The BIG Adventures of Thésée begins - Destination St Malo

Wednesday 2nd May…  Well this is it! It’s almost four years to the day that Thesee became our baby and a couple of months later Dean, Greg, and Russ sailed him 500 miles non-stop into Fareham from La Rochelle on a lovely sunny July morning. There’s been lots and lots of TLC and crew training going on since then, all in preparation for the BIG Adventures of Thesee.

When we arrived in Fareham mid afternoon. Dean had to row us out in a borrowed Wicor dinghy. The wind was not in our favour and we’ve been put on the farthest away pontoon, so it was a good job that Dean was doing the rowing and not Linda. We had the rest of our belongings and the dinghy was full. Then after we had put everything away we had to go to the supermarket and stock up with frozen good (does that include San Miguel Dean?) 

We made it. Well done to the oarsman

...and that's before we went shopping

Linda's glass slipper

I've got the essentials Dean

This time Dean attached the outboard which made it much easier and quicker. We knew the tide was low and it was Springs today too, but it was the only chance we had to go. When we returned to the dinghy with the shopping it was sitting on a mud bank. Oh Dear, this could be a long wait! There was another guy who had the same predicament and we sat there in our dinghys in a few centimetres of water, trying to prize ourselves through the muck. Fortunately it was a lovely evening and we sat there chatting for about 25 minutes. Luckily we had all the shopping with us so we sat there eating bags of crisps whilst we waited for the tide to start its flood. 

Uh Oh, where did the water go Saffy?

Mudbank views from the stranded dinghys

 We're going nowhere yet

Back on board Saffy snuggled up to her teddy, and we celebrated the start of our journey with a Rum and Coke in our special Thesee glasses that Brenda, Sharon, and Sue so very kindly bought us for a Bon Voyage gift. Cheers!!

My blanky, my teddy, nighty night Saffy

Christening the new Thesee glasses

Thursday 3rd May… A lovely sunny calm morning today. The only thing that wasn’t calm was the wretched gas alarm that we thought was fixed but it insisted on bleeping a fault about an hour before departure. Would you believe it?  We’ll have to dig deeper into this issue in the next few days. It was 1.30pm when we cast off from the pontoon. It was perfect conditions and Dean left Linda to helm whilst he released the lines. It was a total mix of emotions as we said our farewells and waved goodbye to Wicor. We’ve had a few wonderful years here during the summer seasons, Dean even longer than that with his other boat Jasmine.

So long Wicor

Even Saffy's taking a last look around

Tell me when to cast off Dad...

So Portsmouth passed into the distance and we set the sails for Yarmouth, having to tack a few times to reach our destination. But now we are here, and all being well we’ll be doing a Channel crossing tomorrow…  YIKES  and DOUBLE YIKES.


Friday 4th May… “Sailing away on a crest of a wave it’s like magic”… that’s the ELO songwords we had blasting out of our speakers as we crossed the English Channel today. Yes, big brother Alan would have been very proud of us knowing we put the speakers to some good use. 

The day went pretty much to plan, arising at 4am for a 5am departure. It was almost light as we slipped quietly out of Yarmouth harbour, trying to get a photo of the little penguin statue on the breakwater. On the way down the Needles Channel we passed the Saga Sapphire cruise ship making its way to Southampton Water. That was quite a shock, we didn’t know that any cruise ships came in from that direction. Good job we weren’t passing it at Bridge Cardinal as the channel gets very narrow in that area. Once we got out to Fairway Buoy safe water marker Dean filed the passage plan with Solent Coastguard. He sounded very professional I must say, giving details of the ship, crew, and destination. 

That's the penguin on the left.....honest

Saga Sapphire holidaymakers at the end of their adventure....

and we are only just beginning ours 

Sunrise over the beautiful Isle of Wight

We had to motorsail for 7 hours because there was no wind and we had to wait for the tide to turn back in our favour. That gave us plenty of time for playing loud music! We also did some birdwatching and got excited when we identified a Great Black-backed Gull flying by, then realised by its latin name (Larus Marinus) that it was just a plain old Seagull. We’ve got a lot to learn it would seem. However there was a super exciting moment when a tiny little bird flew right onto the back of the boat and settled underneath the sprayhood. We can’t decide what it is so here’s a photo. Can anyone help identify please?

This little cutie joined us for a rest.... Can anyone identify please?

By 10am the sun had broken through and we were just entering the shipping lanes. It didn’t cause us too much trouble with only a handful of ships to contend with. Wow, having AIS on our Chartplotter makes it so much easier to determine what other ships are doing. Linda got a bit of a dodgy tummy at one point, but was fine and kept busy with one thing and another. At 1pm we were able to switch the engine off and do some sailing with about 20 miles to go, and she felt better soon as that happened. That’s so weird isn’t it? 

Crossing the shipping lanes

Flying our burgees.... CA, BOA, and Black Country

We’re now on a buoy in Braye Harbour, Alderney sandwiched between two French boats. The swinging room is quite tight, but hopefully we should be OK. The weather looks great for the weekend… rather different from last time we were here in a Force 8 gale.  Anyway, we’re really pleased to be here and the whole adventure still seems quite surreal at the moment. 

