Freedom sail

Bill Barna cruises in company to Guernsey, Jersey, France and back

- Bill Barna

June 12th 2024 was my last day at work before retirement, at Seamap (UK) where I'd worked for 14 years. What a great feeling, to be free to go sailing whenever the weather suits. A longer cruising holiday was planned... but where?

My friend Ray Capp is the cruising co-ordinator at Weymouth Sailing Club (WSC) and an experienced yachtsman, so when he said "I'm thinking of sailing to Brittany, do you want to come?" I jumped at the chance.

The timing couldn't have been better as Lorraine, my wife and sailing partner, had previously suggested the Channel Islands, which got us thinking -because we can, let's doa longer cruise.

The date was set for 13 June, leaving Weymouth at 0500 for maximum daylight hours. Howeve,r the weather gods had other ideas, bringing blustery, stormy weather. We'd intended to move Merlot, our Moody S31, from her inner harbour mooring to the bridge pontoon in the outer harbour at 2000, ready for an early start.

A very strong south-westerly wind was blowing through the harbour so we decided to wait until the next day, when hopefully the wind would ease and go more westerly.

The following morning, we moved the boat toa free WSC pontoon, along with Ray's boat Crystella.

These walk-ashore pontoons were empty due to two yachts taking part in the Round the Island Race around the Isle of Wight, which had one hell of a time with a third of participants retiring before reaching the Needles.

On Sunday, 14 June, the weather was awful, with strong winds and a rough sea, so we waited another day.

Challenging start