Thirty Five leagues from Scilly

By |Published On: September 1, 2024|Categories: Europe, France|614 words|1 Comment|

Early morning departure

Our departure from L’Aber Wrac’h came just as it got light enough to see the crab pots and nets that were peppered through the river entrance. It was dim and a light misty drizzle was blowing in from the NE. We cleared the harbour entrance and set our sails at the river mouth just as a lovely old 3 master came whispering through. In the soft, grey light of daybreak she looked almost ghostly as she turned upwind under the high rock bluff at the entrance to strike her sails. In her wake lingered a delicious waft of the bacon and eggs breakfast that was being cooked up on board. The watch and the cook stood at the quarter rail and gave us a friendly wave as we passed. They looked well fed and very satisfied.

Beautiful sailing boats underway.

Around the western point of Bretagne

The winds were light and stayed that way all day. Despite this, with the current we were able to maintain 4 or 5 kn of speed as we pushed SW along the coast and turned into the Chenal du Four, between Ouessant (or Ushant to all those English speakers, and to shanty singers who will of course know that, at that point we were just 35 leagues from Scilly) and the western tip of Bretagne. We had hoped to stop at Ouessant, the western most point of France, but sadly the forecast conditions made its dubious anchorages look a bit more dubious than dubious, so we pushed on.

View towards Le Conquet, on the west coast of Bretagne.

Going against the tide

As we headed S in the Chenal du Four the current began to drop off, then began to swing before finally reaching a final decision and coming full against us and working itself up as the tide changed. Our speed dropped away until we were only doing 2 kn. Strangely, all the other sailing boats were headed in the other direction, with the tide. Smarty-pants sailors. At a couple of points we could have snuck in under the cliffs and anchored to wait for the tide to turn, but we decided just to push on slowly – it was nice out, cloudy, a bit foggy and sometimes drizzly. Atmospheric. Off L’Aber Ildut a flock of small, traditional, sail-powered fishing boats drifted in and out of the mist, circling around us before heading back in towards the harbour.

View towards Les Tas de Pois, a string of islets and reefs, SW of Camaret-sur-Mer.

Showering inside a Vauban

Once out of the Chenal du Four we had a slow sail into the bay of Brest and onto its southern side towards the harbour of Camaret-sur-Mer. The approach to this harbour is dramatic with high pale grey cliffs towering above the sea and sharp black needles of rock pushing up from below it.

Cliffs along the approach to Camaret-sur-Mer.

In front of the harbour a lovely tempting bay with a sandy beach runs up to the cliffs from the breakwater. We tossed up between anchoring out or going into the harbour but a look at the forecast winds overnight made the choice pretty easy. The bay would be exposed to some pretty strong winds and swell. Inside it was then.

We were not the only visitor in the harbour.

There was also the added bonus that we would be moored right next to a real Vauban fort and, what’s more, the marina’s showers located within this UNESCO-listed Tour Vauban. It doesn’t come much more special that this! Note to future visitors: the showers don’t show any sign of having been upgraded since the 17th century.

One Comment

  1. Caro Imming November 8, 2024 at 10:11 am - Reply

    🤣🤣 het wordt steeds humoristischer

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