Anne-Sophie and her husband sail with their 3 children. They have just bought an aluminum monohull with the intention of sailing to the Nordic countries. They are not beginners, having sailed on the high seas many times, including an Atlantic tour in 1.5 years. And yet, the first navigation between Arzal on the Vilaine river and the Gulf of Morbihan reserved some surprises.
Poorly positioned defenses
We take the 4pm lock at high tide. The weather is good, but the wind is increasing to about 20 knots from the starboard side. To make the maneuver easier, we decided to go to the right side of the lock to avoid being stuck to the dock by the wind when we left it.
Unfortunately, we missed the maneuver by a small margin and found ourselves stuck on the left side of the lock, exactly where we did not want to end up. If the fenders on the starboard side were at the right height, it is not the case on the port side where they are positioned a little too low for the dock. The freeboard of the boat is close to touching.
A dinghy engine that outperforms
Once the lock is open, we have to lean on the boat hook to get away from the quay. Not enough, however, to avoid that the electric motor of the dinghy, which protrudes too much on the port side, grates the quay on a few meters... Ouch! No damage, but a little stress.
A forgotten window
Once in the channel, we unroll a little genoa. At the first gybe, we realize that we forgot to close the front porthole at the risk of snagging our sheet, or even receiving a packet of water on the bunk of the youngest
Untidy things
Arthur is listing a little and strange noises in the boat indicate that some things are moving around a little too freely. A casserole dish, badly arranged after the washing up, has gone missing inside !
A genoa rolled up too late
Once in the bay, the wind strengthened and the gusts reached 30 to 35 knots. A bit too much for our old and tired genoa, which ripped when we rolled it up! Fortunately, we ordered a new one in anticipation of the well-deserved retirement of the first one. We are nevertheless a little disappointed.
A tide calculation that is a little too accurate
When we arrived at our anchorage area, we decided to anchor as close as possible to the beach. This is possible since our boat is a ballasted dinghy. Once stopped, we redo the tide calculations. At the lowest point, we will have only 30 cm under the hull, it's not much. The captain won't fall asleep until he is sure that the tide will come back up without us having touched the bottom
An assessment of the training trip
In the end, we managed to get out of it without much damage, except for the genoa which finished its service a few days too early. But this outing reminds us that every detail counts and that an accident can happen quickly.
