Keeping a close look-out...fog horn at the ready
We left L’aber-Wrach for today’s journey to Camaret-sur-mer. The sea-fog got worse and for the first three hours we reckon we could only actually see for about one quarter of a mile. It’s a weird feeling, having your own space out there but knowing there are other boats nearby that you cannot see. We were heading for the Chenal-de-four, it’s a race where the tide rushes through, like the Alderney race, and so you have to time it right to get the tide going your way. By about 2pm we reached the start of the Chenal-de-four and the fog suddenly lifted. Good job really as there were two military ships coming the other way….and they weren’t transmitting a signal!
Dean was fed up as the wind was North and we were sailing South, so the sail set up we had (main and genoa) wasn’t the best. Infact, he was in a right mood! Poor Linda couldn’t do anything right, but she stood her ground I have to say. Is this the first sailing tiff?? The only person having fun was Saffé Dog, and she was having a great time snoozing as we rode the North Westerly swell.
On reaching the Rade de Brest we took a left hand turn across the massive bay. The weirdly furled genoa came out again and we picked up speed, only for it to drop to nothing after about 30 minutes. We ended up motoring to Camaret and took a place in the marina. It’s only a small place but there was plenty of room. Dean did a perfect berthing manoeuvre so we are pleased with ourselves tonight. Also, we opened a bottle of rose to drink with our evening meal sitting outside in the lovely sunshine. What a day…fog, sun, wind, no wind, moody Dean, unmoody Dean!
Saffy loves her deck walk-about
On the look-out for canine friends
Saffy solar dog
We’ve booked in for one night, but may stay longer, or even investigate what the Rade de Brest has to offer.
Tuesday 22nd May… Gorgeous sunny warm day today and we spent the morning on the boat. We usually use the marina showers but today Linda decided to shower on Thesee because it was so warm. Meanwhile Dean stitched up a small tear on the genoa that happened yesterday when it got caught on the burgee halyard cleat. Next thing was Linda caught him on the neighbour’s boat winching the guy up the mast! Always lending a hand where needed is Dean.
A stitch in time saves nine, they say ...
It was walkabout day and we headed up onto the headland where we were treated to wonderful views across the Rade de Brest. The sea was crystal clear. As we left the marina we passed an old ships graveyard which seems to have become a lure for photographers. Also we passed some megaliths, well we think that’s what they’re called. See the photos below…
Linda posing with the megaliths
Here's a closer look
Dean's more interested in the ship graveyard
This photo could be a competition winner i reckon
What a beautiful day
A rambler's paradise up here
Massive pine cones on the trees
A lovely day for messing about on the water
France's own Durdle Door??
Then we descended into the town through some of the back streets. We came across a street displaying artwork and this was on the wall.
Let's hope he's correcting the corrections correctly
Wednesday 23rd May… HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY ISAAC xxx Toast for breakfast for a change, and we’ve started on the little jam and marmalade portions that Claire & Matt bought us for Christmas. It was a beautiful morning and we both took Saffy for her early walk, and took lots more photos before leaving. We called Isaac to wish him a Happy Birthday and to hear all about his presents. We’ve decided to spend a couple more days having a sail about in the bay as there are lots of anchorages and also two marinas in Brest itself.
What a great idea for a Christmas present
Tour (Tower) Vauban at the marina....note the moat
La Chapelle Notre Dame de Rocamadour
Fossils and Megaliths
Another unusual church spire....this one has a seagull too !
Looking across to the town of Camaret-sur-Mer
This time fossils and a very old boat lift
We sailed Northwards from Camaret and about 20 minutes later we had the shock of our lives as we spotted a SUBMARINE going past in the distance. It was hazy and the camera doesn’t like focusing long distance for some reason so we couldn’t get a good photo. Well that’s definitely a first for us… and no, it wasn’t transmitting an AIS signal of course.
The sailing was great and we only had to tack three times to get around the headland and head south east to the bay known as Anse de L’Auberlach, where we have now anchored for the night. Dean tried a bit of fishing as we were sailing and also when we got here but still no luck for Saffy’s dinner. We spotted there was a pub ashore and so the dinghy came out and all three of us had a short walk and a cider at Le Tapecal … no Saffy didn’t have a cider.
We'll catch one soon i'm sure
Cider sampling at the pub in Anse de L'Auberlach
...where Dean and Saffy found their doubles
It's a nice little pub but there's not many visitors today
We think we may head off to another anchorage tomorrow, south of Camaret ready for our passage through the Raz de Sein. The forecast for the weekend doesn’t look too good so plans may change, but we’ll see what tomorrow brings.
Thursday 24th May… You could say there’s never a dull day here on Thesee. A very peaceful night at the anchorage and we all slept well. Normally at anchor there’s a dull clunking noise about every 30 minutes when the anchor rope slides about 2 cms across the bow roller. It’s a horrible noise and keeps you awake. BUT, now Dean seems to have fixed it by putting a roll of tubing around the line. Anyway there was no clunking going on in the night.
