Jersey to Brest

The blue sky overhead is slowly being replaced by white cloud as Frank and I sit here in the Port du Chateau in Brest, tired but happy. Today we undertook the first leg of our mammoth trip from Jersey down to the Med on board Zaffina, our gorgeous Azimut 62.

Christian (my son) and Leonie (his girlfriend) elected to join us for this part of the trip, along with another friend, Danny. I’m not sure they still thought it was such a great idea once underway, as we were less than an hour out of Jersey when we encountered a messy swell. Zaffina handled the sea brilliantly, she is a fantastic boat in unpleasant conditions, as we had found out when we sea trialled her prior to purchase, but even so, the confused movement of the waves made us all feel a little queasy (a sensation not helped by the consumption of red wine at La Cantina last night, which was now causing my brain to tap against the back of my skull.) The swell eventually abated, only to be replaced by more chop on the water as we neared the coast of France, and from then on and throughout almost the entire journey it was either swell or chop. Considering this was a bank holiday weekend in both France and the UK, we were surprised by how few boats we saw en route – perhaps they knew something we didn’t!

After more than five hours, things finally improved. As we passed out of the Chenal du Four, the sea calmed to the sort of conditions we had anticipated and would have liked for the whole journey, and we eventually motored into Brest in brilliant sunshine. The torr du Chateau has only been open for a few months, and although some of the facilities have yet to come on line, they made us very welcome and we feel very happy to be here.

Christian, Leonie and Danny were relieved to get back onto Terra Firma, safe in the knowledge that their trip back to Jersey on Condor will take less than two hours! We’re looking forward to our next step and hoping the weather will be a little kinder to us tomorrow!