We crossed the English Channel heading south from the UK on the 23rd of August, heading for Alderney in the Channel Islands.  Alderney is the furthest north of the Channel Islands and at roughly 80nm away is the closest to the UK.  We had a light northerly breeze so wound up motoring the whole day. While I'd much rather be sailing than motoring, I'm no zealot and would rather be motoring in no wind than bashing upwind under sail.   Unfortunately, as our day progressed, the overnight forecast changed and when we checked it again around 20 miles from our destination we found that what had been a light NE forecast was now a "sporty" NEerly.  Given that that Alderney's harbor is exposed to the NE, we opted to divert to Cherbourg for a more restful night.   

The next morning we made for St. Peter's Port in Guernsey, where we spent two mostly relaxing days exploring the town and getting some much needed planning and boat work done.   We had purchased an offshore medical kit and opted to save the VAT on it by sending it to Guernsey for our pickup.  The Ocean Cruising Club port captain Dick Emery was kind enough to suggest that we ship it to his home and he brought it by on Friday, allowing us to spend a very enjoyabe hour learning his story and a bit more about Guernsey. 

Our depth transducer had stopped working on our way across the Channel and we were overjoyed when a local Raymarine tech David Le Crass of DLC Marine was able to order a replacement from the UK for (almost) next day delivery.  He even came by on a Saturday morning to help us with the install!   Once that project was done, we fueled up on the way out of town (at a great, duty-free price!) and made for the neighboring island of Sark.  Sark was nice but a bit breezy and rolly in the anchorage, which kept us onboard for the evening.  

We continued our alternating short day / long day pattern on Sunday, with a 76 nm passage to Roscoff, our first stop in Brittany, then a 30nm passage to L'Aber Wra'ch, spending two relaxing nights at each.  We enjoyed the Bretagne cuisine -- lots and lots of crepes along with some delicious fish soup and mussels.  We also managed a fun dinghy ride up the river, a few walks and... you guessed it... more boat work (and planning!).

In preparation for our coming offshore passages, we activated our Iridium Go! satellite phone and we now have a way for friends and family to track our progress while we are offshore.  This PredictWind web site will track our progress by using text messages automatically sent by our sat phone.   At some point we hope to integrate this with our blog, but we can't do that as of yet.  

We made the 42nm passage around the tip of Brittany on Friday morning, arriving in Brest in time to meet Guillemette's sister, brother-in-law and nephew who drove out for the weekend.  

We're resident in Brest for the next week or so as we get ready for our upcoming 1100 nm passage to Madeira.  This will be our first offshore passage and our friends Paul and Chris will be joining us for it.  Our targeted departure date is September 9th, but we will be watching the weather carefully as that date approaches in order to select the departure date that will best optimize for safety, comfort and speed over the passage.

Guillemette relaxing while at anchor off of Sark.

Roscoff's large pleasure boat marina.

Saltair in her L'Aber Wra'ch home.

This is what boat work (and school work) looks like:

I took a trip up the rig to check things out.  A 27m high selfie!

Guillemette enjoying the bow ride of Pepper (our dinghy), as Seth drove us to explore the beautiful river around L'Aber Wra'ch.

One of the most peaceful evenings of our summer.  

First mate Seth up at sunrise getting us ready for departure!

A French navy "floating AWACs" ship?  Or a satellite tracking ship?

Back on Seth's theme of tides, the crew of this boat were having quite the party tied up outside the bar in Brest's Marina du Moulin Blanc, until the tide went out, leaving them sitting dry on the boat ramp!

Family arrives, cocktails for all!

After a peaceful night at anchor at Anse de L'Auberlac'h, we motored back to the marina in Brest.