West more West

Leaving hell

Up early for departure at 06:10 from Lezardrieux before the dawn which in August is getting ever later. A quiet departure from the river and out to the channel with a target of getting to Trebeurden approx 30 miles West.

 The journey down the river in the near dark was somewhat anxious as the marks were sometimes lit but the moored boats were somewhat less obvious. Anyway the coffee was hot and breakfast of croissants with cheese and ham were warming so it could not get much better! Leaving Brehat the sun rose behind us and the see looked like flowing lava in our wake . It looked a little hellish but rather spectacular.

Molten lava

              The sun rose into a rather lovely sunny day, albeit with little wind and so we motor sailed towards Sept Isles passing the point at which we had turned back earlier in the week and making much better progress. The tide was now ebbing and we were making a good 7k in the right direction and we were sailing now which was lovely in a SSW 3/4 almost on the nose but just freed enough to be enjoyable.

 At 09:30 the log was update to read N of Sept Isles and at that point it was decided that Morlaix would be a stretch destination and save a day.

14:30 the tide was still pushing us along but would soon change so we tacked inshore to try and make the most of any back eddy. Sure enough as we headed inshore the tide started running East again and we had to punch it into the Morlaix estuary heading for Roscoff/Port Bloscon Marina. The visibility was closing in with some rain and so it was handy to watch the Plymouth ferry in order to eyeball the entrance to the marina which is where the ferry port has now moved to. In fact the ferry moors in the outer harbour which is closed for arrivals and departures. As we entered the marina the tide was rushing through it and we had to turn the boat to stem it and wait for the rush of boats to ease up and the young HM to point us to a mooring which he did in a positive but not always helpful way when asked which side to put the fenders on, he replied "as you please". It was now raining quite hard as we manoeuvred into the finger pontoon which was slippery, narrow and did not have a cleat on the end.

Since this is a new Marina it would be nice if the fashion for hoops on the end of pontoons was declined in favour of a good old Walcon cleat to chuck a line around. Hoops are the devil to use when single handing and not much easier when crewed.

50 miles sailing and only 3 hrs under engine. It was now 16:30 and Roscoff was being entertained by a weekend of fetes and so it was a quick change and a wait at the bus stop by the marina for a scheduled bus.

Unfortunately the awaited bus never came and luckily the rain did stop so it was a twenty minute walk into town to see what was left. By the time the quay came into view it was clear that most of the crowds were departing and hemming in the bus which was still trying to escape and the stands were being dismantled so it was off to a very nice wine bar on the front for a well earned glass of red wine and a bit of people watching. Notably the local speciality being a middle aged guy who imagined himself as a bit of a Johnny Depp character and made free with chatting up any female in range by standing in their way, a technique which was refined but not effective as it was obvious that ladies heading for a cigarette would bypass him forcibly on the way outside. Johnny needs some work on his technique je crois!