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.