Bloscon to L'aberwrach

Getting used to early starts now, this one was 06:30 as we motored out of the marina we took the opportunity to fill with diesel, although the Coop bank decided to throw a spanner in the works but luckily called me soon after terminating the request for fuel and I was able to get them to reenable the card, they are efficient at this stuff - the problem being that the unmanned fuel kiosks always take a payment for the max volume allowed and then if one uses less it gets credited. This does make the bank jump when they see a fuel bill for €350 and they smell a rat. Anyway the slight delay allowed the ferry to arrive and we were easily released from the marina. It was a good morning with a high tide departure to travel inside the Isle de Batz before turning further west. This also save about 3 miles as well

Batz channel

We followed a Russina yacht in and were surprised when he stopped right in front of us. We motored gingerly past wondering whether he had somehow grounded, however it appeared that he wanted to play follow my leader and once we were passed he followed us out turn for turn. The channel is easily navigable and will marked with a spectacular causeway leading to the launching ramp for the fisherman which looks to be at least a third of a mile long and wide enough for one vehicle. How on earth the French determine whether to launch or recover is anyone's guess and I bet there is some fun mid summer. So out into a pretty windless sea and a gentle turn onto a Westerly course with L'aberwrach about 35 miles away we motored along the coast which after Roscoff is not so picturesque. After an hour or so it became even less pretty as visibility dropped to 200m and then down to 100m or less. This is where the toys really earn their money. Having put the chart plotter in the cockpit allows the helmsman to keep a look out using eyes, ears and radar with AIS. The chart plotter can track targets and sounds an alarm when any vessel visible approaches within a defined distance or time.

Heads up

The digital radar was able to see reflections for targets as small as fishing floats and where a vessel had AIS it was able to use both radar and AIS to superimpose the radar blob with an AIS target and warn of the closest point of approach CPA and time. Sounds ideal don't it? Unfortunately if an hypothetical vessel were to be a French yacht without radar, without AIS and in this case without lights or fog sound signals it could sneak up unseen. As one did passing close down our port side. I am not sure who had the biggest look of surprise me or them. It goes to show that stupidity will always beat preparation hands down. Either way as fas as they appeared, they disappeared astern and I thanked my guardian angel for her good will. There was not even the faintest blip on radar for a 35 foot yacht. Be warned. The next challenge was to make the entrance of the channel at L'aberwrach without going to far and without planting the boat on any of the many rocks which would be daunting in good vis. This required some careful pilotage with waypoints, the use of the autopilot to track minimising XTE or cross track error and relying on it to keep as out of trouble whilst eyes were peeled to avoid French fishing boats of all sizes. In addition much use was made of the fog horn just in case. Our sounds were all we ever heard!

A Safer approach to port

The echo sounder was also used to make sure that were where we thought we were and traces of target reflectors ahead of us were carefully tracked to determine whether they were coming at us or moving away. Who says boys can't do more than one thing at once? Approaching point 5 on the waypoint list the fog lifted to reveal a sunny day and a rocky terrain with a number of sailing school boats out having fun.it was a good thing I did not anticipate that as I would probably have run away.  It was easy to follow the channel and not hard to observe that the French had moored a large customs cutter slap bang in the middle of the channel. End to end it seemed to leave about a boat width to squeez past, hey ho after all we had been through this ain't no thing! Seascape was able to be moored up inside the breakwater in line with all of the advice researched. The alternative to moor on the channel side had been commented as most uncomfortable by all authors. As we arrived the Douaniers were climbing all over a French boat alongside us, they politely stopped and picked up our lines. When I asked if they wanted to come on board they politely demurred. It was interesting to see that of the entire crew, few actually knew how to tie a line around a cleat , the French customs seem not to worry much about boat handling. Perhaps they rotate people in and out of the office, nice job!   Shopping in L'aberwrach is limited so the local bus took a tour up to Lannalis The neighbouring village which was only 3 or so km, but UP the hill and so the bus seemed like a better idea than walking. Having taken the easy and pretty route, it was only a few minutes until the bus driver notified the bus customers (3/4 of us) of our arrival. We walked on into the centre of town which took about eight seconds to find the Spar which was located in a small space two garages wide! Well they at least had bread, cheese and ham so not all bad, 12 minutes after it was time to mooch at the bus stop waiting for the bus back. Pretty but small Brittany.