Tuesday 31 May 2016

Holiday in Camaret and Second Thoughts?

After 2 very windy days in L'Aber Wrac'h (I now know that Aber is Breton for estuary by the way) we set off with virtually no wind(!) for Camaret at 0700 on Thursday 26th May.

Now Cyclone is a sailing boat and with the best will in the world her engine, at just 18 hp, is not about to get her up on the plane! A compromised heat exchanger limits this power still further, as anything over about 1800 rpm and the engine starts to get too hot. Add to that the fact that Cyclone has a dirty bottom (her anti-foul has kept her clean for 2 full years previously, but not this time…..) and we can’t top 5 knots under motor alone, even in calm water. So the 39 miles to Camaret, even with some assistance from the tide, took us over 7 hours.

To get to Camaret, which is “around the corner” on the west coast of Brittany, you have to pass through the fearsome (well, it can be!) Chenal du Four. With no wind, the Chenal was a pussy cat – see photos – but it’s really not the place to be in bad weather. The Raz de Sein, which we’ll pass through next, is worse still. Reeds almanac suggests passing through it at slack water “to ensure the least uncomfortable conditions” and emphasises that the channel must not be used when the wind is blowing strongly against the tide; this causes steep breaking waves and overfalls. We’ll go when it’s calm then!

Leaving L'Aber Wrac'h marina. Look, the sun's already up!

Er... Castle with face near marina

Light on Il'e Vrac'h (I think)

Le Four

The Chenal du Four - rough, huh?

From Spain?

Pointe de Saint Mathieu

Les Vieux Moines

Camaret charges 25 euros per night for a boat of our size in May but, if you stay for a week, they reduce this to 16.90 euros. As we’re on a budget and felt that we’d covered a reasonable distance in the last couple of weeks, we decided to give ourselves a holiday and stay for the week. It’s a nice town, we’re on a finger berth with an expansive view out the back, and there’s good cliff walking on the doorstep - so why not?

Camaret waterfront

An "arty" photo from Jo

Cyclone in the middle. Fort Vauban and the Chapelle de Notre-Dame-de-Rocamadour in background

View over the harbour

"Arty" shot from Rob. Part of the fishing boat cemetery, illustrating the decline of the industry here

Chapelle de Notre-Dame-de-Rocamadour. They claim the English shot the top off

Fort Vauban. You see more of his work in France than Lalique's on the Antiques Roadshow!

Jo was given this by the cashier as a reward for spending loads in the Super U!

Camaret harbour from the cliff walk

More cliff walk scenery. It was over 9 miles you know!

Pointe du Toulinguet

Plage de Pen Hat

Smiley frog rock!

La roche du Lion

Ruins of the Coecilian Manor - occupied by the Germans and destroyed by the British

Why, do you suppose, did she want me to stand here?

Alignements de Lagatjar. 2 centuries ago there were 600 stones! Now "just" 65

Memorial International de la Bataille de L'Atlantique

More scenery

Memorial to the Bretons who died in WW2

La Pointe de Pen Hir

La Plage du Veryac'h

Weather permitting we intend to head for Loctudy on 2nd June – a distance of 55 miles, so a bit of wind would be nice (not too much though…)!

So what’s the “second thoughts” in the title about then?

Our plan is, or was, to head south down the coast of France and leave the boat somewhere there for the winter – maybe at La Rochelle or Royan. However, whilst baking in the heat “up north” here in Camaret, we've started to wonder if that is really for us. I know those of you (Jim, Del to name but 2!) who love roasting in the sun will find this hard to understand, but we really don’t cope that well with the heat. We might find the Atlantic coast of France just about tolerable, but where then? Everywhere south of there (within reason) is just going to get hotter and hotter. And if we should continue to the Mediterranean, there’s the prohibitive cost of marina berths to consider. A neighbour here told me that their friend has had to fork out over 80 euros for a single night in a 33 foot boat!

Storing the boat in France over the winter would probably be cheaper than back home, but the cost of flights and ferries may negate any savings and could even make it more expensive overall. I’m also bound to worry about Cyclone while she’s so far from home!

And then there’s the fact that we enjoyed the Baltic so much last year. There’s a lot that we never got to explore; it’s cooler and it’s cheaper too!

For now we've decided to keep our options open and cruise along the south coast of Brittany. It is beautiful here after all. Then we’ll have to decide whether to head south or return home with Cyclone. Time will tell, but I think there’s a good chance that it may be the latter...

Advice/opinions welcome!

Thanks for reading.

Wednesday 25 May 2016

Treguier, Trebeurden and L'Aber Wrac'h

Treguier was an interesting place with a well preserved old town, impressive cathedral and some scenic walks. We enjoyed walking around the town and a local stroll to the river, but I’d have to concede that the walk we chose to do using information obtained from the Tourist Office was less successful. The walk itself was fine. It’s just that I hadn't taken into account how far we’d have to walk to the start of it and back from where it finished. It wouldn't have been a problem if they’d built some more bridges across the rivers but, well, they hadn't – and so our 3 mile walk turned into 11 miles! Good for the thighs Jo (and the stomach Rob!).