The morning was a bit dull and chilly. Our ETD wasn’t until midday and so we kept ourselves busy with cleaning and making the new anchor snubber. It’s funny, when you are going into an anchorage or river, all you are doing is looking for where you can anchor, but when you leave you get time to see the lovely sights around you.
Today we’ve decided to move on out of the Rade de Brest and head to another anchorage in a bay just on the south side of Camaret headland. This anchorage is called Anse de Pen-Hir. Anyway, we were sailing along just outside Brest itself and we decided to put the Cruising Chute up. No soon as we put it up the wind disappeared and it was just kind of hanging there. We almost had it going when a boat approached us… it was the Gendarmerie! We thought we had heard Thesee’s name on the VHF radio but we didn’t understand as they were talking French (obviously). As they neared us we were a bit puzzled and were just expecting them to ask for Passports or Ship’s Papers….. but no, they were so very polite and in perfect English requested we ‘move out of the way’ as there was a very large SUBMARINE approaching and it was underwater… YIKES and DOUBLE YIKES. Then we noticed the three vessels coming our way were actually the French Navy and they must have been in front of the sub. No sooner said than done Dean had the Cruising Chute down like a flash, the engine went on and you could say we put our foot down and got the hell out of there. It was such a freaky feeling knowing the sub was there but not seeing anything of it. Dean kept looking through the binoculars to see if he could see a periscope. Think you’ve been watching too many man films Dean. So when all the action was over we reminisced about when Dean had to call up Warship Skud in Falmouth a few years back.
We headed out across the bay, having another attempt at flying the chute but the wind is so fluky here, it’s like someone just switches it off when you’re going along just fine. We ended up motoring with just the mainsail up, taking an inshore shortcut through the Passage de Toulinguet and then through another narrow passage at Les Tas de Pois (which translates as Pea Heaps). It was quite spectacular and Dean breathed a sigh of relief once we were through, even though both passages were clearly marked on the charts and chartplotter. So it was less than a mile into the anchorage at Anse de Pen-Hir. We’ve come to this place because it saves about 3 hours on a journey through the Raz de Sein (which we are planning to do tomorrow).
We took Saffy ashore at slack water early this evening. There’s a beautiful beach and as we approached and Dean went to get out of the dinghy, a small wave came in and soaked all three of us. Saffy got a wet head and we got very wet bums and legs, but we went on to have a super walk along the beach and a laugh about it all. In the dinghy on the way back to the boat we saw a seal just in front of us.
What a day it’s been, starting with ‘Close Encounters of the Submarine Kind’ and ending up at 27 degrees paddling on the beach. There’s another 2 boats joined us in the anchorage tonight so we’re not all alone out here which is kind of nice.
Friday 25th May… A bit uneasy last night as the anchor alarm went off at midnight, but it was only because we had swung around. By morning we had had a fair amount of sleep as the conditions calmed as they always seem to during the night. We took another trip ashore this morning with Saffy, and I’m afraid to say that she got the brunt of the wash today, with Linda coming second. The beach however was pristine. Saffy was having a brilliant runabout, leaping the small channels of water heading towards the sea. There were a lot of rock pools with water so clear it looked like it had come out of the tap. Unfortunately Saffy didn’t spot some of them and she went splosh a couple of time whilst jumping off rocks, and even just running along. She was so funny.
At midday we raised the anchor and departed for our trip through the Raz de Sein to Sainte Evette. The journey went pretty well and we had some wind, reaching the Raz at around slack water. The conditions were calm but there was still a lot of uncomfortable swell rolling in. In the end we took the genoa down and motored through it for about 30 minutes. After you pass the lighthouse it all calms down and from there we sailed into Sainte Evette (near Audierne).
We’re now sitting happily on a buoy and think we will stay for at least 2 nights maybe 3 as the weather isn’t looking great for the weekend, and also we can have a rest from passage planning and check out the local area. We are now in South Brittany… or North Biscay you could say. This is the last blog post from the Races. Thank you to all Thesee Followers for your emails and blog comments, we really appreciate hearing from you. The next blog post will be called South Brittany.
Thursday 24th May… You could say there’s never a dull day here on Thesee. A very peaceful night at the anchorage and we all slept well. Normally at anchor there’s a dull clunking noise about every 30 minutes when the anchor rope slides about 2 cms across the bow roller. It’s a horrible noise and keeps you awake. BUT, now Dean seems to have fixed it by putting a roll of tubing around the line. Anyway there was no clunking going on in the night.
