As we do not have a keel but a very high freeboard, we are easy game for the wind. ![]() With wind now pushing very hard, my biggest concern was that once I would have turned the cat away from the quay side, the wind would grab us and push us into the tri before I could have the boat set to stern full to take it out of the parking lot. In front of us a Dragonfly trimaran was moored, as well 3 metres away. I do not know what a boat like this is worth, but I guess Multiplast won´t sell such a machine in under 5 million Euros. Right at our stern, no 2 metres away, the racing trimaran ARKEMA 4 was parked. Why that? Well, let´s put it this way: Manoeuvering this property-sized catamaran in a high wind speed-situation is tricky by itself, but with boats as near as 2 metres it is more a stunt for the sea-circus. “Dammit! Strong wind!”, my knees already shaking. “Where the hell is the summer gone?”, I sweared whilst putting on my waterproof sailing gear, drinking a hot coffee an swearing even more: Instead of the projected 7-10 knots a strong 14 to 17 knots-breeze was making the riggings whistle. Getting up that early is always a mess, especially when it is cold and rainy. Now, let´s go!Ĭatamaran manoeuvering – shitting my pants There would still be a wind of 11-13 knots from due West outside Brest, probably creating a enervating swell which we would be having to cope with upwind for some 15 miles until we would turn northwards to creep through France and Ile Ouessant for another 10 miles – finally turning to starboard into the English Channel and eventually being on a running course that would suit our catamaran more. The idea was to leave Brest one hour before the tide would change to be subsiding, being flushed through the Goulet du Brest. As always, I am more of a “paper guy” and as such I drew up a new masterplan-sketch. Comparing the tide charts for that day I figured that casting off at high tide would be best scheduled for 0500 a.m. I saw a new window of opportunity arising for the 9 th of August. After our first attempt did not work out very well, I checked weather conditions in the English Channel on a daily basis. Brest, I can now say, on the second blink offers much, much more than originally thought.īut, as this wasn´t a vocational trip but mere business, I always had an eye on the weather forecast. So we walked up to 10 km daily and used the time as best as we could. The original U-96 was stationed here, in Brest, and not as in the movie in La Rochelle. Secondly, my crew mate Martin May is as a professional actor the cast member of the best U-boat-movie of all times, “Das Boot”. That is because since I was a boy I fancied Navy-life, submarines in particular and the Second World War specifically. ![]() U-96´s original bunker: Brestįirst of all, I wanted to visit the old German U-Boat bunker from World War 2. So we used the three days in Brest as best as we could. ![]() ![]() It is certainly not the prettiest of all French coastal towns, but apparently there are many nice corners and “secrets” to encounter here and besides the fact that my crew mate Andi needed one or two days to recover from his severe sea sickness the weather outside “around the corner” in the English Channel was awful: Waves of up to 4 to 5 metres with wind speeds significantly over 25 knots, peaking at over 30 knots with gusts around +50 did not appeal too much to us. I cannot say that I regretted the decision to change course due East to find a berth in Brest again.
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