6th – 7th July – Conrcarneau – St Evette – Camaret
Departure 0730 – Arrival 0400 – Distance 70 miles
Andrew and Clement joined me on the afternoon of the 6th. Andrew is originally from NZ working in London and Cement from Hong Kong working in Norway. A long trip out for them via Nates and then one to Concarneau. The afternoon was spent shopping and then planning for the next day. We had two options in mind – one to St Marie – a short trip of 12 miles and the other a longer trip of around 38 miles to St Evette – holding area on a buoy before picking up the tide to go through the Raz. We chose the later – weather was forecast to be good and it would be nice to make progress North.
I had booked a small restaurant for supper that evening down a side street in the town. A husband and wife bistro with a limited but nice menu. I had monk fish medallions and Andrew plus Clement opted for the mixed grill of Kangaroo and French Beef. A nice way to spend an evening.
We departed the next morning at 0730. Weather was as predicted which meant we had to motor for the first couple of hours before we were able to tack our way up the coast. What caught us by surprise was the size of the waves – they were big and rolling. A very uncomfortable sail – until we go past Penmarch. By this time Clement had an empty stomach! But the sail across the bau to St Evette was lovely – long than I remembered – but a good end to what had turned out to be not as pleasant a sail as expected.
We picked up a buoy at St Evette and it felt much quieter than when I was going South. Andrew persevered with raising the taxi service which shuttled crew to shore. The cost of the buoy was Euro15 – cash only – although she stated they would accept cheques – do they still exist! Upside of paying for a buoy is that you get a free ride to shore and back. They even will offer you croissants for breakfast brought out to the boat. This service only seems to operate in the summer months and when we were there from 0800-1100 and 1700-2030 – but I suspect timings are very variable!
Whilst they were ashore I thought I would have a quick look at the trip through the Raz the following morning. A lazy start at 1000 to pick up the 1200 slack water. I also checked in the weather. It had changed! A massive low was coming in with winds forecast to reach 25kts to 30kts and it would last 2 days. We had 3 choices – sit it out in St Evette on a buoy open to the South, just get on with it or sail that night to get to Camaret before morning. Once they were back on board we talked through the options and decided that a night sail it needed to be. The wind would be gentle and Southerly. It would be a long day and night but the other options were far worse.
Meal was cooked by Andrew of pasta and anchovies with a tomato sauce and y 2130 we were ready to go. We slipped the line from the buoy with the main sail already hoisted. A motor to the Raz in gentle seas – we were a little early but slipped through with no problems around 2300. The only incident going towards the Raz was an unseen lobster pot which we ran over. We suddenly heard a hard knocking underneath the boat – we had not stopped – but we stopped the propeller turning and drifted for a few seconds and then say it merge from underneath our stern. Phew – it could have been a lot worse. We were more attentive after this but as it got dark it was hopeless trying to spot them. Our tactic was to stay out of shallows and likely places where they may have been laid – but to be honest they seem to be everywhere!
Once through the Raz it was then a very quiet sail North in winds of 10kts from behind making on average 4kts over the ground. It was very dark and only two other yachts about who seemed to be heading for Chanel du Four and around the corner in one go. We did shifts of between 2-3 hours. By0230 we could see the fishing fleet of small boats beginning to leave Brest and head down the channel. Surprisingly all were on AIS and all took action to avoid us – extremely polite. Other than that we were alone in the channel for the majority of the time.
As we approached Pointe du Toulinguet I had two choices of leaving Rochers dy Toulinguet to port or starboard. I decided to port as it was a clearer channel in terms of isolated rocks. We ere then into the Camaret bay. Main down and then tried to pick our way through anchored and moored boats to the marina. The hope was to find a space on the wave-breaker but if all else failed we would pick up a buoy and move in the morning. Fenders were laid out both sides. It was still very dark. We could see a big space on the outside which we went for. Having moored we then saw an equally large space inside the wave-breaker which was preferable. So we pushed off and went inside – a good decision as the following day we would have been blown on and it would have been very uncomfortable. We go to bed by 0500. So a day that started with a plan of 12 miles ended up being 70 miles and day that was a couple of hours sail ended up being 21 hours!
Purrfect Tale 