I heard the boat rafted up against us at 5am leaving, obviously the extra sleep I had had when we arrived in Guernsey disrupted my sleep. At 6am we had tea in bed and decided to just go and as it turned out a good job we did.

We exited the harbour with the last of the ebb in our favour and then had to punch the tide for six hours, but as the journey was expected to take twelve hours I was expecting to be pulled back on course when the tide turned in our favour again. This was a mistake, the flood tide took us east but when the tide turned it went North for two hours and then we had only four hours of weak tide going west. This meant we were a few miles further east than we wanted to be and meant we were once again beating to windward and were really too close to the wind. If you sail very close to the wind you still make progress but it will severely affect your boat speed, in the end we had to tack out which cost us nearly an hour. A small navigational error was expensive in terms of time but at least we managed to sail most of the way.

Roscoff was very quiet and we were allocated a really nice berth. As soon as we checked in we headed for the nearest bar for a wind down drink, it was, by this time, getting late. We decided to have a lay-day in Roscoff and what a good decision that was as the winds came directly from the west and would have been horrid had we tried to carry on. I had loads of jobs to do on the boat from changing the plug on my new shore power cable to fixing the guard rails tension and the VHF radio. You make a list and work your way through only to usually find that you have forgotten something and I did, I forgot to add air to the dinghy…however I had a really successful day. Linda spent the day doing the washing and shopping as we needed to stock up on more food…well, some delicious French food at any rate!

In the evening we went out for a meal at a local restaurant that we love, but next time we are going somewhere else and I have collected a card to book ahead, Tomorrow we plan to go right around the corner to Cameret or Brest, it is another long haul normally we would have broken the trip up into smaller legs but we have less time this year so we want to press on whilst we have the weather.

Titian Blue and Heodic departed first thing at slack tide. Titian Blue was heading for L'Aberach and Heodic said that they might continue on to Camaret but that would mean arriving at 1am and anchoring in the dark or trying to pick up a vacant buoy. Our plan was to go to Roscoff but we had decided that if the going was good we would follow Heodic and go all the way.

The first thing I had to do was go to the chandlers and get a pump but they did not open until 9:30, I was outside at 9:15 as I was keen to get going. The first chandler said that there was no chance and I should try the other chandlers in toe Boral Shipyard. I marched off at quite a pace but when I arrived they only had 12V versions.

We set off about an hour after the others and by lunch time the winds had completely headed us and we were motor sailing. It was cold, grey and wet and then I saw Ayaya coming in from the South(Friends from the Southern). A quick exchange of messages and they said that they were headed to Roscoff. I said Roscoff was our backup which we were likely to take if the wind didn't shift; it didn't.

We arrived in Roscoff and were given an easy finger berth with our stern pointing straight at Ayaya. Later we had drinks on Ayaya and it was lovely to see Matthew and Kerry. They had entered the TOUR DU FINISTERE, and are the only English boat. They had encouraged other Southern members to take part but it clashed with the Fastnet and those that were most likely to want to do the race are the same people who would do the Fastnet. As the boats gathered behind us the weather continued to deteriorate and by Saturday it was awful yet the boats continued to arrive (hard nuts). Kerry took one look at the competition and said to Matthew "We are going to come last…" Ayaya is the biggest boat in the fleet, but the other boats are serious racers many are carbon and have no weight. Their families are following port to port by road carrying their stuff to keep weight off the boats. It is obvious that they might not be the last boat in because of their size but after the handicap is applied they will only end up in the last position. However it will be great fin and they will meet lots of new people who will be delighted that there is a British boat entering their race, i am sure that they will all be glad to beat it too.

Earlier I had visited the two chandlers in Roscoff and neither had 24v water pumps and the quest was becoming difficult. Kerry then said that Suzie and Daniel(Also Southern members) were driving out tomorrow morning and they could pick up a pump in the Hamble for us. I called Force 4 "yes we have a pump in stock", I paid for it and Suzie picked it up. I collected the pump the next day at midnight, what a relief.