Treguier street

Treguier Cathedral. Note holes in spire

Renan's house to the right of picture

That's Renan above. He had controversial views on Christianity and upset the Catholics...

... who erected this after being miffed by Renan's statue being put next to their Cathedral!

Treguier's marina

Pouldoran - you can't go any further up river than this!

Lots of the walk was like this. Old cart tracks?

Mud, mud, glorious mud!

We stayed a day or so longer than intended because of the wind – too strong and from the wrong direction as usual. Then we set off (at dawn obviously) for Trebeurden, just over 30 miles to the west.

Le Sept Iles - or some of them - en route to Trebeurden

I may have mentioned that there are a lot of rocks around here and the approach to Trebeurden is no exception. They’re all well charted though and make for attractive scenery.

Is it me, or is that Fred Flintstone's Sunseeker (motor boat)

Trebeurden has better access than many marinas in this area but we still had to wait an hour or so on one of their buoys before there was sufficient water to enter. We chose to moor at the end of the pontoon nearest to the entrance gate which had its pluses and minuses. On the plus side, we had space all around us and something to watch from the orangery as the boats came and went from the marina. On the minus side, we had the wash from the boats entering and leaving the marina and the roar of the water cresting the sill just prior to the underwater gate opening. This was truly spectacular, waking me from a deep sleep (each night!) and squeezing Cyclone’s fenders hard against the pontoon. After 20 minutes it was all over!


Entrance to Trebeurden marina. Spot the turbulence as the water crests the underwater gate

Turbulence by Cyclone. "Tide" reached 2.5 knots!

Whirlpool by Cyclone. Art?!!

The town of Trebeurden is nothing special but the scenery is really beautiful. We went walking a couple of times using the guides provided by the Tourist Office (with rather more success this time…). We enjoyed a 5 mile megalithe walk – there are lots around these parts, but then there are plenty of big rocks to stand up if you have the inclination. We also strolled (and climbed / scrambled over rocks; Jo wasn't so keen on that bit, especially after falling over and getting her clean jeans grubby!) a fair way along the beaches and up hills for decent views.

That's no lady.... (better add, that's my wife!)

Oy!

Lots of uphill. Looking down at the marina in the distance

An ancient relic (the megalithe)
Ancient burial site

One of Trebeurden's many beaches / harbours

More views around Trebeurden...

... and more...

The marina entrance at low water

Trebeurden marina

Father Trebeurden

Another Trebeurden beach

Snake!! It was massive Ashley.....

And yet another view of Trebeurden

Feeling it was time to move on again, we left for L'Aber Wrac'h on 24th May (have a guess what time of day it was when we left!)..

Time for a rant, methinks. Just when we've left all the place names with hyphens behind, they've started putting apostrophes in them! Why for heaven’s sake? If there should be a letter there, then put it there. If not, leave it out. How do you pronounce an apostrophe in any case? Completely pointless…… And not only that, sometimes it’s spelled L'Aber Vrac'h. Make your minds up! Rant over.

L'Aber Wrac'h (or Vrac'h) is 50 miles west from Trebeurden and our trip went from motorsailing with gentle assistance from the wind, through motorsailing with quite a bit of assistance from the wind, to sailing at a fair old speed to thinking “Oh my word, I'm not looking forward to parking the boat with a force 6 crosswind"! I expected L’Aber Wrac’h to be well sheltered from the north and east but, as I type this with the wind whistling once again around the marina, I can confirm that the wind finds its way through admirably. At least there’s not much in the way of waves…

There’s not a lot of man-made stuff here – the nearest shop is a mile up the hill – but the scenery is once again breathtaking. Unfortunately the photos don’t do it justice, but if you like natural beauty and are wondering where to go for your summer holiday (Gerry?), the north coast of Brittany has much to recommend it.

Rocks to seaward en route to L'Aber Wrac'h

Navigation marks on approach to L'Aber Wrac'h

View of L'Aber Wrac'h

And again. The photos don't do the place justice

L'Aber Wrac'h oyster beds?

L'Aber Wrac'h marina

Weather permitting we’ll head around the corner to Camaret tomorrow. This is something of a landmark as it’s beyond Brest, which meant I had to extend the cruising area of my insurance policy!

This brought some good news though. Our insurers, GJW, advised me that they've changed their policy on 'out of the water' yacht surveys (a potentially expensive requirement to fulfil). Their old one meant that we’d need to have one done this coming October. Their new policy means we’re OK until 2020 which will save us hassle as well as several hundred pounds. Result!!

Thanks for reading.