When the wind blows. Use more ropes.

More on our mooring line experiments. 

We were getting pounded onto the finger berth by the strong prevailing winds here in Brest. Biscay is just out there so no surprise I suppose. 

Our yacht was blown so far over that our toe rail took a scraping. Some other yachts fared far worse. One sustained quite bad hull and toe rail damage and another had a porthole smashed on a pontoon cleat. Flattened and burst fenders a plenty. 

To combat this, we rigged 2 extra lines. One from the bow to the cleat on the finger berth nearest our stern. The other from our biggest stern winch to the main pontoon ahead of us. 

The 2 extra lines have to be tight. Especially the one on the winch as that holds the boat off the finger berth. The other line stops the boat going too far forward. The only other tweak was that the starboard stern line was shortened, so that the winched line didn't pull us too far out and encroach onto our neighbours space. 

This has been a fantastic success. Even when the wind is blowing its worse, the starboard fenders just kiss the finger berth. 

Xmas/New Year 2013

On a rare sunny day, this time of year, I was able to apply the vinyl name lettering we had bought from Ebay (valdasvinyls) with excellent results. The hardest part was finding the same font as the name on the stern. It turned out to be 'DALEK' font. Yes! From Dr. Who. I like that it looks Grecian and the letter E is like an arrow which fits in well with 'Artemis' being the Greek Demi God of hunting.

We were invited onboard 'Erminig' by Brigitte and Eric for Xmas dinner. We had a great time. The Ostritch steaks were beautiful. 

We took 'round Xmas crackers that we found in the Irish shop whilst buying some decent tea bags. 

Alison and I

Eric and Brigitte

Jack

They in turn visited us on 'Artemis' on New Years Eve. I made a turkey curry that gave Eric a right sweat on. Well, he said he liked hot and spicy!

We saw the New Year in with blasts of horn and some use of the tannoy. 

We have also socialised with Laurent, Cecile and their lovely daughters Charlene and Toscan. They live on a stylish looking catarmaran nearby. 

The girls seem to like Alison. She knows how to play. 

We seem to have been ever so popular. 'Enjoy it, it won't last' I told Alison. We ate the 'Gallette du Rois' ( cake of the King ) twice in one day. I got the porcelain favour and crown the first time and Alison the second. Set up?

We also enjoyed watching the Xmas nativity animation, the boys on 'Tarquilla'

had produced as part of their onboard school work. 

Another small job was to stitch buckles onto the webbing straps that hold the holding tank in place. As when it was fitted we couldn't source any and the webbing was tied in a knot. 

A job for Alison I thought. She never stopped moaning and I had to hold a torch the whole time 'cos there wasn't enough light. Pah!

Looks much better and more secure now.