17th June – Roscoff – L’Aberwrac’h
Departed 1000hrs – Arrved 2000hrs. Distance 50nm
I am writing this sat in Camaret Sur Mer a few days later – it already seems a bit of an age ago! It has taken me a little while to write this day up as it was a pretty grim sail. The boat in front of me left earlier – they were sailing direct from Roscoff to the Isles of Scilly – a distance of around 116n – they were planning on a full 24 hours – arriving early the following morning. The winds for them were perfect from the West. However for my self they were not good! OUt of the harbour and once clear of the Ile de Batz there were large Atlantic rollers coming directly at me as I looked to travel West – those combined with a head wind meant I was faced with two options – bash through it inshore or take out to sea for around 12-15miles before tacking back in to the coast just to the East of the entrance to L’Aberwrac’h. I chose the later as being more comfortable. Most others bashed through it. I did not have the will by myself to endure 7-8 hours of banging over the waves with the hull slamming down into the sea. However this option made it a longer day both in time and distance. What should have been a 7 hour 35nm trip turned into a 10 hour trip and 50nm. Even when I tacked back in to make the tidal gate I needed to motor sail. Thank goodness for audio books!
It takes quite a bit of self discipline in these conditions to keep the log going – but I more or less managed until I neared the rocks surrounding the entrance to L’Aberwrac’h. The entrance itself coming from the East is completely obscured by rocky outcrops – Ile Vierge, La Malmouine, La Pendante.
There is a short cut through the rocks but being tired it was not a route I wished to risk. This probably added 45mins to 1hr but much safer. I kept clear of all outcrops till nearing Libenter before sailing down the very well marked Grand Chenal.
The river was very pleasant and not too far up to the marina. I had taken in the jib but not the main. It would have been easier to do outside the entrance but the seas were still quite unsettled so I opted on the risk of taking down inside the channel despite being low tide. In the end this was a fine – it quickly came down and whilst on autohelm I was able to tidy up quickly.
I had rigged for a marina entrance but when I got there is looked quite full. I was only staying one night so opted to pick up a buoy. None have pick-up lines – so a couple of attempts were required to get a line over the buoy and then in slow time thread a line through the ring on top. Unbeknown to me, there was another boat from UK which moors on a buoy in Falmouth mid-river who were wathcing and giving me marks out of 10. I got my score in Camaret!
It was a lovely peaceful night after a slog. The following day was not going to be too early a start as I had to time the Chenal du Four just right.
Purrfect Tale 