Heading west along the Breton coast
From Granville we headed west again, hopping along the Breton coast. A brief stop in the small harbour town of St-Cast was sufficient for a run and a look around, before pushing on the next morning for Paimpol.
Stunning headlands and cliffs along the way, almost reminiscent of Norway.
Ovni 365 comparisons
In Paimpol, having negotiated an entrance that was made somewhat tricky by having to wait at the lock with a number of other boats in a tight shallow space with a fresh cross wind, we ended up rafted up with another Ovni 365.
Two Ovni 365s, happily rafted up next to each other.
Needless to say, there was a bit of boat talk and comparison. When Frederieke said that she liked their cockpit table and would like to swap it for something similar, they quickly offered the exchange saying that they wished they had ours. Hopefully their eagerness has dissuaded F from her niggling desire to get rid of what I (D) think is an annoying but very useful feature.
Other beautiful boats in Paimpol.
A French Custom’s travel recommendation
We took a day in Paimpol to do some walks along the estuary and visit the markets.
Easy walking near Paimpol.
Walking on the G34 Customs trail along the ‘Anse de Paimpol’ (Bay of Paimpol), at low tide.
But after two nights it was time to push on. So, on the second morning, when the lock opened, we did a short hop north and anchored in between the rocks on the eastern side of Île-de-Bréhat. This had been one of spots recommended to us by the French Douane, and we were keen to explore.
Paimpol by night.
Once we were confident the anchor was securely set for the 10 m tides, we unloaded the dinghy and went ashore to wander around in the hectares of exposed tidal flats that stretched out over hundreds of metres from the water to the high tide line like rolling fields and hills.
Acres and acres of tidal flats on Île-de-Bréhat. In six hours, this would be under 10 m of water.
There was all manner of crabs, shell fish and little fishes to be found in amongst the different kinds of seaweed and seagrass. If you are used to steep rocky shores and tidal ranges of a few metres then looking out over an expanse of hundreds of metres of intertidal weed, exposed to the air, is a strange, strange thing.
Scallops trying to find the best spots to hide at low tide. Unfortunately, for us, the scallop fishing season was closed.
Perhaps the best thing was watching the scallops scuttle around finding the best spot in the little creeks that ran through the exposed sand – they squirted and clapped about with a pleasing alacrity until they found a scalloply pleasant spot to nestle happily.
A nice coincidence
Just after we had left Paimpol, F got a cheery message. Prior to buying Yuma we had tried to buy another Ovni 365, SY Entre-Côtes. At the time we were, unfortunately, too late but the owners promised to let us know if the impending sale didn’t go through for some reason. Well, as it turned out, they sold Entre-Côtes and we bought Yuma and those are two happy stories. However, the previous owners of Entre-Côtes now live in Paimpol, and, having seen Yuma in the harbour while we were there, looked her up on the internet. They found our blog and realised who we were and sent us a friendly ‘hi there, we saw your Ovni 365’ message. We got the message too late to catch up but should we ever be back in Paimpol, we’ll drop in and say hi.
Prachtig die st Jacobsschelpen. Nog nooit intact bij eb gezien. Wat vindt F zo vreselijk aan de cockpittafel vraag ik me ook af. En hoe ziet die er uit?
Mooi he die schelpen. Ik heb ze op m’n werk ooit es in een aquarium gehad, geweldig om te observeren. Ze klapperden uiteindelijk zo hard met hun schelpen tegen het glas dat ze grote krassen maakten.
De tafel staat in de weg. Wanneer je van binnen naar buiten naar het wiel loopt, moet je zijdelings bij de tafel langs (of op de bank gaan staan en er vervolgens weer afstappen). Ook is er nergens ruimte op de boot om rek- en strek oefeningen te doen – dit zou daar n mooie plek voor zijn. Voordeel van de tafel is dat je er op kan staan en zo bij de giek kan. En het geeft houvast in zwaar weer, en kan ook dienen als zitplaats. Dus voor- en nadelen. Totnutoe staat ie er dus nog. Wellicht dat het er pas in Australie uit gaat, we zullen zien.
So what is the annoying but very useful feature?!?
F reckons that it clutters up the cockpit, and she is right. But, it is really useful for standing on to reach the end of the boom, as a place to brace yourself when things are a bit boisterous or when you are hauling on the sheets, and it makes for a fine, protected seat when you are on watch, particularly on cold wet nights. The advantages out weigh the disadvantages. F has a cunning plan to get rid of it in Australia but…