'Grey Out'

Today was the maritime equivalent of a skiing white out. We woke up to rain, mist, and low cloud; everything was flat and grey. The sea was flat because there wasn't any wind at all.  We were travelling from Treguier to Roscoff and as a result had to motor most of the way.

Leaving Treguier - visibility not great!

To think last Wednesday I was delivering a projected four year business plan to a Board of Directors and yet this Wednesday I had two new jobs.

Job one was Lobster Pot Spotter. No......we were not poaching lobsters for our supper.  My job was to spot them before we hit them and got the rope tangled round our propellor. There are several challenges that I had to face to be good at this job in these particular conditions. Firstly it requires good eyesight (fail one), or glasses that you can see out of i.e. not covered in rain drops (fail 2) and thirdly motivation (I did try to look enthusiastic so only partial fail 3). As luck would have it we didn't hit any so I received a commendation for my diligence!

A lobster pot near miss....

My second job was Bimini Emptier. For our non-sailing friends the Bimini is the navy blue canopy that shelters us from the elements. It is particularly useful in both wet conditions and hot sunshine. It is designed so that a person of normal height can still see ahead and steer the boat. Unfortunately I am not a person of normal height and I could not see anything unless I put my head round the corner of the shelter and got a face full of driving rain.  I only found this amusing for a few minutes of the 7 hour journey today.  There was a fleeting moment when I considered popping down below and swapping my Dubarry sailing boots for a pair of high wedges but then sense prevailed!

To aid me in emptying the rainwater off the top of the Bimini every few minutes (Life of Pi and Waterworld survival movies came to mind) we decided to play some relaxing music so I selected The Swell Season starting with 'Low Rising' in honour of the flat sea and then Tom McRae 'For the Restless' ...nothing to do with my new employment conditions I assure you. By the time we had had Tom on loop a couple of times Greg was feeling depressed, even the normally chipper blue ensign was looking a bit dejected....so we had to change to a bit of Van Morrison! 

A somewhat bedraggled ensign

Just after lunch we adopted a pet. It was a giant moth that had had quite enough of the rain and decided to hitch a lift under our cover.  I named him Drizzle.  He was still looking bleakly over the side when we approached Roscoff... I know how he felt!

Drizzle contemplating Roscoff