14th – 18th July – Holed Up in Concarneau (and lovin it)

Posted at 12:16 PM, Saturday, July 18, 2009

We left Cameret mid morning Tuesday heading south west to round the Raz (pronounced Raaaaz) de Sein and formally enter Southern Brittany.  Above this point it is still seen locally as North.  The Raz has a marginally worse reputation than the Chanel de Four as an important tidal ‘gate’, but the winds that Tuesday had eased to 15 knots, so we banked that the advantages of going with a south flowing tide would outweigh any bumpy seas we might see as a result of the opposing lightly blowing wind.

We thought we’d avoided any issues as we first cleared the cape, having motored the whole way directly into a south westerly wind to the Raz.  We'd just passed it’s formidable lighthouses on the headland and come inside the offlying smaller lights and reefs, hoisted sails - and hit the rough stuff. 

It was like sailing across the top of a washing machine and could have been scary except for the fact we enjoyed getting whooshed along at 10 knots or more by the combo of wind and tidal current.

The bumpy stuff only lasted for thirty minutes or so and then it all flattened out, and we spent a relaxing afternoon slipping the 25 miles across the wide Bay of Audierne in glorious sun making around 7 - 8 knots over the ground.  We sailed along an obviously well favoured track frequented by other yachts sowe had to constantly avoid those approaching, and trim hard to overtake those going our way.  Good sail.

Even enjoyed the company of Porpoises who came to welcome us into Southern Brittany.  Sue went forward to say thank you and have a needed chit chat.

Took a few hours to cross this bay and arrive at the even more impressive D’Eckmuhl lighthouse on Point de Penmarche, where we then turned east on this rounding mark and onward towards the river Odet and Benodet.  You can get a flavour of the extensive rocky reefs running out and how the seas build on them from this picture of that rounding mark.

For sure they certainly build substantial cardinal marks on the important corners around here so you'd need to be a real numpty to hit one.

Here is  a shot of the river entrance to the Odet (actually this was taken as we left next day) - but you can see the suspension bridge in the background and the crowd of boats parked up between the two river banks.

The river separates the pretty village of St Clare on the west bank.............

And the more sophisticated resort town of Benodet on the eastern shore..............

There are marinas on both sides but a majority of sailors obviously choose to do what we did, and pick up a river mooring instead.  Slightly cheaper.    Even free if the young guys taking the dosh don;t bother to visit.

To get a mooring with space enough for us meant going under the 30 metre high suspension bridge.  Damn but it looks lower the closer you get.  And with a rig somewhere close to 25 metres I had to ignore Sues cries that we were going to hit it - close our eyes - and motor under.

Once we'd settled into the peaceful location we dropped the dinghy in to burble back to the Benodet side and choose one of the seafood places for a superb meal.  Lots of people wandered the streets in the long twilight enjoyed this time of year.

Once we got back on board it was almost dark and we blasted the empty river around us with classical music as we contemplated life and the night sky with a final bottle of red ned.

Next day we sailed back out and further east for 15 miles to Concarneau, yet another charming S Brittany fishing port - but this time with a castellated old town and a small marina with space right alongside. 

As we slid into the harbour mouth our phone went off and it was only as we rounded into the marina itself did we see the Sparkes family and their yacht Sunboy already moored up alongside.  They'd been there for some 10 days already.  After Al took our lines and we’d had a team cuddle he explained he was just about to call and ask where we were when he saw us come round the corner.  Spooky eh?

Anyway.  Weather since has been middling to crap.  Higher than averaged winds have seen loads of boats racing for shelter so it was good we came in here when we did.  If you have to seek enjoyment ashore, Concarneau is as good as it gets.

As the winds were piping up to a max of 34 knots the marina staff just kept jamming new arrivals in, and we ended up with a log jam of boats all seeming to huddle together for shelter.  Quite a lot of shouting as well as banging and barging as each new one arrived, but lots of smiles shared also.

With these gusty strong winds our fenders are fully deployed (and resembling pancakes - almost flat) holding our paintwork off the jetty.

One of the yachts that rafted on us was a Hanse 43 ‘Harry’, sailed down from the Solent by Sue and Peter.  So that first night we had a bit of a Hanse convention with drinkies on Swagman for those guys, joined by Al, Debs, Nikki, boyfriend Luke, and young Layni Sparkes also.

Great bunch of people.  A super nice night.

Spend yesterday still harbour bound by bad winds but with sunnier weather, so used the time to do a few boat chores whilst Sue hit the local weekly market. Lots of chatter with Al catching up on where they'd been as he and Nikki helped polish up Swagman to something resembling her former glory.  She does look so goooood today.

This morning the weather looked promising early on as Al and I went exploring for a TV bar, and lots of boats had fixed schedules so we helped them entangle themselves to get away.  But now its early arvo, grey clouds have come back over and it is pouring with rain.  Hence my time doing this lengthy update.

Al and I need the TV bar for later as the Wallabies are playing the All Blacks today.  We heard of one this morning that will definately be showing a replay of the game (and I’ve got eyes and ears blocked so as to NOT learn the score before we watch it) at 3 pm this arvo. 

With the rain pouring down simply cannot think of a nicer way to spend a Saturday with a pal sharing a few beers.   

C’mon Ozzie, c’mon.

Cheers

Sue and John