7 hours to make the 30 miles, very swelly.
Arrived in Sainte Evette and took up a mooring buoy along with several of the other British boats we were moored with in Concarneau. We have not moored often but managed a pitch perfect manoeuvre with me at the helm and Mick picking up the buoy with the boat hook, first time. I thank you.
I was not really looking forward to mooring but we had no option. The mooring was roly poly at first as the Ferry was coming and going to the Ile de Sein. A young man in the marina dory boat came to take our money, only 11.50 Euros for the night. He also took our bread order!
Early night as the Raz needs our full concentration.
The Sainte Evette Fireworks started just after 11.00pm and it would have been rude not to poke our heads outside for a look. Very good and no concert.
15th July – Tuesday
The bread delivery arrived with a different young man in the dory boat. This country has their priorities sorted and food is high on the list. You can tell he really loved having his picture taken by an older person in her PJ’s.
We all set off at roughly the same time, we left at 11.10. Another flotilla of boats going through the Raz de Sein in an orderly fashion on the best day this week for the times, tides and weather. The weather was very foggy when we set off, approximately 100 metres visibility. With all the electronic charts and GPS it is safe so long as you keep clear of the other boats. It’s amazing how they were lost in the mist very quickly and when the mist cleared a little we were in approximately the same formation. We had to get to near the Le Plate tower accurately at the right time to pass through correctly. This time going North it was 5 and a quarter hours after high water Brest. We passed at 13.05 and then the sea state became very roly and swelly. The supermoon, had made this journey even more tricky than usual, with 3 metre swell on top of a huge spring tide.
The mist cleared about an hour after Le Plate and we had a pleasant journey into Brest. You pass a Jurassic coastline with extraordinary rock formations, which seemed almost touchable in the clear afternoon light.
When entering Brest you pass the naval base and at springs the tide runs through the narrows at 4 knots, we achieved 9.3 knots over the ground. Mick had to judge the marina entrance well as it would be easy to over shoot and would have been very hard to get back. Also you are warned in the pilot books not to enter the military zone, which keeps you on your toes.
We chose Brest as we had been to Camaret and Brest is a large city with lots to investigate.
Yo you two!
ReplyDeleteHaving looked at your plot am assuming you're following the coast round, heading toward St. Malo and the channel Islands?
On your way you'll pass a tiny, tiny little place called Tregastel. It's east of Roscoff and can be found by going north to the coast from the inland town of Lannion - at least that's how I'd get there!
Back in the late 20th I was doing some work for Inmarsat and stayed on several occasions at a quaint french hotel not twenty feet from the sea front there. The small, shallow, sheltered bay had huge boulders in it and always seemed very calm. There were a few cafes and restaurants serving excellent seafood.
I also went a couple of times east to Perros-Guirec. to a small restaurant known (as are many of course) for it's Bretton pancakes - savoury and sweet - and home-brew cider - delish...
Anyway. just wrappin nostalgic there for a mo...
N-joy