L'aberwrach and South

Reading pilot guides and magazines is great prep, but it can fill one with great trepidation The Chanel de Four and the Raz du Sein are two such places that strike fear into grown men, there be dragons here! Renowned for the challenging conditions in strong winds and with tide running against the wind, has generated a fortune in lighthouse photographs

Chenal de four

 Of course one might be terrified of the Needles and the Alderney Race likewise. Yet we transit those places many times with planning, care and preparation so that is exactly how I treated these dragons. The time of departure from L'aberwrach was set for 05:30 which allowed us to approach the Chenal de Four just as the ebb was commencing . As we left the river we were able to see the true landscape in good visibility and it brought home the pressure that we would have felt had we but known a couple of days before. Sometimes relative innocence is bliss! The weather was again sunny and with little wind so fog was always a worry, particularly now we were inducted in the oceanic tradition of this coastline. As we worked our way westwards we were aware of the increasing rhythm of the Atlantic Ocean as the swell took over from the channel chop. By my estimation the swell has a wavelength of about 12 seconds. It was a very different sensation even on a still day to be riding up and down the "houle de mer" translated as sea swell. This is the wave action that is generated over thousands of miles of fetch, born out in the Western Atlantic that has almost completed its journey to impact the coastlines of Europe or perhaps to continue all the way up the English channel to merge with the channel chop. Rounding towards Ouessant in the sunshine we were able to stay relatively close to the mainland coast and watch the few small inhabited places on the Western most part of France. We could clearly see the island of Ouessant in the good visibility as we jumped on the South going travelator to the sunshine. It was pleasant enough to to leave the autopilot on and sit on the foredeck to watch the world go by as we almost effortlessly were squeezed like toothpaste further south. It was not long before we were able to see the Rade de Brest appearing which would have been a delight to explore but now we're in the outside lane of the motorway we were not going to pull over.

Chenal de Four

In fact we were so much in the outside lane that we were approaching th islands on the western side of the channel and had to be careful not to get shoved down on to their drying rocks off the lie de Beniguet which could easily have spoilt our weekend! Soon were were through the Chenal and looking towards the Raz as our next major waypoint as we passed Morgat and the Bay de Douarnenz to our East. The weather was still holding bright with only a gentle North Easterly developing and so we continued motor sailing in the Sun. A couple of hours later we were knocking on the door of the Pointe de Raz and all was looking rosy, however it seems that we had made rather too slowly on our progress and the tide was at this point flooding North and was starting to slow us down. What started as a slight irritation, quickly became a big deal as we increased engine revs to punch ourselves South against the tide which was by the minute increasing in strength. At this point an option would have been to tuck into Douarnenez and wait out the next tide but we could not afford to lose another 6 hours and so we forever our way through the wind was now south easterly and with full sail and max revs we eventually crept to the south of the Raz until a point where we could cut back in to the bay of Audierne and hug the coast line which we did by tacking in once we felt we had enough clearance my to get sucked backwards into the Raz. at 12:00 After avoiding by the skin of our tooth the suction of the Raz we leebowed the tide on starboard tack up the Bay of Audierne with a hope that we would be lifted around the bay. The autopilot was set to follow the wind angle and each time we got a lift of 10 degrees or so we got a warning to reset the pilot. This worked for about three hours and then the wind dropped and so it was back to the engine to keep up the pace. At 16:30 we were off the Pointe de Penmarch, having worked relentlessly to the South against the adverse tide and looked forward to making around the Pointe in order to make for Benodet or Glenans if the weather forecast supported it. Unfortunately the Meteo from all directions pointed towards a level of Swell which would make it less comfortable so we bore off in a weakening wind towards Benodet which was fetched at 19:50. As the Capitainerie was shut we fetched up on a mooring buoy off the office for the night, it was found out next morning that the buoy was not managed by Benodet Marina and so we moved onto the pontoon and since we could not find a recipient for the mooring fee it went into the boisonnerie (drinks fund).

Bridge at Benodet

Benodet is an enjoyable place to have a sojourn and the town is a short walk along the sea front with a very pleasant beach. Across the river is Sainte Marine which is a picture book village and has a ferry which runs back and forth to Benodet. Not much to do there and the walk around town takes approx 15 minutes and then I caught the ferry back and exchanged photos with my daughter in Melbourne via FaceTime. How the twenty first century works!

St Marine

The Port

Proving to my daughter I was in France