'SHOULD WE CONTINUE OR SAIL BACK FOR HELP?'

A collision and a fouled prop put Amanda and Victor Tettmar in a tricky situation mid-Channel, surrounded by shipping with night falling

-  Amanda and Victor Tettmar

Following an already eventful summer cruise to Brittany, our return Channel crossing suddenly became a lot more challenging. We’ve been sailing our 34ft yacht, Hummingbird for 8 years. We generally only sail as a couple and limit ourselves to day passages, with the Channel crossing being one of the longest we’ve undertaken. We started our cruise heading west from Plymouth to Falmouth, and then we crossed the Channel to Roscoff, in order to clear customs at a French Port of Entry. We then headed west along the Brittany coast round Finisterre, passing through the Chenal du Four and Raz de Sein, with our southernmost point being Concarneau. From there we headed a few miles offshore to the Isles de Glénan, which we had been assured were an idyllic, almost Caribbean, archipelago.

FIRST PROBLEM