We spent a couple of days in Crouesty - the rain was torrential at times. On thursday yachts were coming into the marina at 2pm with their navigation lights on as it was so dark - needless to say they also looked thoroughly miserable!!
We left yesterday and arrived at the lock at the start of the Villaine with just 15 mins to spare or another 2 hour wait - the wind was on our nose most of the way and the trip took rather longer than we'd expected. However we're here now on the right side of the Arzal barrier, just given Cabernet a good wash down and will be leaving shortly for La Roche Bernard, the local tourist town in the area. Tomorrow we're heading up to Foleux which will be Cabernet's home port for the forseeable future.
The next challenge will be to locate our car which Colin and Pat left at Foleux before they headed off on their jolly with Good Mood4. We'll then be at the end of the first stage of our Grand Tour.
The ferry is booked for early wednesday morning from Calais - we'll be leaving here on tuesday and hopefully seeing a little more of France as we drive up to the ferry port.
We'll be back again on 24 June when part 2 of the tour starts - by then the holiday season should be in full swing because its certainly been low season here so far.
Saturday, 12 June 2010
Wednesday, 9 June 2010
Vannes
We had a lovely couple of days in La Trinite last week - the marina offered us bikes for the day but skipper decided it was too unsettled so we braved public transport again and set off for Carnac, visiting the standing stones and the little town itself. John spent a while in the prehistoric museum - I gave it a miss and saved 6 euros, probably a good call as he wasnt impressed! Had a fab meal at Le Quai on the quayside - best of the trip so far.
Thursday saw us shooting a few miles along the coast to Port du Crouesty to pick up provisions before exploring the Gulf du Morbihan - what a size of marina, over 1500 boats of all shapes and sizes. The supermarche was quite a walk so we decided dinghy was quicker option - first time I've gone shopping with my lifejacket! Later we also braved the tides around Port Navalo in the dinghy - not an experience the crew enjoyed but skipper thought it was great fun as we surfed along through the eddies etc. Met another Scottish couple whilst having dinner, they keep their Moody down here - Papillon.
The weather being set fair for the weekend we entered the Gulf on Friday and found a glorious little anchorage on Ile aux Moines - there were some mooring buoys but it was pretty shallow - 0.5m! - so decided to drop the hook and there we stayed for the next 2 days, using the dinghy to explore the other islands.
Sunday saw us heading up the river to Auray - its much more of a 'working river' than those we've travelled so far and we had some difficulty finding a visitor buoy which looked big enough to hold Cabernet securely, eventually we just 'borrowed' one but that meant we couldnt really leave it for any length of time in case the owner returned - which in fact didn't happen.
After reviewing the weather forecast we decided to head to Vannes for a few days - skipper wasn't very keen but I wanted to revisit it after an absence of many years. The trip up required us to go through a swing bridge which only opened every half hour - skipper wouldnt exceed the speed limit and we missed the bridge by just a few minutes, which meant a lengthy wait on the holding pontoon. Getting ourselves on to this was 'tricky' - the wind was behind us and also blowing us off so although I managed to jump off it was incredibly difficult to get the line secured and I ended up hanging on to this 8.5ton boat for dear life as skipper tried to bring us alongside - which eventually he did.....I was regretting my insistance on coming to Vannes. However its been a lovely couple of days just wandering around the old town and sampling a couple of excellent restaurants - we hear the £ has risen to 1.20e so that makes us feel better!!
Forecast now pretty stormy for next few days so we've decided to head back to Port Crouesty to sit it out before scooting into River Villaine on Saturday and into the marina there on Monday where we've arranged to leave Cabernet whilst we drive up to Calais on Tuesday for the ferry home.
Lots of people here are saying the marinas further south are still closed after the severe storms in February so one of the main tasks whilst at home will be to find somewhere we can leave Cabernet for our longer trip home in August - we're hoping for Royan which will enable us to fly back from Bordeaux.
Thursday saw us shooting a few miles along the coast to Port du Crouesty to pick up provisions before exploring the Gulf du Morbihan - what a size of marina, over 1500 boats of all shapes and sizes. The supermarche was quite a walk so we decided dinghy was quicker option - first time I've gone shopping with my lifejacket! Later we also braved the tides around Port Navalo in the dinghy - not an experience the crew enjoyed but skipper thought it was great fun as we surfed along through the eddies etc. Met another Scottish couple whilst having dinner, they keep their Moody down here - Papillon.
The weather being set fair for the weekend we entered the Gulf on Friday and found a glorious little anchorage on Ile aux Moines - there were some mooring buoys but it was pretty shallow - 0.5m! - so decided to drop the hook and there we stayed for the next 2 days, using the dinghy to explore the other islands.
