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.