Douarnenez Festival (31 July)

August 26, 2022

So summer has finally arrived, a great release after a hard British winter ashore.

Summer means pretty boats and that’s exactly what we got when me and dad arrived at Dournenez for the classic boat festival this year.

The channel crossing was brilliant, we had great wind and dolphins that accompanied us almost the entire way, leading me and falanda safely across the shipping lanes to Camaret.

Although the sailing was fantastic, more than anything it was just nice to be out alone with falanda again, the 38 hour trip giving me enough time to clear my head.

With not much sleep the night before however, the trip took its toll on me and so by the early hours of the second day I was starting to see things, something fairly frightening as a singlehander.

The festival was great fun, Falanda was moored next to Amaryllis with the pilot cutters so we had a very sociable couple of days, meeting up with lots of people until the early hours each night.

The classic boat race was great fun, and I was grateful that I had stolen Guide Me’s crew for some company in the very very light winds.

That day dad randomly sold his boat, Amaryllis, announcing casually that he would be sailing back to England with me (with all his rubbish!). I had been looking forward to a quiet solo trip back after the chaos of the festival so was a little annoyed that my dad was joining me - especially after he hadn’t even asked!

When we left the next morning Falanda was in a right mess and I was feeling more than a little delicate, with a slight hangover and around 3 hours sleep the night before.

Having 2 fairly strong minded captains on one boat was always going to be a bit of a challenge, and so the air was a little tense as me and dad crossed the channel. Setting off first thing on the Monday, with very little wind we knew a thunder and lightning storm was expected to arrive on Wednesday night.

Daybreak on the Tuesday gave us a clear sky with light winds, perfect conditions until the sky went a dark shade of grey and the wind sharply increased. Soon there was lightning everywhere and with 2 reefs in the main we were overcanvased, ploughing along through the rain.

Then a pod of the biggest porpoises me and dad had ever seen joined us, something quite strange since porpoises usually never play with boats. These ones however, drifted effortlessly underneath and around Falanda’s keel, slowly emerging to look me deep into the eyes, something that really freaked me out, especially with the lightening around us.

45 minutes later the pod disappeared and we were left with just fog and a very confused sky.

Arrival back in the Exe was around 10.30pm that night, where we stayed for a week while I did some minor work to Falanda’s bottom. This Tuesday, I put falanda aground on Bull Hill for an inspection before heading off to Brixham alongside dad on his new plastic boat, Karuna.

Wednesday night we anchored in St. Mawes opposite Falmouth before sailing to Newlyn where my mum and brother hopped on with my dad. On Thursday we had a windless trip to the Isles of Scilly, anchoring in Porthcressa for the night until it got too rolly. Last night we came to The Cove, between St. Agnes and Gugh which was slightly less rolly and very pretty.

For now, the plan is to hang around the Islands for a few days before either heading off to Ireland to see friends, or France to attend Paimpol festival, depending on the weather.