Treguier to Roscoff 10/8/13

The Mate's lunch

Saturday was another fine weather day and we departed the marina in the sun at 0830 and motored down the river.

We left the river at about 1000 and headed west. There was light westerly breeze blowing just sufficiently to allow us to make reasonable progress under sail so the engine went off and we commenced tacking down the coast towards Roscoff.

We were soon sailing fast enough to deploy the fishing lines and within a couple of hours Mick and Bernie had caught enough Mackerel for our supper that evening.

Dinner - later baked by Bernie



The summer sailing continued as we made several tacks down the coast between the mainland and Les Sept Isles. Our charts and pilot showed the island as a restricted area but there were lots of yachts at anchor. Perhaps another example of the famous French approach to "the rules".

We were actually heading for Port Bloscon just east of Roscoff proper which dries completely at low water and whilst it would have been another delightful location in which to berth we didn't have a board for protecting the boat alongside harbour walls etc. Port Bloscon, once just a ferry port with only an anchorage for yachts now apparently sported a new - but not yet finished marina. It was less than a mile to walk to Roscoff town so we were quite happy with the prospect. Our pilot was out of date and only made "don't get your hopes up" type comments about the prospect of a marina ever being built and even less positive ones about it ever being finished. Tom Cuncliffe the author clearly did not fancy the place.

It's where we were going though. Once again the wind died so at 1530 the engine went back on.

On our approach I spotted what I thought was Nick's Folkboat sailing in way ahead of us and much closer to the coast. He had left about an half an hour ahead of us but it looked like he would be in more than an hour ahead. How on earth did he manage that I wondered and put it down to his greater experience of these waters and the short cuts around the ever present rocks. Nevertheless I was a bit put out at being so soundly beaten. Not of course that we were racing. Cruising sailors never "race" we just take enormous satisfaction from getting from A to B quicker than the other bloke! And of course the fact that we are not racing provides the perfect excuse for getting 'there' after him. The excuse is of course for his and others' benefit - because as you can see we are secretly quite dismayed when we do bring up the rear. That - at least in my case - is despite having a great deal of experience of precisely that situation. Fear not though, there is a further twist to this tale of skill and seamanship to which I will return.

Back with the topic of the new marina at Port Bloscon. I had found a website that confirmed its existence with some sketchy details about how to find it and get in. It all seemed a little confusing from a distance - where was the entrance? But as we drew nearer it became clear and we were in without any problems and moored up at 1900.

Rough key stats:

Departed Treguier 0830 on 10/8/13

Total passage hours = 10.5

Total engine hours = 5

Sailing hours = 5.5

Total distance over the ground = 47 nautical miles

Average speed over ground = 4.5 knots

We moored up just a couple of berths away from Nick who looked like he'd been there for hours. We invited him for a beer at the Marina bar which he accepted and I quizzed him on his passage. He'd arrived a whole two hours before us at 1700 so that sail that I thought was him was not. More importantly though he'd shown us a very clean pair of heels and I was secretly even more dismayed. After a while however he let slip that he'd motored all the way because of the head wind. That was OK and I even offered to buy him another beer!

Roscoff Harbour front

Roscoff Harbour (2)

Roscoff's haunted Church

Canal de I'Ile de Batz

Another view 

And another

Old Roscoff

Inside the Church

Dinner time at Roscoff

Shame about the cars



My dinner (I did not send photo to Sharon!)

Over dinner we discussed our return passage. First leg would hopefully get us to Sark but that would require a very early start. Fortunately the marina's fuel pontoon was self service so we could fuel up on our way out at 0500!!!!!