This trip is not the longest and doesn’t have that much open seas, but it starts at the maritime festival in Brest and ends at an even bigger event.  Festivals in Brest are huge, the biggest in Europe, and are held only once every 4 years. Next one is not coming for a long time! The days in Brest are full of music, dances, parades of sail with dozens of tall ships maneuvering in close quarters, and in the evening there are fireworks. 

We are south bound from Fécamp. We might visit Saint Malo or Cherbourg, weather depending. The famous St. Michel abbey is located near Saint Malo. In Cherbourg they have one of the very few nuclear submarines. They made it into a museum and it’s open for visitors.

But the most interesting part of this trip – to our taste – is the region of 12-meter tides and tidal currents up to 10 knots of speed. Here we had recorded the absolute maximum of speed Shtandart ever traveled: 15 knots with a following current. 

Next we enter the Bay of Biscay, leave Ushant Island on starboard and with the whole fleet of tall ships arrive to Brest.

In the region with the highest (this side of the Atlantic) tide and fastest tidal currents we of course are going to talk a lot about calculating depth with respect to high water and low water times as well as the speed and direction of currents. The passage plan that we make has to be such that we pass the tidal spots with the maximum help from the current.

 

The Captain is going to give a separate lecture on how to use currents to your advantage for docking. 

Of course the usual sailing routine applies. Before we leave the port we do the standard climbing aloft exercise and prepare the sails to be set. During the passage we are going to have “all hands on deck”, sailing maneuvers and “man overboard” drills, both requiring good team work and well-coordinated actions.