Saturday 5th May… Today was so lovely in extremely sunny Alderney. The harbourmaster came to collect his dues and Dean secured a 3 days for the price of 2 deal. 40 euros or £40, so he paid in Euros and we calculated this worked out to about £35. Wow that’s incredible for 3 nights, he was so pleased with himself. We are feeling good, no jet (sail) lag today so we reckon we must have improved our technique since we last sailed the Channel. 

The morning was glorious so we took the chance to ramble, taking the Alderney Walk Number 2 – The Gannet Trail. This took us over to the east side of the island, then round the coast path to the south and Telegraph Bay. Here we had great views of the anchorage. It looks fairly good but we think we won’t be trying it as we already have a free night here on the mooring buoy. 

We're here at last

In the town.... St Anne's 

 Passing the unusual looking Churchyard

Walking around the tiny airport, aircraft just landing

Looking south towards Sark, Herm, and Guernsey 

Telegraph Bay

Keeping guard in the Sentry Box

We continued on the coast path reaching the rocks known as Les Etacs (the gannet colony). Well to say the view was spectacular doesn’t do it justice. It was incredible. There are 5700 pairs of gannets nesting on these rocks, with a further 2400 pairs on Ortac. They account for 2”% of the World’s gannet population. The coast path was very steep with no protection so we had to keep our concentration. Here’s some photos. 

First view down Val des Trois Vaux to Les Etacs

They're completely gannet covered

A close up

Even closer

When we arrived back in the town we stopped off for for cider and chocolate cake at the Braye Beach Hotel, then walked along the harbour breakwater to get more photos of Thesee. Late this afternoon we relaxed in the cockpit and walked Saffy along the lovely beach here at Braye. 

Oxford Sandy & Black piglets, the second main livestock venture on Alderney

Oh, there's Thesee again

Sunday 6th May… We started the morning with a pre-planned Skype call to all the kids, which worked quite well…eventually.  Saffy has had a poorly tummy all night and Dean must have been up 4 times with her. She seemed up for a walk so we went back to the cycle shop in St Anne’s where Dean had arranged to buy a basket for her. We are going to attach the basket to the folding bikes, hopefully she will sit in it when we go cycling. We had seen a sign for a Sunday market, but when we got there, there were only 3 stalls and not one of them was fruit and veg.  Rather disappointing we thought. 

In the town again

We continued on to today’s pre-planned walk in the north of the Island, passing a puffin statue on the way. Lunch stop was Longis Bay and then we continued along the coast path passing a number of forts en-route. 

Roadside Puffin 

Longis Bay refreshments

Nearing the ruins of Fort Houmet Herbé

Beautiful private residence at Fort Quesnard

Approaching Quesnard Lighthouse 

When we arrived at the lighthouse we noticed what a MASSIVE fog horn it had. It turned out to be another really lovely walk, passing the Odeon, railway line, and finally walking through the pretty buttercup common along Braye harbour. 

Follow me Dean, i know where i'm going

This is the Odeon, used by the German Army as a range-finding tower.

The visitor centre will give you a key to get in, but we didn't have time.

Toot, toot

Saffy's new form of transport

 Buttercup meadow on the seafront

Saffy seems a little better and she has enjoyed a small portion of chicken and rice for dinner. This is our last day in Alderney, tomorrow we hope to be anchored in Dixcart Bay, Sark. 


Monday 7th May… Yet another gorgeous morning…..what’s going on? Please let it be like this every day. We waited until 2pm before departing Alderney, and so we had a bit of a clean around the place. It was a 4 hour trip to get to Sark, and the wind was fluky so we motor-sailed most of the way again. Saffy’s tummy (to put it nicely) seemed to improve this morning but this afternoon she’s not herself again. Looks like we might have to get her checked out in Jersey if there’s no improvement tomorrow. Tonight we’re anchored in Dixcart Bay, on the south side of Sark. It’s really beautiful but we have to share it with another ten or so yachts who are our neighbours this evening. 

 Dixcart Bay anchorage, our home for this evening, and it's another freebie 😁

Tuesday 8th May… Dean was up about 5 times again with Saffy during the night. He must be exhausted but didn’t show it. One of the boats near us dragged its anchor during the night. No harm seemed to be done and we were just about out of its firing line, thankfully. We were pleased that the forecasted fog didn't materialize at dawn but it was  a little muggy though.

We raised the anchor at 8.30am and made a heading of 160 degrees to Jersey. We had a cracking sail for 2-3 hours but it was spoiled a little by the crossways swell making a rather uncomfy ride at times. Dean did most of the helming....it takes a lot out of you when you have to keep focused for long periods of time. We’d decided that we wouldn’t anchor in St Brelade’s Bay as planned but go into the marina at St Helier so that Dean could get Saffy to the vets. On arrival in the harbour it’s a sharp right turn and Linda noticed the traffic lights were showing red, and suddenly a tanker came out from behind the breakwater. We came here 3 years ago and didn’t remember there was a traffic light system so it came as a bit of a shock. When we got into the marina there was no room to berth so we had to circle for quite a while, eventually being told to raft up against a 50 foot Bavaria, then a 37 foot Moody rafting against us so we are sandwiched in tonight. 

