Heigh ho, heigh ho, it's off to sea we go (1 June-18 June 2013)

On June 1st we disconnected the electrical cable, untied Arbutus's dock lines, and said farewell to our safe and comfortable harbour of Carentan. There were no butterflies in my stomach...only seasickness pills :)

Arbutus looks great after you look past the dull, ruff, and worn aluminum exterior, and she may be the ugly duckling when you see her docked next to the sleak and polished Beneteaus, but she is strong, she is fast, and she will take us far. Arbutus has been recently fitted with a new dodger thanks to the hard work of Paul, Paul's cousin Jérôme, and Paul's dad Daniel. The dodger has changed my life on the boat tremendously because I am able to stay outside in the cockpit without freezing my butt off. We are protected from the fridged winds, rain, and spray. Read about the dodger Before our official departure we went on a short four day cruise from Carentan >Port-en-Bessin >Le Havre >Honfleur >Carentan to test out the new dodger. I was in Canada for two and a half weeks at the end of April and beginning of May and I researched all of the remedies to prevent seasickness and discovered new ones that I haven't tried. So during our four day sail I tested them all and none of them worked. I felt super defeated. I'm still taking ginger root tablets and chewing peppermint gum which seem to be helping.  Despite the painful puking episodes I still enjoyed the short cruise from Le Havre to Honfleur (we used the engine the whole time for two hours) and our visit to Honfleur. The lock at Honfleur closed just a few minutes before we arrived so we had to wait 20 mins before the lock opened again to reach the harbour. I took this opportunity to take pictures of Arbutus waiting to enter the lock.

This was our second time visiting Honfleur, but the first time we got there by car. I think we are really lucky to explore a city and arrive by sailboat. Because our sailboat is our home we still have all (most) of the comforts of home and the scenery around us keeps changing. Honfleur's small harbour is in the middle of the city and it is surrounded by restuaurants, bars and buildings on three sides. We decided to stop at the dock just before the harbour where we were sandwhiched by the English.

There are also some fishing  boats in Honfleur harbour.

A ridiculously oversized pleasure boat arrived in the harbour and was circling to find a spot. Finally it came up behind the reasonably sized English pleasure boat that was docked behind us. Paul ran up to the road to take their lines while I took pictures. Paul said the two crew members were French, the boat was from Jersey, and they wanted to work on the boat in Le Havre. I heard a terrible cracking noise when they touched the wall. Their buoys were not high enough.

We left Honfleur around 9am to go back to Carentan. It was a long bloody sail...It rained, there were force six winds, and I was cold. During the force six winds I was still in the cockpit. The only reason I was able to remain outside was because of the cockpit. It is my shelter. Eventhough I was outside I was still pretty useless. I felt bad so I had my eyes closed and my arms crossed to keep myself warm while Paul was trying to keep control of Arbutus. At one point he had to completely stop Arbutus because he couldn't control her any longer. After the strong wind passed we continued to Carentan. I think we arrived at 11:30pm. I was freezing and not in a good mood...but we were back the safe harbour of Carentan. We had electricity and I was huddled next to our small space heater with a warm cup of miso soup in my hands and contemplated how I will be able to sail for the next four years... The day after we bid farewell to some of our neighbours in the harbour. A group of them are sailing to Ireland. Anne-Sophie and Guillaume even set sail with their new born baby!!! I am in awe of the two of them. Paul has a hard enough time taking care of me when I am sick hahahaha.

It was a beautiful day to go sailing and we were anxious to finish the last preparations before we could start our trip.

One evening there wasn't a lot of wind so we took advantage and rolled the genoa on it's furler.

Paul working hard to attach another antena and I just finished hanging a load of hand washed laundry. I used all of the skills I learned in Kenya :)

In the French sailing world it's bad luck to set sail on a Friday so we chose to leave on Saturday June 1st, 2013.

There was one person at the lock to send us off :)

I take the helm during a day of perfect sailing conditions.

We spent our first night anchored at Saint-Vaast, and the second night anchored at Cherbourg.

Third anchorage at Alderney,  most northerly Channel Island.

Arbutus anchored in the South of Alderney.

From Alderney we sailed to the island of Jersey where we stopped in the luxurious harbour. My shower was amazing! The island was lively and we had a pint at a very British pub. We spent only one night on Jersey and left the next morning for St. Malo. Goodbye English speaking people...Our arrival into Saint-Malo was unforgettable. There were rocks everywhere and red and green navigational markers were immense.

We sailed and motored up The Rance river to Dinan. Sailing up the river was pleasant and peaceful.

There was only one other sailboat just ahead of us on the river.

We spent two days and one night in the historical town of Dinan.

Instead of paying for another night at Dinan we motored 20mins down river and stopped at the river's edge to spend the night. The rain poured that night but we were comfortable inside.

Hiding underneath the dodger kept us dry from the rain. When we passed under this bridge we were a little worried for the mast ... We had to wait for the lock to open before going to Saint-Malo so we visitied the small town of  Souillac.

We had to go through the lock to reach Saint-Malo. We spent the evening in the awesome city of Saint-Malo where we got to dine on Mussels and french fries. The next morning we left for The island of Bréhat where we attempted our first beaching of Arbutus.

We left the island of Bréhat for Roscoff where we spent two nights under the rain. But we finally had internet and I was able to talk to my dad :) Our next stop was the island of  Batz where we beached Arbutus for the second time. We met a nice French couple Pascal and Monique who invited us onboard their yacht to have a drink and chat.

Our next stop was Brignogan-sur-Plages where we are currently anchored and waiting for the wind to die down. We will leave tomorrow and make our way to Camaret where we will rock climb!!!