Images speak more than words and this collage gives a feel of the light and colours of this magic Autumn and the waves of adventure we had on 'Ibis' very first voyage. As you might know, we also operate and maintain the 1896 Tamar barge 'Lynher'. As soon as we completed the 'Ibis' restoration, we had to jump on Lynher and sail her to Exeter. Although it is not such a great distance, when Lynher is concerned, nothing is ever easy. So it took few weeks in August to complete the move, including taking the mast down and go through two locks, a broken bridge and a canal full of green growth to block any engine with cold water exhaust pipes.
It was with great anticipation that, finally, in the middle of Septembre, we sailed Ibis for the first time in a light breeze. We hoisted her new dipping forelug and mizzen sail, handmade by the guru of traditional sailmaking, Patrick Selman. Ibis pointed to windward and steadily but surely moved through the water at a sensible pace. We tacked and gibed all day in and out of the Plymouth Sound until the wind died, then we anchored for the night in Cawsand. Next day we sailed some more with a stronger breeze and Ibis just responded by moving faster. We were delighted to feel the boat so happy and to find no issues to report. So the following week I rang Michel in Brittany, who grows the delicious Armoriques Roses, the Roscoff Pink Onions and told him that I was coming over with 'Ibis' to collect his harvest. We sailed out of Plymouth on Friday the 20th September in the afternoon during a strong Easterly wind. The night was pretty smooth and with light winds, we switched to the standing forelug for ease of cruising and continued sailing across the Channel. As we started to approach the French side of the Channel, we encountered a number of lighting storms. We could see them all aorund us, scattered in pacthes and presenting an incredible display of lightings all joined together in long, horizontal strings or straight down like arrows thrown by an angry, or cheeky, God.
As I went off watch at midnight, I laid in my bunk and I could feel the water moving against the hull when, suddenly, Ibis leaned over and started to go faster and faster.
I dressed up again and went back on deck to see what was happening. We caught the tail end of one of the storms which made Ibis accellerate to 9 knots and lean slightly more, but not much really, with plenty of freeboard still out. She felt so good and steady, as if she was really enjoying it! It was a special moment, Ibis was singing to the wind and the sea, after so many years of disruption, finally back in her element!
We sailed into Roscoff next day around lunchtime. Michelle and Marie-Helen came from their organic farm to meet us and bring us the onions. It was so nice to see them again and rekindle our friendship. They are very special individuals, who care profoundly about their heritage and traditional ways of farming their ancestors land, using their knoweldge of permaculture. Michel has never ploughed his fields, he just leaves them to rest for 5 years like his father and grandfather used to. We loaded 300kg of organic Armorique Rose, the ancient variety which was first brought to Roscoff by a Portuguese Monk in 1642. Nowadays Michel tells me that the seeds are hybrids as people mix them with other breeds thus losing their original integrity. He carefully collects the seeds to maintian the breed pure. We spent only four hours in Roscoff but it was great to see Michel and Marie-Helen and they loved visiting Ibis whilst having a cup of tea onboard, they even taught us how to make Onions Tresses! (Plattes which preserves them better).
We sailed back on Saturday evening so that we would be back in Plymouth before school started again (one crew being 14 yrs old). It was another magic sail, we were followed by dolphins more or less for the whole length of the Channel, we even saw a baby dolphin so tiny, it must have just been born. As I called my son and pointed at the mum and baby dolphin, I saw them looking back at us probably saying exactly the same thing, "look there's a big one with a little one!".
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