but the brains and motor control unit is by SENautic in the Netherlands. The Raymarine unit is not amazing. I’ll not be depending on it in anything other than easy helming conditions.
We arrived at low tide in Plymouth and had a call from the UK Boarder control which granted authorisation to enter the country. It’s all a bit more complicated than before, especially paying £16 for the ETA (Electronic Travel Authorisation) for each person on board (valid for 2 years, or until passport expiry). The call I received asked simply about persons and nationalities on board, and if we had any goods to declare.
The rain started more or less precisely the moment we arrived in Plymouth, and now, a day later it’s still falling. We found a pub on the Barbican with live music, a fire, and good ale. We warmed up and ate a takeaway fish and chips from the shop next door.
The next departure is on Wednesday 16th, but we won’t make it very far Eastwards before having to stop again over the weekend and wait out strong Easterly headwinds in the English channel. Perhaps somewhere in Lyme Bay is best, or at the river Dart – we shall see.
