Audierne, Rade de Brest, LAber Wrac'h and Roscoff

We left Benodet for Audierne on 17th August as planned.

It turned out to be yet another of those frustrating sails where there was no wind followed by enough to sail (slowly!) and then back to no wind again. We managed to sail about half of it but had to motor the rest. At least we had tide with us pretty much all the way and so our overall time for the 30 odd miles was reasonable. In fact, we arrived at about the earliest time we were able to get into the shallow harbour approaches - according to our almanac, 2 hours before high water - although in practice we saw people arriving and leaving much nearer to low water than that.

Leaving Benodet behind

Why use 1 lighthouse when 4 will do? Pointe de Penmarc'h

Approach to Audierne

Audierne harbour

Audierne harbour from 134 steps up!

The view from Cyclone on our berth

As you can see from the pictures, Audierne's harbour is right in the centre of the town. This is very convenient for sightseeing and shopping - except that the supermarket is quite a long way up a steep hill and there's only a Petit Casino convenience store in town. There's a good laverie (launderette) in easy walking distance - these things are important you know! - several boulangeries and pharmacies (the French are either ill a lot or a bunch of hypochondriacs) and plenty of restaurants and bars that are, regrettably, an irrelevance to the impecunious! Thankfully, unlike some of the town marinas we've stayed in, Audierne is quiet at night too.

Unsurprisingly Audierne is, and always has been, a fishing port. It it also the nearest port to the infamous Raz de Sein and the only decent harbour in the whole of the Baie d'Audierne.

According to the information from the tourist office, the oldest house standing in Audierne dates from the 15th century and, interestingly, is on the only road of old Audierne that had houses on both sides: all the other houses were built on the quay.

It didn't take long to complete the self guided walk of old Audierne as it's not a big place, but it does have a certain charm about it - so much so that we ended staying 8 nights (the discounted harbour fees helped with that decision too!).

From Audierne you can get a bus for the standard 2 euros each way to either Quimper or Douarnenez. We'd intended to take the boat around to Douarnenez but, as we were staying in Audierne for a week, we decided to go by bus and bypass it in the boat. We're glad we did as, whilst it's a pretty town, the visitors' pontoon was quite exposed and, according to a report on the Cruising Association's Captain's Mate app, very rowdy at night.

Douarnenez's Port de Rosmeur

Port-Rhu, Douarnenez. Note dumped boats in the background...

...yes, that's them. Seems to be a feature in these parts!

How beautiful is that? Looking out to sea from Port Rhu

Looking along the coast from the entrance to Douarnenez's harbour

This little 17th Century Chapel to St Michael...

...had an incredibly decorative interior

I managed to buy a couple of pairs of sunglasses from a market stall at Douarnenez to replace the latest ones I'd broken. I seem to be getting through about 2 pairs a month at the moment! It's a good job they were cheap as I've already broken one of them...

From Audierne you can walk or cycle along the bank of the Riviere Le Goyen - the river on which the harbour depends - to Pont-Croix. Well, you can cycle when you've replaced the inner tube on one of the bikes. Good old Google told me where the nearest cycle shop was and that it was only a 10 minute ride away. What it didn't tell me, or perhaps I didn't look in the right place, was that it was all uphill! Dripping with sweat from my exertion - it was blooming hot too! - I bought 2!!

Le Goyen near low water

Pont-Croix in the distance...

...and Pont-Croix close to!

Puce (flea) market in Pont-Croix. Absolutely nothing worth buying at any price!

Pont-Croix's old tide mill

The biggest food mixer in the world? Fish farm presumably...

... perhaps they're making soupe de poisson (fish soup)?

Cycling the other way from Audierne harbour - towards the harbour's entrance and the sea - there's the beach and some spectacular views.

Still inside Audierne's harbour entrance. Not sure what they're looking for, but lots were looking!

Audierne's fish market

Audierne's beach

On a Wednesday evening in Audierne there's a craft market (yawn!) with a wandering jazz band to entertain the shoppers (hooray!). They put their hearts and souls into their music and it was great to listen to, if not exactly note perfect.

Wandering jazz in Audierne. Is that Danny DeVito on trombone?

Just before I leave my account of our stay in Audierne, I must mention a rather sobering episode that occurred on our second night there. I returned from my shower to see the SNSM (France's RNLI - or not quite; keep reading!) mooring a yacht on the opposite side of the pontoon to Cyclone. There were lots of them there and I didn't want to interfere so I waited until they'd left before asking a neighbouring Frenchman what the story was. He told me that the yacht had been found with nobody on board about 45 miles south of the harbour. I asked if he meant that the skipper had been lost overboard and the Frenchman simply shrugged.

