13th June – Friday–Lorient Cont… and Pornichet

Walked to huge Supermarket l’Eclerc, approx 20 minute walk in blistering heat.  Need to buy a Cool Bag Rucksack.

Walked past the Submarine Pens created and used during WW2, they are impressive, but a bit of a eyesore.  Wonder what they could be made into or used for?  The Ghost ship in the foreground is quite a common site.  We have seem them in many places so far.  Artists and photographers seem to like their ‘rustic charm’.

I would come back to Lorient, but would like to try the Port Louis Marina.  Kernevel has no water bus stop and nothing much in the way of a town, unless we missed it.  That can be a problem, you arrive somewhere and have to orientate to find food etc, the shopping areas are not signposted and you sometimes really have to ferret them out.

14th June – Saturday – To Pornichet

The sailing at present is mostly motor sailing as we are covering quite a lot of ground.  Meaning we have the sails up but also have the engine on to achieve the 5 knots which will get us to the next place at a reasonable time.  We could sail more but the days would be very long and you may arrive in the dark or at an inappropriate time for the tides, especially as quite a few of our stops are up river estuaries.  So we use the sails alone only when we can achieve 5 knots with the sails.  This is usually for 2, maybe 3 hours per trip.  The wind direction is another element as the boat only sails when the wind is in the right direction.  So often the wind is either in front or behind us.

11 hours sailing today.  08.00 to 19.00.   Does this count as weekend work?  It was very sunny, so we used the canopy and it was so much nicer to ride along in the shade.  Just as we got to Pornichet the wind blew up to 20 knots, so we hung a quick right into the marina and tied up to the first boat we could raft on.  The Marina Dorey turned up quick-smart in his small boat and took Michael to see the berth and then brought him back, whilst I talked to the French man whose boat we had moored against.  He was leaving early doors, so we would have had to move anyway.  We then moved the boat to its new position, and went exploring.

Pornichet is quite a change from the small quiet places we have been to recently.  The marina was large with good facilities, free showers (25.50 Euros/night). The marina has many restaurants and several chandlers and boat servicing outlets.  The bars got quite lively on Sat night and a birth near the shore would have been interesting.  Fortunately we were just out of earshot.

15th June – Sunday – Pornichet

Pornichet seafront looks like Benedorm, but walk a little further and it is a maze of small streets with charming little houses which all have ladies names.  We walked about half way along the extensive Promenade and then cut back through as the town changed name and were pleasantly surprised.

 

As it is Sunday the supermarket was only open til 13.00 so we just managed to get the few things we needed to before it closed.  If you walk out of the marina the first thing you see is a Spar, but look to the left and there is a round market house with every kind of deliciousness, and several small shops.

It would have been nice to investigate Pornichet further, as the other end of the Promenade appeared to have a large town centre, but it was too far to walk at this time of day.

Tapestry – today I started the tapestry given to me by the Craft and Chat group.  I think it is going to take a while.  It is very absorbing, once a plucked up the courage to start it, after much counting and re-counting to make sure I was starting in the right place.