France and the hunt for new crew

 Having had a very easy time of admin in Roscoff we stayed the night and headed off to Brest.After a messy departure from the mooring the rest of the trip was smoothish with big swells, wind in the wrong direction and the auto helm starting to do its own thing. The first dolphins (porpoises) were spotted, light houses straddling rocks in the middle of nowhere and the night time passage round the Chanel du four were all interesting with by this time the engine running which was how we arrived in Brest in drizzle.This was the point at which my crew man was leaving and the search for new started.The auto helm was an issue that needed sorting ,bad when two aboard, no good when solo.After a 5 km walk to the other marina in Brest because buses do not take dogs which I found out after walking to the top of the hill ,the guys at Uship were brilliant and enabled me to rectify the issue. I subscribed to a French crewing webite which has proved forthcoming in leads yet to be taken but only because of my present trauma!

After a few days I decided to take my first full solo trip which involved departing Brest port and putting 8 tacks in along the narrow rocky shore line of the Goulet de Brest. Straight forward for some may be but hard work with dog as crew  even with only the genoa up .I did have to finish a couple of turns on the motor better than finishing on the rocks. Arrival at Camaret was welcome and what a lovely little port .I relaxed there for a couple of days then emboldened by my last solo effort decided to make for Audierne and pass through the Raz de Seine. The crux of this water way is not to do it in high winds over tide and ideally with the flow in your direction. I made the entrance point within minutes of projected slack tide .Not a hundred per cent sure it was the technical start of the race position but everything went smoothly and had both sails up, another first. Still had to motor though then navigate the narrow channel to the harbour where there were no moorings and minuscule gap between the hammer head pontoons and Starboard marker posts one which appeared in front of me far too close. Fortunately 9.30 pm is a good hour from darkness over here at this time of year. Finally rafted up against a friendly French boat then it just remained to get Ed's across their deck for his constitutional ( this issue arose in Roscoff as well ,)

 This was when the afore mentioned trauma started and is still proceeding hopefully to a positive conclusion.