Sunday saw us heading up the river to Auray - its much more of a 'working river' than those we've travelled so far and we had some difficulty finding a visitor buoy which looked big enough to hold Cabernet securely, eventually we just 'borrowed' one but that meant we couldnt really leave it for any length of time in case the owner returned - which in fact didn't happen.
After reviewing the weather forecast we decided to head to Vannes for a few days - skipper wasn't very keen but I wanted to revisit it after an absence of many years. The trip up required us to go through a swing bridge which only opened every half hour - skipper wouldnt exceed the speed limit and we missed the bridge by just a few minutes, which meant a lengthy wait on the holding pontoon. Getting ourselves on to this was 'tricky' - the wind was behind us and also blowing us off so although I managed to jump off it was incredibly difficult to get the line secured and I ended up hanging on to this 8.5ton boat for dear life as skipper tried to bring us alongside - which eventually he did.....I was regretting my insistance on coming to Vannes. However its been a lovely couple of days just wandering around the old town and sampling a couple of excellent restaurants - we hear the £ has risen to 1.20e so that makes us feel better!!
Forecast now pretty stormy for next few days so we've decided to head back to Port Crouesty to sit it out before scooting into River Villaine on Saturday and into the marina there on Monday where we've arranged to leave Cabernet whilst we drive up to Calais on Tuesday for the ferry home.
Lots of people here are saying the marinas further south are still closed after the severe storms in February so one of the main tasks whilst at home will be to find somewhere we can leave Cabernet for our longer trip home in August - we're hoping for Royan which will enable us to fly back from Bordeaux.
Tuesday, 1 June 2010
La Trinite
As predicted, the weather took a turn for the worse on Saturday, it poured down all day. We took the bateaubus across from Port Louis to Lorient and planned to visit the submarine museum. Unfortunately the weather seemed to have brought lots of others to the museum as well and the morning tours were fully booked. Rather than hang around til the afternoon - the museum is in what looks like an industrial estate! - we took the opportunity to visit the Cite de la Voile, an excellent way to spend a few wet hours in Lorient. By the time we left the Cite the rain was coming down hard so we headed into the centre of town with the intention of getting some - very late - lunch. Well its just well nigh impossible to find somewhere selling food after 14.00 and before 19.00. However we eventually struck lucky and made our way back in the still pouring rain to Port Louis.
We had planned to leave for Quiberon on Sunday but once again the weather was not in our favour so we took a long walk and bateaubus back, by then the weather had once again closed right in.
By Monday the skipper was suffering from a bad case of marina-itis so we decided to take a chance and head off to Port Haliguen / Quiberon. It was grey and grim and the wind was blowing quite hard but it was behind us so at least we were only rolling with the sea rather than slamming into the waves......this is definitely not what I had expected when we planned to spend the summer in Brittany. The trip was uneventful until we got to the end of the Quiberon peninsula - at which point we picked up a current against us from somewhere and we started to get pulled towards some very nasty looking rocks. Some conversation ensued between skipper and crew and we thankfully managed to head ourselves out of what by then was a nastily building sea. The remainder of the trip to Port H was smooth once we got into the bay.
We had a lovely walk into Quiberon town this morning from the marina - about a mile. Last time we were in Quiberon both Richard and Stuart were little more than toddlers - we thought it was pretty then and still think so now. We set off for La Trinite in time for lunch - just a quick hour across the bay but once again the weather turned against us and by the time we reached La Trinite it was lashing rain and a howling gale. Still its now cleared up and, if the forecast holds, we should be in for a good few days of settled weather in which to explore the Golfe de Morbihan before setting off for home on 16 June.
We had planned to leave for Quiberon on Sunday but once again the weather was not in our favour so we took a long walk and bateaubus back, by then the weather had once again closed right in.
By Monday the skipper was suffering from a bad case of marina-itis so we decided to take a chance and head off to Port Haliguen / Quiberon. It was grey and grim and the wind was blowing quite hard but it was behind us so at least we were only rolling with the sea rather than slamming into the waves......this is definitely not what I had expected when we planned to spend the summer in Brittany. The trip was uneventful until we got to the end of the Quiberon peninsula - at which point we picked up a current against us from somewhere and we started to get pulled towards some very nasty looking rocks. Some conversation ensued between skipper and crew and we thankfully managed to head ourselves out of what by then was a nastily building sea. The remainder of the trip to Port H was smooth once we got into the bay.
We had a lovely walk into Quiberon town this morning from the marina - about a mile. Last time we were in Quiberon both Richard and Stuart were little more than toddlers - we thought it was pretty then and still think so now. We set off for La Trinite in time for lunch - just a quick hour across the bay but once again the weather turned against us and by the time we reached La Trinite it was lashing rain and a howling gale. Still its now cleared up and, if the forecast holds, we should be in for a good few days of settled weather in which to explore the Golfe de Morbihan before setting off for home on 16 June.
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