(Map 6) May 30 to June 7, 2004: We left St Helier and sailed to St. Malo, France. It was a rainy, miserable day and visibility was down. All in all, the kind of day to be snuggled in a bunk drinking hot chocolate rather than trying to figure out which side of the lighthouse was the correct side to pass. We were fortunate that fellow yachties helped us get Sugilite tucked into her slip that afternoon in St. Malo. Once there, they invited us over for drinks and pointed us towards the "not to miss" spots in St. Malo. We totally enjoyed walking around the walled medieval city. The creperie restaurants were outstanding.
We had called Gene Neuberger ahead of time to ask him to research the internet cafe situation in this town, so, this time we had the address for the next WIFI location - the Hotel Mercure. We spent the afternoon getting caught up on problems at "work." Unlike most cruisers, we still run our business and need to communicate with our factories in China and customers in Europe on a daily basis. We gave China our orders in April (for delivery in August). This year we received additional "late" orders so the question was whether they could also make the additional stock. The standard Chinese answer is "yes" but the real question is how much that delays delivery. That you find out when the goods are suppose to ship.
We were surprised to find that Monday, May 31st was a French holiday so grocery stores were again not opened. Dinner became a bit more challenging.
On Tuesday, 6/1 we left St. Malo for Lezardieux. We were "unsure" about the weather when we left and knew "we could always turn back." It turned out to be a "radar" kind of day. The fog gave us lots of opportunities to hone our skills. Most of the day the wind was 7 - 10 m/s on the head so we had some big waves and wind to contend with. When we arrived in Lezardieux, we had to wait at the quay for the water level to drop so we had enough clearance to enter the marina.
It's getting to be time for Carol to head back to Paris so now we're looking for towns that have train connections to Paris. Lezardieux is not one of them. On Wednesday 6/2, a high had moved in so we had great currents in our favor. We left Lezardieux and headed for Roscoff looking for that train to Paris. We got there before noon, but found Roscoff is a drying harbor so you have to anchor out. The dingy motor was acting up so Carol decided to stay with us till Brest
We had read a really interesting article about the next town, L'Aber-Wrac'h. That town is famous for its harvest of seaweed. During the war, downed pilots were hid under piles of seaweed, waiting for Allied boats to sneak in and pick them up. As we arrived into this small port, the tide was out so there were many people busy harvesting the seaweed on the shore.
We spent the afternoon walking around L'Aber-Wrac'h and its neighbor town, Landeau looking for groceries. When the stores close for their lunch break, we find some of them never reopen. We patiently waited for the bakery to reopen, then finally headed back to the boat without any pastries.
On Friday, 6/4 it was time to head for Brest. When we got up in the morning, there was heavy fog so we spent several hours trying to decide if it was local fog or fog along the entire coast - whether to go or not go. After awhile, Steve thought he saw blue sky above so we headed out. It turned out to be another "radar" day. We spotted 98% of all the other boats but would like to get to the 100% level. We were surprised at how many boats we saw along the way. As we came into Brest, we had 10.4 SOG (speed over ground) so the currents were definitely in our favor. Once we had the boat secured, we made a mad dash for the train station. We made it with 15 minutes to spare. Carol had a reservation at the same place we stayed last time so she was fairly comfortable about navigating Paris by herself. She had brought a box of cards that each had a different walking tour of Paris so she was anxious to try out some more cards!
Saturday, 6/5 - We did boat projects in Brest, getting ready for our crossing of the Bay of Biscay. We bought fishing gear so we could catch fish during our crossing of the Bay. Unfortunately, we don't know that much about fishing so we're asking lots of questions. Brian and Michelle arrived at 9 pm. They were joining us for the trip across the Bay of Biscay and it was only the second time that Michelle was ever on a sailboat!
We should have known better, but we spent Sunday looking for stores but they weren't opened. Brian and Michelle tried to tour museums but they too were closed.
Monday, 6/7 we made a final visit to Carrefoure and stocked up on groceries for the expected 4 day crossing of the Bay of Biscay. Not knowing exactly how long it would take, we made sure we wouldn't go hungry if the fishing didn't pan out. That night we moved the boat to Cameret-Sur-Mer, which turned out to be a much nicer, more picturesque town than Brest.
(Map 7) June 8 to June 11, 2004: Tuesday, 6/8 we made a final stop at the bakery for bread, then Steve took one last trip up the mast to make sure all was well. At 10 am we started our first "offshore" crossing of the Bay of Biscay. We had decided to do 4 hour watches, with 2 people on watch at all times. Every two hours we changed one of the 2 people so during the 4 hour watch, you spent 2 hours with 2 different people. It was amazing to settle into the watch routine. When we weren't on watch, we basically slept. Because the winds were very light, we started the trip motoring. As the night went on, we sailed for 4 hours, then put the iron horse back on when we realized all the tacking didn't really give us much forward distance.