The thought of someone going over the side and watching their yacht sail away from them - well, it just doesn't bear thinking about. Jo and I were rather subdued that evening as a result.

The next day I saw a man climbing onto the boat and, rather puzzled, I asked him if it was his. Yes, he replied. So I told him what I'd heard and how relieved we were to see him alive and well. 

It turned out that he'd been concerned for his health and simply reported this to the coastguard in case it should deteriorate. The coastguard, in consultation with medical experts, had decided that he should be taken off the yacht and flown to hospital for a thorough checkup. The SNSM, and a helicopter, were therefore called to facilitate this and to take his boat to Audierne.

I won't mention the skipper's name or the name of his boat because I suspect he'd rather forget the whole episode. He was a very experienced sailor and there was no question of him having required a "rescue" through any aspect of poor seamanship. He'd made the appropriate decision to inform the coastguard that he was feeling unwell whilst sailing alone and things had then been taken out of his hands.

The sting in the tail for the skipper was that, unlike the RNLI, the SNSM charge for their services - a lot! 600 euros per hour, in fact. I sincerely hope that the bill is covered by insurance as you could buy a decent used car or take a marina berth in the Solent for a year for the price of this particular "rescue".

Anyway, the skipper turned out to be a great bloke with many interesting stories to tell. We spent 4 very enjoyable evenings with him and wish him well for the future. In fact, we hope to meet up with him in the Baltic next year! 

We eventually left Audierne on 25th August, bound for Camaret and the Rade de Brest via the Raz de Sein.

Once again, we had a benign passage through the Raz. And once again we had to motor much of the way...

La Vieille

View en route to Camaret

Rocks off Pointe Toulinguet

Pointe Toulinguet

We decided to anchor outside of Camaret for the night as we'd already spent a week there so had no further exploring to do ashore.

View from our anchorage outside of Camaret harbour...

...and our view of Camaret itself

We decided that we couldn't really move north without first having a look around the Rade de Brest and so sailed into the Rade to an overnight anchorage at Anse de L'Auberlach the following day.

Passing the Presqu'ile de Quelern on our way into the Rade

That's Brest over there!

View of our anchorage at Anse de L'Auberlac'h...

...and another

Ile Ronde with a "mooring facility"...

...which we didn't use!

We had intended to anchor in the Anse de Bertheaume the following night - a good place to leave from for the Chenal du Four. A wind increase and change of direction put paid to that idea though, so it was back to our Camaret anchorage for another night.

Camaret anchorage once again!

After a dreadful night with the boat rolling uncomfortably, we left our Anchorage bound for L'Aber Wrac'h at first light on 28th August. The wind was forecast to peak at 19 to 20 knots - a bit more than we'd have liked, but it would be on the beam or slightly behind us, so no problem.

In practice, we saw apparent winds in the mid 20s most of the way, with a peak of over 35 knots. We also had a 3m swell which, whilst by no means dangerous (it's breaking waves you have to worry about) towered above us before sliding under us, lifting us in the process, and then gently setting us down again. Repeat. Repeat...

It was on this trip that I noticed a 6" tear in the headsail. More of that later...

After a night in L'Aber Wrac'h, which we'd visited on our way south, it was on to Roscoff - this time with no wind! I decided to be brave as the conditions were benign and took the very narrow Chenal de la Malouine out of L'Aber Wrac'h, saving about 3 miles in the process. Whilst this takes you really quite close to rather daunting looking rocks, in practice it's very straightforward in the right conditions; you just need to keep 2 landmarks aligned and that's it. The beautiful simplicity of transits!

We took the passage between the Ile de Batz and Roscoff as it was near to high water by the time of our arrival. This is colourfully described by Tom Cunliffe in his Channel Pilot as "a rock strewn, tide scoured chamber of horrors". As I counted down the miles to the "Rocky Horror Show" as I'd christened it, Jo realised that she was singing a Nina Simone song to herself which includes the lyrics "If I should die and my soul become lost, it's nobody's fault but mine"! Of course, in the conditions we had and at high water, the Chenal de L'Ile de Batz was a pussy cat!

Lighthouse on Ile de Batz. Jo asked if I was going to leave her there...

Rocks near the Chenal de L'Ile de Batz

Port Kernock on L'Ile de Batz

Roscoff

Roscoff's Bloscon Marina - in the evening...

...and during the day

So far at Roscoff we've had a busy time shopping, doing the washing, and sticking about 4 metres of sail repair tape all over our headsail! Yes, when we took the sail off to repair the 6" tear I'd seen, we just saw more and more damage. At least if it falls apart before we get home we have the smaller No.3 that we can use.

Can I have a new sail for Christmas please mum!

Anyway, enough waffle - it's time to explore Roscoff.

Thanks for reading.