Logbook – St Mary’s to Ushant 31 Jul 19

After a night on the wall, with regular shakes to reset the line to account for the tide, our departure day for France arrived. The weather was quite calm with beautiful sunshine which was a dramatic contrast to the storms earlier in the week. The trip of 100 miles would take around 20 hours so we had planned a lunchtime departure.
This allowed time to make some last-minute preparations and slip at lunchtime.  
The harbour master had other plans however as despite assurances he didn’t need the wall until 1100, he wanted us off it by 0930.
So with stores bought and the boat secured we started South towards Ushant.
The wind steadily increased to a force 3 and this was perfect for us. Eclipse loves a stiffer breeze but force 3 is fine and it keeps the sea flatter.
Hour passed hour with few boats seen and the early separation zones of the channel posed no problems. 
Day moved swiftly into night, with no discernable twilight period and we set in for a relatively mild night sail.
The reducing winds left us moving more slowly and the wind direction left us with a dilemma in crossing the traffic zones. Ideally, you cross at 90 degrees to the flow but the wind wouldn’t allow that. So it was engine on and power across the traffic feeling somewhat like a water going hedgehog.
We crossed without incident and as dawn came, struggled to find the wind to take us the last few miles. So we pressed on under power making our approach to Ushant at mid-tide.

The pilot books and charts make no significant mention of the overspills that arise with the tide to the NW of Ushant. They should. UK waters has overspills marked and noted and my experience of this phenomena is mostly from the UK.
A slight point of a wave on the chart around Ushant caused no concern then as turbulence isnot commented on and so I assumed a simple set of overspills.
That was a mistake.
The tidal flow and seabed conspire to make this area a cauldron during the higher flow levels of the tide. Eclipse leaped and jumped in the water and I fought to maintain a safe way as we had swells of 2m and a tide of 2-3 knots pushing us sideways. Update to the charts is required I think!

Once on the channel to Lampaul, the water was significantly calmer and we found a mooring and tidied the boat before some well-earned rest. It was a good first sail overnight and proved both crew and boat. We will need to consider a better watch system as neither of us slept well and the breaks seemed less refreshing. Perhaps 4 hours is too long for lone watches. Something to watch and monitor.