After a Scary Start, South Brittany Has Charmed Us

From Camaret we motor-sailed through the Raz du Sein, down a 3 knot current.  Normally this would be a blast, but here now came along a summer afternoon fog that Maine sailors know so well.  Visibility was down to 50 yards (about 100 feet beyond our bow, and so we crept along with radar set at 1.25 miles. 

Just after passing the rocks, visibility improved to about 100 yards as we safely passed a sailboat that had been ahead of us.  Then, at the Point, we picked up a good sized radar return a mile away and a few hundred yards on our starboard bow: but no AIS signal received.  Port we went 20 degrees and as we crept along the radar blip was staying put, so we would pass safely about 500 yards leaving it to starboard, and evidently it was a fishing boat motoring slowly.  All was good until that darned radar blip started moving quite quickly and towards our path. Port another ten degrees we went, and JFK exclaimed to Nancy, “It’s moving towards our heading! Watch out on Starboard! “

As JFK watched the radar, on the darn thing came!  Port another ten degrees. Then Nancy: ‘Watch out!  Ship on starboard!!”  Full astern went Adventuress and ground to a halt, and just 50 yards across our bows steamed way too fast “L”Horizon”  a French fishing trawler.  To say we were shaking is not an exaggeration.  Suddenly the darn bugger stopped, and we guess he had just noticed us!  On the VHF radio JFK practiced some old French he had learned as a teenager, but no reply! So we issued a “Securite” alert to all ships naming the damn culprit.  That “Securite”  is heard by the Coastguard, so it is quite an effective, as well as warranted, warning! How could a sizeable fishing boat be in dense fog, suddenly alter course and increase speed, not be transmitting AIS, and evidently not be watching radar?  Possible answer:  French. Possible adjective: Anglo-Saxon, begins also with F.

We resumed our way and the fog blessedly lifted. 

By cell phone we learned that Audierne did not have room for Adventuress and so we spent a somewhat rolly night at anchor off St Evette.  Next day we arrived at the Odet river, and its literally thousands of boats in the harbours and marinas of St Marine and of Benodet. 

We sailed past these and up the river just two miles, where we anchored safely in a peaceful bucolic landscape, with no one within a mile of us! 

Back down river by dinghy to Sainte Marine: a lovely harbour, here dried out at low tide.

Since then we have explored the South Brittany islands: Groix, Belle Ile, and Houat.  In Groix we were jammed in a sardine raft with 20 other boats.  All quite safe but definitely not to The Admiral’s liking!  Here we are rafted fore and aft on buoys: we were the last sardine in the tin, and acting on instruction from the harbour master, forced our bow between two boats just ten feet apart! By the time we had squeezed our fourteen feet of beam plus fenders into the raft, the whole darn tin was tight as a sardine's whatsit!

Then in Belle Ile we had a unique “Island Packet Minivous” in the Basin a Flot at Le Palais.  We rafted with Paul and Elaine Bragg, “Jennie B” IP380; and with Haakon and Judith Jacobsen,  “Touche” IP380, who were already there waiting for us.  So we had lined up astern the UK flag, the Danish flag, and the US flag, all flying French courtesy flags! A party night followed, with champagne on Touche, and an eye opening Chilly Supper on Jennie B. What fun!

Picture by Elaine Bragg, from the far side of the basin: lined up on Adventuress, L to R: Paul Bragg, JFK, Nancy, Judith and Haakon Jacobsen.

Here are the three Island Packets L to R  Jennie B, Touche, and Adventuress.....

and here is Nancy's selfie, capturing the moment Haakon poured out champagne....."The Widow"!

 We toured Belle Isle by bus, and enjoyed Sauzon, a classic fishing harbour on the NE coast....

...where we had traditional galettes and beer for lunch: and yes, my friends, that is Nancy's triple Belgian 8.5% beer on the right.  Fortunately, JFK was there to help her back on the bus!

The cliffs and rocks of Port Coton may be not so famous as the Needles of the Isle of Wight, but the French have all kinds of stories about throwing the invading English "Roast Beefs" back into La Mer....

and Monet painted this picture....Aigulles de Port Coton....but he was not thrown in!

And here we are anchored in a cleft just 100 yards wide in Port Gulphar: this was a classic Adventuress adventure: on our bus tour we saw this spot from the cliffs above....and next day, there we were!

Monet would have enjoyed our view from our anchorage among the rocks.

Nancy is celebrating our departure from the craggy coast and we did not even scrape a rock!

Next was a superb anchorage on the Eastern end of the island of Houat....

..where we dragged our Caribbean-sized dinghy up the beach. We definitely need a six foot "rubber ducky dinghy" for beaching in Europe!

Mind you, sometimes we need a dinghy with room for provisions...

....which we had found in the little village up the hill....overlooking idyllic bays.

 From Houat we sailed to Presqu' ile Quiberon, where we rode our bikes and admired the scenery.

Best to all,

Nancy and John

PS unlike the last time we prematurely blogged that we had no air in our diesel, this time we really don’t have any more air in our diesel! And the engine, and The Admiral, are both purring very happily.