Anyway, Dean and Saffy took a taxi to the vets at 2.30pm and came home with a pile of medicine. They said she has picked up a bug and gave her 3 injections! Let’s hope this will sort her out and she will be back to normal very soon. Whilst Dean was on his travels he found out that tomorrow is Liberation Day here on Jersey so we may stay for 2 nights to join in the fun and celebrations, otherwise we'll be off to St Malo. We’re just about to review our plan for the next week and decide whether it’s worth packing the dinghy away or not. £38 marina fees tonight, still it's worth it to get Saffy dog sorted out. 


Wednesday 9th May… Today’s weather looked good for the crossing to France and Saffy has improved so we decided to make a go for it and set off for St Malo at 9.30am. We were sorry to miss the Jersey Liberation Day events but we thought a good passage to France was more important. We always look at a website called ‘Predict Wind’, and it also predicts Swell. The next few days look rather unsettled with a moderate sea forecast. 

Wakey Wakey

Navigator at work

Thesee sandwiched between two French boats

Inside St Helier Marina, no dogs allowed so we have to berth outside

Someone's ready for a sail

By midday we were nearing ‘Plateau des Minquiers’ which lies about half way between Jersey and St Malo. It’s a very large rocky plateau that you have to stay clear of and so we went to the west side of it. Once again, we seemed to have got the tide somewhat incorrect and we only had it going our way for a couple of the 6 hours it took to get here. It just doesn’t seem to make sense. I suppose we are in a big bay and it all gets abit muddled up.  By 12.30pm we had reached the NW Cardinal at the plateau. 

Chartplotter showing our position near the Cardinal

....and here's the Cardinal in real life

Ferry passing us on way to St Peter Port, Guernsey

Time for a bit of fishing

It was 1.30pm when we were approaching the English/French sea border and for some weird reason we got muddled up and realised that we only had 2 hours to reach the last lock-in time at Port Vauban in St Malo. We had been making good time up until then motorsailing, and were now sailing and it was just idyllic. However, after a quick calculation it seemed that we would not make the last lock entry for the day. We started to motorsail again to try and catch up but by the time we got to St Malo the lock had just closed. We think we must have missed it by about 10 minutes. We were disappointed as this marina is right in the town. However, we had to revert to Plan B and go into the other marina at Port des Sablons. There is a 2m sill to cross but there was plenty of tide. Inside, the visitors pontoon looked too small for Thesee and so we moored up on the hammerhead of another pontoon to await further instructions. 

We're flying the French courtesy flag, and the yellow Q 'customs clearance' flag

First views of St Malo

It seems we are OK here for tonight but may have to move tomorrow. We have made it to France….the first leg of our journey to paradise. It still all seems a dream and so easy to have got this far without too much stress. Tomorrow is our 4th Wedding Anniversary and we plan to spend the day seeing the sights of St Malo. 


Thursday 10th May… The wind picked up during the night, and Linda awoke in the early hours to find Dean outside on the pontoon adjusting the lines and adding more. However, it was a nice sunny morning. We checked with the Capitainerie whether we needed to move to another berth to stay another night and he kindly advised we could stay put. Dean paid up 40 euros… another bargain… we’re doing good, and quickly plugged into the electric to get everything fully charged. 

Port des Sablons marina, St Malo and the Brittany ferry in the background

It’s about a mile from here into the walled city of St Malo, as you have to walk around the bay. We only realised there is a short cut at low water after we had passed it, and reached the other side of the bay. The Customs Office was closed so we still have not shown anyone our passports. We asked about it at the Tourist Information and at both harbour offices, plus the ferry terminal but no-one seems to be interested, so we have given up. You can’t say we didn’t try.  

L'Ecluse du Naye (the lock we just missed yesterday)

The neighbouring dry dock

On our walk into the city walls we passed the massive lock that takes you into Port Vauban and next to it the dry dock. The city is very impressive and once inside the walls we stopped off at a little eatery for a bite to eat. Our purchase of the day was a French Baguette which Linda proudly carried around sticking out of her rucksack. On the way back we talked about the French names that we were given at school, Dean was Jacques (he didn’t like it), and Linda Giselle (she didn’t like that either). We thought it would be good to give Saffy a French name so we are thinking of changing it to Saffé, lol.  

About to enter the city walls

 On the ramparts looking North

Linda and Saffy....can you see us?

This is a nice place for a rest

Our Anniversary selfie here in sunny St Malo

So today brings the last entry of this current blog post. Thésée has come home to France and we now have to use his French name which is pronounced ‘Teezee’.  It’s been a lovely day and a memorable one to celebrate our 4th Anniversary.