The last sail for 2024

Our final passage for the year began on a sombre, grey day under dark low clouds that seemed to hang just above the masthead. This was to be our trip up to and then along the Villaine River where Yuma was going to go ashore at Arzal for the five months that we would be away.

Four seasons in one day

We motored out on a glassy sea with a low swell and sunny sky. As we cleared the shoals off La Turballe we picked up a light northerly breeze and so began a slow north-westerly reach towards Saint-Jacques on the Morbihan peninsula. As the day went on the clouds began to deliver on their promise of rain, first as a drizzle that gradually built, in concert with the wind, to a steady rain. A couple of miles off the peninsula the wind began to veer to the north-east, as we’d hoped, and we were able to tack back to the east on a close reach, all the while pushing as high as we could in an attempt to get up to the windward side of the mudflats of the Pointe du Halguen, at the mouth of the Vilaine. The wind by this time had built to a steady 20kn and was gusting up to 29kn, but thankfully as we came into the bay near the river entrance, it backed just enough to allow us to sneak around the point and slip into the calm, dark waters of the river.

Entering the Vilaine river

Here, in a narrow river channel that snaked along between mudflats and shellfish racks, we struck the sails and motored at a leisurely pace through the dim evening drizzle upstream towards the barrage at Arzal. This was a pleasant trip, riding a incoming tide past moored fishing boats, mussel and oyster racks and more mudflats, all dark and gloomy in the misty wet evening light. The mudflats did get us at one point just short of the Arzal barrage, requiring a quick bit of manoeuvring to get ourselves free and back into safe water. Oops.

At the barrage we waited for the lock keeper who eventually came rattling up on his pushbike, late, unrepentant and in a very cheery mood. He had obviously just finished off a nice diner and was extra chuffed to find an Australian boat waiting for him, “There is another Australian boat on the first pontoon” he said before climbing up to the control room and letting us through. This other Australian boat happened to be the Ovni from Brisbane that we had met in Vannes about a month earlier and that had recommended Arzal to us as an overwintering spot for the boat.

Winterizing Yuma

Once through the lock, the Arzal-Camoët marina was immediately on the portside and we quickly found our berth and got ourselves tied up and settled in. This was the beginning of a week or two of cleaning and preparing Yuma for the winter. Not particularly exciting stuff but we got it all done by the end of October.

And to top it all off in a French way, we managed to sneak off for a very delicious meal at a Michelin recommended (but again not starred) restaurant in the lovely town, La Roche-Bernard, just a half hour bike ride away.

We’re looking forward to seeing Yuma again in March 2025!