Part 4, France's North Biscay coast.

Cameret (26th May, 44 miles)

Luckily L'aber Vrac'h had little to offer so we had an early night in readiness for the early start to round Ouessant (Ushant) and pass down the Chenal du Four. The Chenal, as we began to call it, can be an awesome stretch of water unless a few safeguards are taken and respect maintained for its 10 mile duration.

The passage to Cameret. We motored out of the anchorage in light winds and once at sea we saw the wind would be against us, and against the spring tide down the Chenal, not at all as forecast. Within 2 hours, as we approached the North end of the Chenal and the Le Four lighthouse, the visibility dropped to less than 1/2 mile and we never did see this prominent feature except as a ghostly shape in the gloom but we certainly heard its fog horn. About this time we questioned whether we were doing the right thing; we had a very big spring tide, we had a 2m swell, we had very poor visibility in the fog but in the present deep water at the North end of the Chenal we were quite happy with conditions. Naive or what? Going back to L'aber Vrac'h would have been even more daunting in bad vis.

Half an hour later it was clear the tide had turned and was pushing us South towards the tricky bits but by now we were committed so onwards we went, still as a trio, and just within each others visibility. We charged between the buoys Rouget and Grande Vinotiere at 10.6 knots and collectively breathed sighs of relief as we then thought it was all over, but no. It was at this point that the shelter from the islands to the West ceased, and so in came the SW swell meeting the tremendously fast South going current creating a real maelstrom which, luckily, was to last for only about 10 mins. Our own motion through the water was pretty violent but we could really only judge it by watching the other boats. At one point Hitrapia, a well designed and fitted out blue water cruiser, reared up at 45 degrees, showing more than half of her underside, she then fell sideways into a huge hole such that we totally lost sight of the boat for a couple of seconds. It was scary to watch as we might have been seconds away from something similar ourselves.

Eventually the conditions moderated to simply being horrible and, as we turned East away from the waves and sailed up the Brest estuary, we once again started to enjoy the day. The fog kept vis., down to about a 1/4 of a mile but the wind gave us an effortless reach for about an hour to Cameret and a hero's reception as we moored.

Perhaps the reception was because we were in Biscay proper. Here you see one of the reception committee of dolphins taking time out to help us moor. microsoft office 2010 professional 32 adobe premiere pro tutorial buy adobe photoshop cs4 order downloadable Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate with SP2 (32bit) microsoft windows vista home edition buy Microsoft Office 2010 Professional (32 license microsoft office mac microsoft visual studio 2008 professional with msdn professional cyberlink powerdirector 8 tutorial buying microsoft office 2010 professional (32 online microsoft office 2010 download

The passage to Benodet. Another early start in order to get to the Raz at slack water.  We allowed 3 hours for the 17 miles and had to motor all of it as the wind was only a F2. Although sailors complain when the wind is light, today it was a bonus because the Raz was like a millpond as we passed through it. We still saw 5 knots of current pushing us South and so over 10 knots in total but there was hardly a ripple on the water.

Once through we were extremely lucky to find the wind slowly swing to the NE and rise to just about a F3 giving us wind on our beam, our fastest point of sailing, so allowing the final 5 hours of the passage to be without engine. Although the wind was light our good boat speed meant we were too fast to catch mackerel but we were an attractive proposition for the dolphins.

We had an awesome display of synchronised swimming by at least ten dolphin who swam, dived and jumped alongside us for at least 15 minutes. The speed at which they move is exhilarating to watch. They pass right under the bows of the boat often crossing one another as they do so. Magic! Trying to photograph them is very difficult as you can see.

We had a peaceful evening on a buoy just off the town quay, but the others didn't like the lack of swinging room on the buoys so Hitrapia went along side and Tomboy went upstream and found an empty private mooring. .

The passage to Concarneau. With sensible tides, today we left at 0930, a real lie in. We sailed most of the passage in light NW winds arriving at Concarneau round about HW. During the passage the Navtex receiver, a unit which receives weather and safety at sea information, has stopped working so we can now only get weather info from the harbour masters, not good.

Interesting town and one of the principal fishing ports in France. The old walled Ville-close (citadel), is a must to visit, now given over to tourism, but, if you can see through that, its great. We took advantage of a very good 12 euro mid-day menu at one of the many restaurants in the citadel. Exceptional value. In the photo the marina is just visible at the extreme right.

Our targeted goal was 80 miles per week assuming we went to Gibraltar but, as we might now only go as far as the Portuguese Algarve this year, I suspect we are now well on target.

The cycling miles, now reported as Kilometres,  continue to rise as we explore new areas.

The passage to La Palais. We set of at 0630 into yet another day with a glass smooth sea. This meant we motored the whole 55 miles and beat the hoards onto the buoys.

The harbour master wanted all three of us to moor between the same two buoys, we managed, but it took lots of pushing with his dinghy to get us into the position he wanted. Later in the day as the harbour filled it was clear he had been economising on space as dozens of yachts arrived. One worrying time was when a 15m boat tried to occupy a 10m space in front of us. The harbour master was keen but the skipper had more sense. He would have bashed into our bows with every wave entering the harbour. Silly man.

The port is a little on the tired side even though ferries bring loads of French visitors hourly and all of the cafes were full so the visitors were certainly spending money. Probably a great place to cycle, or walk the coast path, but alas we must press on tomorrow. The photo looks down into the harbour and we are behind the black boat, snug behind the wall. In the foreground is the anchorage.

The passage to Joinville. The log reads:

• 0630 hoisting the main just outside of harbour in NW F3,
• 0715 goose winged and going well,
• 1045 still managing 5knots wind now light,
• 1145 wind gone westerly and increased,  just forwards of the beam, sailing at 7 knots, one reef in genoa,
• 1330 2 reefs in genoa and one in the main, still flying, hope there is enough water if we arrive early,
• 1500 short steep waves in the shallow water keep breaking on our stern quarter, its quite wet now,
• 1550 tied up next to our sister ship, John Reeds 3rd Endurance 38. Both crews quite excited to check over one another's boat.

The passage to Port Olona. We set off at about 0930, a couple of hours before LW, and I can say there wasn't much depth, even out at sea the water was little more than 6m deep all the way to the mainland, 10 miles away. We had a NE F4-5 wind and it was great for the passage except for the fact our speed was too high; we would get to Port Olona too early to enter. We reefed and reefed until we had 3 reefs in each sail but at least we had slowed acceptably. Traveling slowly gave us the opportunity to catch a few mackerel, 5 in fact over about 10 mins of fishing. We also put up the bimini (sun shade over the cockpit) to see how it behaved at sea and found it to be really good. So now we can escape the suns heat when we are on passage.

We arrived at the destination about 30 mins ahead of Hitrapia and we were allocated berths inside the huge (1100 berths) marina.