We saw our first dolphins on Wednesday, 6/9. They love to swim by the bow so we were constantly running up to the bow to take the best dolphin photo yet! We really came to appreciate digital photos when we realized how many of the shots had to be erased because they didn't quite capture the dolphin experience. We caught one small fish and things were really looking good, but then we lost our big lure. Oh well - the big ones always seem to get away!
Four on, four off, four on, four off . . . We were really getting in the groove. The seas were still calm and the engine was still on. We didn't see many other boats, except during Brian's night watch when he saw a fishing fleet.
On the third day we had bugs all over the boat. Seems like some of the fruit didn't get properly washed and the flies hatched. Michelle treated us to some fabulous meals during the crossing even though fresh fish wasn't on the menu.
On the third day of the crossing, we had a big thunder and lighting storm in the evening. We saw it coming and decided to take evasive action and turned 90 degrees from the storm. However, then the storm turned 90 degrees and followed. Whatever we did, the storm mimicked our actions. Jan got out the weather books to look for advice on how to get away from thunderstorms only to find out there was no advice and the thunder was hitting much closer than originally thought. For the longest time the thunder clouds were only over our boat. Again we were trying to turn opposite directions and get away - and again the storm kept turning with us. It was very odd and very scary. Finally the storm petered out.
The last night of the crossing, as we approached the Spanish coast, we ran into a large fishing fleet on the radar screen. The fleet totally littered the screen. There were a few very large ships and many smaller boats. Because we needed to slow down so we would not arrive at Bilbao before dawn, we took the long way around the fleet.
June 11 to June 29, 2004: We arrived in Bilbao in the early morning – a nice marina with lots of restaurants and bars at the head of the marina. They just installed a WIFI connection so, until they figure out what they have, its free. I don’t think it will be free for too long. All along the harbor are these big stately mansions keeping sentinel. Spanish grandmothers proudly pushing baby carriages. Lots of Spanish grandmothers I might add.
At this point we needed to leave SUGILITE in the care of Brian and Michelle and head off to China for business. In order to catch our flights out of Paris,we took the bus to Irun, Spain. Having a little time to kill, we decided to find a "typical" Spanish restaurant for lunch. There was a nice little cafe a couple of blocks from the train station. The patroness asked us if we wanted the special and we said sure. We were the only lunch customers in the place. Well, they made their weekly nut Ok, because each lunch was about $25. After which we took a very expensive taxi to the train station across the border in Hendaye, France — about 1 km for 15 euros. Then we caught the fast train to Paris arriving in the late afternoon. In Paris, we decided to try out a new hotel on the left bank – Henry IV and it has become a favorite. Its an easier hotel to get to than our old hotel and has air conditioning as a bonus. As a treat to ourselves, we purchased some French pastries to eat on the flight to Shanghai. But when we arrived in Munich to change planes, we found that we had left the pastries under the seats. Desperate calls to the Luthansia service desk failed to turn up our "lost luggage." Then it was on to Shanghai via Russia. Actually, the flights were good and our trip worthwhile.
Brian and Michelle took Sugilite while we were gone. They voyaged along the Northern coast of Spain to the city of Santander and returned to Bilbao a couple of days before we returned. They then went off sightseeing to Madrid, England and back to the States.
While we were in China Jan and Bob Rudledge had emailed us that they needed to stay out of the US for a few more days to get a great tax deal. They had been in Zambia for the previous year. We agreed to meet them in Biarritz, France on our way back from China and they would spend a few days with us on SUGILITE. We spent a day in Paris, with Steve going out to visit Jacque again. He had been in the hospital either 5 or 18 days since we last saw them, so we were a bit concerned. Steve went out alone to retrieve the last of what we had sent to their house — and it was a lot. For the next few days, we hauled a “man-overboard pole” through the Paris subways, trains and on to Biarritz.
We had an extra day before Jan and Bob arrived so we walked around Barritz. Steve has fond memories of the beaches of Barritz — the best of Europe. We found the most wonderful café — just off the beach where all the topless girls would come to wash off the sand from their day at the beach. Ah yes, sipping a cold drink and watching the topless beauties getting all the sand off. Little did we know that that would be the “best” beach of the entire trip. For whatever reason, we don't seem to have any photos of this part of the trip.
When we finally got back to Bilbao, everything on the boat was in great shape. One of the restaurants along the harbor, billed itself as serving the "Great American Hamburger." Bob hadn't had a hamburger in over a year, and it had been a couple of months for Steve. Well the “Great American Hamburger experience” was incredibly bad. In spite of the sign the Spanish just don’t understand American hamburgers. Their meat comes out a strange red/orange color even though it's “cooked”.