Day 2

On the morning of day 2 we were past our Salcombe Waypoint (fixed position we marked) and could turn toward France and our planned route round the Island of Ushant (Isle de Ouessant)-regarded by some as the final obstacle to be weathered to leave the Channel or the last nightmare headland to round before you could smell Old England again.

The wind as usual was coming from the direction we wanted to go so we were making the best course we could which took us some way off course. We had been promised that the wind would move round (veer) so that would get us back on course but it did not really so we did the best we could - meeting many cargo ships, passenger liners and fishing vessels on the way which we had to navigate around. We called up a number of cargo ships to check they had seen us and helpfully altered course so we did not have to move much. As we approached Ushant we had to make sure we passed with the tide with us rather than against (which can run up to 9kts) so we put on "the devil in the bilge2 - the engine to enable us to get back on course. The wind did eventually play ball and we had all 3 sails up (main, genoa and staysail) as we passed Ushant watching the 4 lighthouses flash away at some 8-9 kts. We had a great tagine supper enjoyed by all and settled in for another night. We had enjoyed many dolphin sightings during the day. We were now proceeding into the Bay of Biscay.