Friday, 28 May 2010

Port Louis - Lorient











Its now nearly the end of the month and we've been away from home over a month - its gone so fast. We left Douarnenez over a week ago but since then its been glorious weather and finding internet access has not been a high priority.

When we set off from Douarnenez our first obstable was getting around the Raz de Seine - a stretch of water with a fearsome reputation so we chose our day very carefully - no wind to speak of, a good state of tide and a belle mer so it was a breeze. Unfortunately the same couldnt be said of our next port of call, Audierne. We'd had a frightening story from a Belgian sailor we'd met at Douarnenez but we smiled benignly knowing that Cabernet was equipped with a GPS etc. What a trip it was! The transit in the pilot book was less than accurate and skipper managed to put her aground in the channel, there was much shouting from a guy on the wall and we gathered from his gesticulations that we needed to be much further out into the channel. A little fishing boat took pity on us and guided us into the marina - pride goes out of the window in those circumstances!! The town itself was geared to its fishing fleet so we decided not to linger and the next morning set off once again. We had planned to stop at a little seaside town called Loctudy but once skipper had read the pilot book he decided that it was too pisky after our experience of the previous day and so we continued on to St Marine, just across the river from Benodet - what a difference, a real des res area.

The weather was set fair for the weekend and we decided to take the opportunity to visit the Iles de Glenan, just about 10 miles off the coast. The book said they were the closest thing to the Carribean this side of the pond and thats exactly what they were like - sheer bliss for a couple of days.

When we left the islands we went back to Benodet and meandered our way up the R Odet - another glorious day in which to experience a very pretty river.

The weather looked as though it was going to take a turn for the worse so our next stop was Concarneau - a lovely walled city where we spent another pleasant couple of days, no rain materialised! And yesterday we arrived in Port Louis - again the forecast says its going to be changeable for the next couple of days so we'll take this opportunity to visit the submarine museums etc before deciding on our next stop.

Sunday, 16 May 2010

Douarnenez!









We left Camaret on Thursday - it was pretty grim and grey when we left and we were expecting a wet few hours of sailing. However as we got closer to our next port of call - Morgat - the sky cleared and the sun came out. What a beautiful place, built by the founder of Peugeot for his employees so it was very DEZ REZ. The dinghy had its inaugural outing when we went to visit some fantastic caves. It was - yet another - public holiday in France on Thursday so the town was very busy. The marina was excellent - new pontoon and they were all very well fendered which made it very easy for us.

The next day dawned grim and grey again so we decided to set sail for Douarnenez just across the bay. It had been a very still morning but the minute we left he marina up came the wind and our trip resembled a crossing of the Irish Sea - wet cold and with the wind on our nose!!

Saturday was spent exploring this little town - it used to be the centre of the sardine trade and its very quaint in many areas with lots of brightly coloured fishermens cottages. There is also a very good Boat Museum which kept John occupied on Sunday afternoon.

Our next trip involves going through the Raz de Sein - somewhat tricky under the wrong conditions. The skipper and crew have had a number of 'discussions' and agreed that wednesday is looking best tide wise but we'll have to wait and see what the weather brings as there are no 'get out of jail' locations nearby if we find conditions less than ideal. I know skipper doesnt really want to be here for that length of time but the crew is adamant that we're not going in a roaring tide!

Wednesday, 12 May 2010

Cameret



We had a lovely weekend in Chateaulin - had hoped to hire a couple of bikes to explore the river path but that idea was thwarted by the VE day holiday. Still the sun shone and,because it was so early in the season, we had the pontoon to ourselves pretty much the whole weekend.

We had planned to leave for Cameret on Monday but the forecast said winds of F5-7 so we elected to stay put for another day - that was a good call as the weather closed in during the afternoon and we would have been very wet sailors had we decided to leave. However the Dodo Fleet's Communications Officer (Mr T) provided us with an updated forecast on monday eve and, sure enough, the sun shone on tuesday and we set off for pastures new. We stopped off to have lunch at Port Launay just a little way down river from Chateaulin and transited the river lock at about 2.30, the sun shone and the trip down river was magical. When we got to the Rade de Brest it was blowing quite hard but we found a very quiet little hamlet at L'Auberlac'h and that provided us with a very peaceful night.

We took advantage of the settled weather and headed for Cameret early this morning, having to miss all the high speed ferries as they shuttle backwards and forwards to Brest - I suppose thats their equivalent of rush hour traffic! We plan to head off tomorrow for our next port of call - Morgat - which is further down the Crozon peninsula.

Friday, 7 May 2010

Chateaulin






We arrived at Chateaulin on the R Aulne yesterday, having left Brest on Wednesday morning. There was a good wind and we managed to sail all the way across and a good bit up river. There was a heart stopping moment as we went under the Pont du Terenez bridge - didnt seem a lot of clearance for the mast but we made it! After a lot of huffing and puffing between crew and skipper aboout wind direction etc we dropped anchor at Tregarvan a sleepy little hollow which wouldnt have looked out of place on the west coast of Scotland. We had to navigate a lock on the river yesterday but it was a doddle compared with those on Crinan canal and helped enormously by a very jolly lock keeper so we tied up in Chateaulin just before lunch. There was considerqble trauma shortly afterwards when another Brit yacht tried to also tie up alongside just in front of us. Unfortunately he got pushed back by the current from a sluice gate and managed to get himself hooked on our anchor and at 90 degs to us - what a palaver. fortunately with the help of most of the lunchtime crowd we managed to haul him off - little damage to Cabernet apart from a bent anchor pin but quite a bit to his stern. He was most apologetic and insisted we accept a bottle of Malt!!! The berthing here is free so the skipper thinks we'll stay here until Monday as the weather is not yet settled enough to encourage us to set off down the coast - bucket and spade will stay put for a little longer.

Tuesday, 4 May 2010

Brest!

Trip over to France to join the men was very uneventful - we even managed a couple of hours of retail therapy at Cribs Causeway near Bristol - and once in France an hour's drive saw us in Brest......although by then it was foggy and wet. We took Colin and Pat to Foleux in the Villaine so that they could get Good Mood ready for its big adventure to the Med and we also made arrangements to leave Cabernet there over the winter. We had hoped to set off today on the start of the Grand Tour but its very very windy so we'll be staying safely tied up until the weather improves.....before too long I hope.