Cruising is now quite relaxed as we have 2 months before we are due back in the
UK.
We visit Port Haliguen on the Quiberon peninsular and the inland town of Carnac,
famous for its thousands of standing stones. Then its on to Concarneau, Audierne
and through the Raz du Seine to Cameret from where we visit the Brest 2008 festival.
Port Haliguen (14th June, 18 Miles from La Palais.)
Janet was almost tearing here hair out due
to the black oily smuts we received daily as the ferries started up at 0700. They
spread if we tried to clean them and if they were in the textured deck they were
the very devil to remove. Roll on shore power, hot soapy water and loads of it.
The Passage to Port Haliguen. We had little wind
and a flat sea so we didn't bother with sails. We expected some adverse tide, maybe
3 knots, as we rounded the end of the Quiberon peninsular but as it would only be
for a couple of miles we were blasé about it. In the event we never saw more than
half a knot against us. A puzzle that one. If I remember I'll recheck the tide tables
as we need to get it right when we go North through the Raz de Seine. Most probably
I've an hour adrift somewhere.
This Rock Pipit was our first visitor.
The pilot books seemed to have little good to say about the place but as the marina
had allowed us to pay when we were leaving, we said we'd give the place a try for
as long as we were entertained. And we had a great time, for 8 days. Well, a great
time after we had spent the whole of the first day scrubbing the deck clean and
then polishing it. Its nice to see Ruby looking good again though. This lovely Rock
Pippet then spent 8 days crapping all over us.
The Quiberon peninsular is about 12 Km long, 4 Km at its widest and narrowing to
about 100m in the North where it joins the mainland. In the South is the town of
Quiberon, its only about 2.5 Km from the marina and so our first target. 2 minutes
into the journey, naturally on our Bromptons, we passed the first supermarche (Casino)
and we were amused as we had read it was a serious walk from the marina, for slobs
and the infirm maybe. The town is very commercialised and so has everything the
holiday maker would want, and all of the usual expensive boutiques of course. Actually,
its clean and neat and, being still out of season, it was pleasantly quiet. The
Office de Tourisme was our first call to collect maps and brochures thus allowing
us to plan our week. Janet soon discovered that the peninsular had a cycleway around
the southern end and a track from North to South. We returned to the marina via
the southern coastal route, about 6 Km. There we planned to tour the "island" the
following day.
View of the tiny harbour
from the cafe at Pontivy.
Quiberon Peninsular Tour (18th Jun, 48 Km by Brompton)
The cycle path started at the
south-western-most
tip of the peninsular and wound its way through Kervozes, Manemour, Kergallo, Kerhihuel,
Kergalo and Kernavest. Then, having missed a turn, we backtracked and found Kerne
and the path through Kerniscob, Kervivan to St Pierre Quiberon and lunch. All very
pretty villages, with interesting stone houses and beautiful flower filled gardens.
Following lunch it was Kerdenvel, Kergroix, Pontivy and Kerhosin in the North. Most
likely, by this time, we had the full suite of Kers.
On our way back we stopped at Pontivy for a coffee and watched the craft bobbing
in the tiny harbour. We also checked the map and found that the coast road looked
interesting, and indeed it was. It was certainly not a short cut as the road followed
the coast as best it could; up hill, down hill, east round a bay and west back to
the sea, but it was so quiet that we rode side by side much of the way. Back in
town Janet decided that the long cut was appropriate and so we went back along the
southern shore road. Almost 50 Km in total.
Disappointingly, we never did get to see the fish canning factory, perhaps that
would have been a sardine too far.
The racing fleet of 40 Figaro One Designs about 1 mile offshore. (3 shots
stitched
together)
On maybe our third day in the marina we visited the racing Figaro fleet, these are
32 ft racing One Designs from Beneteau, and we went aboard the Agir sponsored boat.
For all the world it was an Open 60 in miniature, water
ballasted and more bits of
string than I could name with any certainty. They raced out in the bay over the
following 4 days and were quite a spectacle, sadly though, too far out for any details
to be evident to us. We managed a few photo's as they crossed finishing line just
outside the harbour. The single handed skipper of the Agir boat was 22 years old,
came 17th over all and won the best newcomer title.
Carnac 20th June (15 Km by bus from Quiberon)
A day of luxury, travel and sightseeing without
exerting ourselves. 1100 saw us sat in the centre of Carnac with coffee and cakes,
elevenses I suppose and browsing the maps from the Office de Tourisme. Our plan
was then to walk North a few Km to the Alignment de Menec.
Some of the 4000.
