August 2022 – Life Four Point Zero

August 27, 2022October 13, 2022

Following Orders, Ep. 181

Two summers ago, we met a nice British couple in Greece who were exploring the Mediterranean onboard their powerboat. We had a great evening, with much needed laughter and story swapping. But like many fellow boaters one runs into, you never know if you’ll see them again, and that becomes part of the accepted protocol. I would say it is akin to meeting the folks pitching a tent next to you at a campground, or fellow divers on a scuba expedition, or foodies at a cooking class. You share a common passion, but the reality of crossing paths again is pretty rare. This was the case with David and Allison. We kept in touch and at the start of the next summer, we re-united a couple of times as we collectively explored the Ionian Sea of western Greece. We then bid adieu as Karen and I started our accelerated pace west out of the Med. But they threw out a little carrot over dinner once that they were thinking of switching to be sailors. This was before today’s sky high fuel prices, so they were wise on multiple levels! After our warmup on being hosts to our friends Steve and Julie, we were ready to entertain more friends onboard Sea Rose.

August 20, 2022October 13, 2022

Money Laundering, Ep. 180

When I think of the English Channel, my mind goes immediately to the amazing athletes that have swum across this iconic waterway. It is a 21 mile endeavor at its the narrowest point from Dover. I remember as a kid seeing live TV broadcasts of these swimmers, out in the turbulent waters swimming all through the night. Enduring for so long was impressive given that I get winded swimming from one end of the pool to the other. For our crossing of the Channel on Sea Rose, we would be in the safety of our cockpit and exerting ourselves far less, but yet some of the same challenges were present. The English Channel is considered the most heavily traveled shipping route in the world, with so many containerized goods heading to Northern European seaports, as well as supertankers coming out of North Sea oil fields, and busy passenger ferries zipping around in between them all. There are designated shipping lanes – called Traffic Separation Schemes on the nautical charts – where the majority of the ships transit in and out of the Channel, but at times it can seem like bumper-to-bumper traffic on an expressway.

August 13, 2022October 13, 2022

Fraternal Kinship, Ep. 179

We raised our anchor at first light from the bird sanctuary at Ile de Bono and headed northeast to the Channel Islands. Au revoir, France! We hope our paths cross again some day! Before this summer, I had only a vague understanding of the Channel Islands – their geography and their history. I knew they were somehow connected to the UK, and that their residents endured much hardship during WWII, but only because I had seen the now famous movie “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society”. Sure, you can learn little tidbits of history from Hollywood, but we were very excited to see the Channel Islands with our own eyes and learn firsthand about their people and their culture.

Winds were forecasted to come out of the northwest for our 60 mile run, a distance that would make for a full day, but even more so, we were especially eager to get going at first light to time our arrival in Jersey before the marina at St Helier closed. The marina was the type that had a sill that held water inside the marina, but required you to arrive at high enough tide to cross over the sill with sufficient depth for your keel. St Helier has about an 8 meter tide range, which allowed the marina to keep the sill open from about 2 hours either side of high tide. If we missed our window, we might have to wait for up to 8 hours before we could try again, putting our entry in the middle of the night, an unpleasant prospect any way you look at it.

August 6, 2022October 13, 2022

The Big Book of Brittany, Ep. 178

We were both a bit nervous about this next stretch of the Brittany coastline. The tides were big, there seemed to be very few places we could get into easily with our boat depth at low tide, and the cruising guide repeated cautionary statements about making passage along the coast with a favorable current and wind. We had a hard date in Weymouth, England to meet up with friends in two weeks, and we had set aside a few days in the schedule to wait out bad weather, but regardless, this coastline did not induce feelings of calm and tranquility. Our original plan at the beginning of the season was to sail along the entire French Atlantic coast, as we made our way up to Scandinavia, and visit the south coast of England on our return trip the following year. But that quickly changed as we learned how inhospitable to boaters the French coast can be beyond the Channel Islands and Cherbourg. The men on D-Day had a challenge landing on the beaches of Normandy for a reason. The tides are huge and sand shoals extend far out off the coast. There are very few suitable harbors for pleasure boats and it seemed like most boaters like us would push through a few overnights to get up to Belgium. Hopping across to the south coast of England and its more amenable shores seemed much less stressful.