The morning was a bit dull and chilly. Our ETD wasn’t until midday and so we kept ourselves busy with cleaning and making the new anchor snubber. It’s funny, when you are going into an anchorage or river, all you are doing is looking for where you can anchor, but when you leave you get time to see the lovely sights around you.
Spectacular homes along the bay
Today we’ve decided to move on out of the Rade de Brest and head to another anchorage in a bay just on the south side of Camaret headland. This anchorage is called Anse de Pen-Hir. Anyway, we were sailing along just outside Brest itself and we decided to put the Cruising Chute up. No soon as we put it up the wind disappeared and it was just kind of hanging there. We almost had it going when a boat approached us… it was the Gendarmerie! We thought we had heard Thesee’s name on the VHF radio but we didn’t understand as they were talking French (obviously). As they neared us we were a bit puzzled and were just expecting them to ask for Passports or Ship’s Papers….. but no, they were so very polite and in perfect English requested we ‘move out of the way’ as there was a very large SUBMARINE approaching and it was underwater… YIKES and DOUBLE YIKES. Then we noticed the three vessels coming our way were actually the French Navy and they must have been in front of the sub. No sooner said than done Dean had the Cruising Chute down like a flash, the engine went on and you could say we put our foot down and got the hell out of there. It was such a freaky feeling knowing the sub was there but not seeing anything of it. Dean kept looking through the binoculars to see if he could see a periscope. Think you’ve been watching too many man films Dean. So when all the action was over we reminisced about when Dean had to call up Warship Skud in Falmouth a few years back.
See the bridge between the rocks
Fantastic rock formations
We headed out across the bay, having another attempt at flying the chute but the wind is so fluky here, it’s like someone just switches it off when you’re going along just fine. We ended up motoring with just the mainsail up, taking an inshore shortcut through the Passage de Toulinguet and then through another narrow passage at Les Tas de Pois (which translates as Pea Heaps). It was quite spectacular and Dean breathed a sigh of relief once we were through, even though both passages were clearly marked on the charts and chartplotter. So it was less than a mile into the anchorage at Anse de Pen-Hir. We’ve come to this place because it saves about 3 hours on a journey through the Raz de Sein (which we are planning to do tomorrow).
Here's some of Les Tas de Pois - there's five rocks in all
We took Saffy ashore at slack water early this evening. There’s a beautiful beach and as we approached and Dean went to get out of the dinghy, a small wave came in and soaked all three of us. Saffy got a wet head and we got very wet bums and legs, but we went on to have a super walk along the beach and a laugh about it all. In the dinghy on the way back to the boat we saw a seal just in front of us.
What a day it’s been, starting with ‘Close Encounters of the Submarine Kind’ and ending up at 27 degrees paddling on the beach. There’s another 2 boats joined us in the anchorage tonight so we’re not all alone out here which is kind of nice.
Friday 25th May… A bit uneasy last night as the anchor alarm went off at midnight, but it was only because we had swung around. By morning we had had a fair amount of sleep as the conditions calmed as they always seem to during the night. We took another trip ashore this morning with Saffy, and I’m afraid to say that she got the brunt of the wash today, with Linda coming second. The beach however was pristine. Saffy was having a brilliant runabout, leaping the small channels of water heading towards the sea. There were a lot of rock pools with water so clear it looked like it had come out of the tap. Unfortunately Saffy didn’t spot some of them and she went splosh a couple of time whilst jumping off rocks, and even just running along. She was so funny.
Thesee photo from the beach
Dean checking out the molluscs
Seagulls enjoying the beach.... like us
Thesee sitting comfortably this morning in the bay
One of Saffy's splosh pools
... and here's Linda barefoot on the beautiful beach
Saffy after her rockpool episodes
At midday we raised the anchor and departed for our trip through the Raz de Sein to Sainte Evette. The journey went pretty well and we had some wind, reaching the Raz at around slack water. The conditions were calm but there was still a lot of uncomfortable swell rolling in. In the end we took the genoa down and motored through it for about 30 minutes. After you pass the lighthouse it all calms down and from there we sailed into Sainte Evette (near Audierne).
La Vielle lighthouse at the junction of the Raz de Sein
We’re now sitting happily on a buoy and think we will stay for at least 2 nights maybe 3 as the weather isn’t looking great for the weekend, and also we can have a rest from passage planning and check out the local area. We are now in South Brittany… or North Biscay you could say. This is the last blog post from the Races. Thank you to all Thesee Followers for your emails and blog comments, we really appreciate hearing from you. The next blog post will be called South Brittany.
You are so funny Linda. Correcting the corrections correctly. You are going to have to teach Dean how to catch fish. That will correct the meat shortage. Sitting on a fresh food aquarium and Dean can’t get his hands on it. You need my help little sister?
ReplyDeleteThe French aren't squeamish with food! Next time you catch a tiddler hook through the dorsal and plop it over the side. Yup they use live bait.
ReplyDelete