The Alignment de Menec is one of 3 sites in Brittany where huge quantities of standing
stones can be seen. About 4000 standing stones, ranging between 1m and 5m high,
stretch over 4 Km from Menec. Positioned here between 5000 BC and 2000 BC and our
guide book says, "they are a serious contribution to our understanding of Neolithic
culture". I struggle with that statement, what do we thus understand? And a real
gob smacker is that one stone, too far for us to walk to and, sadly now broken,
was 20 m tall and weighed 280 tons. As late as 2000 BC in Northern France who the
heck organised 4000 stones, all graded in height, and then positioned in lines over
4 Km's long? Where did they find the stones? In the forests, because I believe it
was all forested then? And how did they move 280 tons of boulder? Maybe Harken pulley
blocks and Dyneema ropes are older than yachting publications would have us believe.
Personally I think this is evidence of extra terrestrials having a bit of a lark.
Concarneau (21st June, 50 miles from Port Haliguen)
Criterion now seems to be value for money
so Concarneau, already cheap per day, offering 2 free following 5 payed for, is
our destination. We'd been here 3 weeks earlier with Sapphire Voyager
but had still not tired of the place, in fact, we chose the revisit as we felt there
might be more to see, and we were correct.
The Passage to Concarneau. We motored South to
round the tip of Quiberon but once we pointed North-ish it was clear the wind was
insufficient to drive us 50 miles before the evening, so the engine remained on.
It was a pleasant day, brightened by the passing of about 12 racing yachts, and
boy did they look good. They were beating so had loadsa wind.
The passage took 8 hrs and we were pleased to find a free berth on the breakwater
pontoon
Chateau de Keriolet (26th June, 15 minutes walk from Concarneau)
This is the 18th century chateau cum castle
de Keriolet, originally home to the Russian imperial Princess Zenaide Narishkine
Youssoupov. Ruined in the 1987 storm, and near derelict, but slowly being restored
to its former glory. Its perhaps a 20 minute walk from the marina and very well
worth the small exertion. The tour is multi lingual, yeah right; OK its in French
but English questions are answered in English and a printed description is in English.
The princess has turned a chateau, via numerous additions, into a sort of castle,
certainly from the rear it is. The quality and intricacy of the granite work is
stupendous, and from all angles. Its perhaps sad that a French version of "The National
Trust" cannot buy it because the restoration is clearly hampered by lack of funds.
Fortunately the roof is now renewed so the rot is halted. A gallery of photo's can
be seen via the button, right. If you are in Concarneau go see it, you'll be impressed.
Audierne (30th June, 42 miles from Concarneau)
W e've had a great time
in Concarneau but it was now time to make progress North.
The Passage to Audierne. We motored out at almost
exactly LW without problem, then down the hydrocarbon tankers route through the
Glenans. The picture her is of the anchorage beside the most northerly of the islands.
Then it was a further 20 miles before we rounded Pointe du Penmarch, with its two
lighthouses and a control tower. Then it was direct to Audierne. We
disagreed as
to the route into the moorings, Janet favouring the longer but more cautious route
in, whereas I favoured the more direct route. Whatever, we grabbed a mooring and
we were snug for the night.
Funnily, everyone who has ever taken a mooring will recall how close the other boats
were. Luckily either the tide or the wind lines everyone up and all swing merrily,
equidistant to one another. But if the wind fails and the tide has no effect then
what? Well, it was chaotic, boats were fendered to glory be, night watches were set
as boats rested against one another. We realised bumping might occur but at such
low speeds we could ignore it; so we went to bed. We slept well and left at 0900
heading for the Raz.
The Passage to Cameret We could see 5 boats ahead,
all heading for the Raz du Seine, all motoring, all with just a main sail. Our speed
was about 6 knots and it seemed everyone else was doing 5 knots, we therefore found
ourselves in front as we approached the Raz. The tide was already setting strongly
to the North and so pushing us towards Le Plate, the southerly Raz entrance buoy,
we therefore turned more westerly to gain a better entry to the race. Behind us 5
boats were in perfect alignment, perfectly aligned behind us intent on following
our every move. We motored through the Raz with 2.5 knots of tide with us and a
benign sea, sad that we could not sail through. Next time maybe.
2 hours later we picked up a mooring in the outer harbour of
Camaret; pleased to
be through the first of the major tidal gates this area offers. Next would be the
Chanel du Four.
Another Vauban fort.
A WW2 gun emplacment.
Camaret is a nice little town, nothing splendid,
nothing exceptional its just nice everywhere, and its just as well because 10 days
of strong winds kept us from heading North up the Chanel du Four.
The whole coastline of the Rade do Brest has been heavily fortified for
centuries.
Whilst WW2 gave rise to lots of concrete gun emplacements its the older ones which,
although they were built for the same purpose, do seem more acceptable to us nowadays.
Left is a photo of another Vauban tower, this one overlooking the marina and right
is a WW2 fortification: funny how the former seems acceptable whilst even Jurgen
from Kiel in Germany saw little to recommend the latter.
Whilst we enjoyed the cycling around the villages, often seeing 50 Km on our odometer
by the time we returned, it was the Brest 2008 Festival of old vessels that we enjoyed
most. A cracker from the ferry ride to Brest onwards. Click the camera right and
see how our day panned out.
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