Lezardrieux to Tregiuer - 8/8/13

Given our earlier disturbed night courtesy of the strong ebb we planned our departure for the top of the tide at 1000. Despite this decision being communicated to the whole crew, I had to refuse a last minute request for shore leave to use the marina's heads from one of them. He was to be uncomfortable for 30 minutes or so but I had no wish to be the centre of an embarrassing incident. Arctic Smoke doesn't 'do' tricky manoeuvres in confined spaces at the best of times and I had no wish to pit her 10hp against a four knot ebb in the marina.

We therefore got out without incident and at 1000 and headed down the river. It was a delightful day and our first opportunity to see in daylight the sights that we had passed under cover of darkness on the way in.

The photos below give only a hint of the rocky beauty of the river.

Yachting in Brittany

One of the large lumps we passed in the dark



This was only a short hop around the coast and yet again there was precious little wind so it was mostly under power. Given it was such a calm day we skirted the shallow bits quite closely and crossed some disturbed water as a result. Probably preferable to slogging round in a gale. The only other points worth recording were firstly that Mick and Bernie attempted their first assault on the Mackerel. It was however in vain. Mick complained that we were going too slowly and was convinced that 5 knots was the Mackerals' favourite suicide speed. Back in the 70's in the approach to Poole Harbour we enjoyed a memorable purple spot and caught so many mackerel we didn't know what to do with them. We ended up trading them at Poole Town Quay (in those days you didn't need to be amongst the super rich to moor there) for fresh home grown tomatoes supplied by our neighbour. Both crews enjoyed excellent fayre that night. There were to be no mackerel for us on this occasion however.

Second was our siting of a lone large Dolphin in the approaches to the river. 'He' was much larger than the dolphins in the pod we had previously seen and seemed to be a consistent grey colour whereas they appeared to have yellowish undersides. He didn't come as close as the others nor stay around so around as long as they did.

Treguier is another delightful location. The wind picked up as we neared the river and we enjoyed a delightful sail up it admiring the scenery. One of the great things about this coast from a yachtsman's perspective is the complete absence of commercial craft except for the odd fisherman. We had the river almost to ourselves apart from a couple of other pleasure craft.

Rough key stats:

Departed Lezardrieux 1000 on 8/8/13
Total passage hours = 6.5
Total miles over the ground = 20
Average speed = 3k
Engine hours = 4
Sailing hours 2.5
Arrived Tregiuer 1630 - on 8/8/13

Shortly after our arrival, Mick noticed a boat in the marina smaller than Arctic Smoke - an unbelievably rare occurrence! Everywhere we went AS was dwarfed by far bigger yachts. Modern yachts - even those only a foot or two longer than AS are huge in comparison - so much beamier with at least double the freeboard. Fourty footers - which seem two a penny these days are huge. On occasions I thought I'd walked down the wrong pontoon, only to realise that AS was hiding between two monsters and was virtually invisible.

Anyway back to the Folkboat - which is what it was. I have a soft spot for them because my first boat was one. This one was unusual being the only fibreglass smooth hulled version (and with a long coach roof) I had seen. All the others I had noticed up to now were imitation clinker ones - so called  Nordic Folkboats - built for racing. This one was being sailed single handed by Nick from Plymouth. Nick not surprisingly was not racing but would be officiating back at his club in Plymouth in a few days. He was heading west first for Roscoff and so we were to see him again.

Shortly after arrival we got ashore for drinks in the pleasant local bar near the marina. We still had fresh food aboard so after a couple of drinks Bernie prepared yet another feast that we all consumed with relish. Afterwards Mick and Bernie undertook a quick sortie around the town while Ian and I decided to take it easy aboard

The next morning we explored the town that whilst bigger than Lezardrieux was nevertheless pretty small.

The good people of the town took their flowers very seriously.

The architecture was also impressive - little signs of recession here.

The Cathedral had been restored in the 19th Century although part of it was clearly much older.

They had a strange way of honouring their saints though:

The skull of St Yves on display

After doing the sights we another good lunch and made our way back to the boat and had another couple of beers. Then we did the laundry at the local launderette and had another excellent meal in the restaurant opposite - this time the fayre was rustic but what starters:

Mine and Bernie's starters

I'd been sending the family photos of the trip as we went along and continued by sending the above, Sharon replied "Go away".

Mick and Ian's starters

Then I sent the this one and got the reply "I think u need to stop sending pixs now plz". Sometimes I just can't please my wife no matter how hard I try!

Roscoff some 30 miles or so further west, was to be be our next and final port before we started our homeward passage.