Highlights – the overview
We spend a weekend at anchor before moving into the Marina du Chateau in Brest, where we pick up some packages we sent there, and to provision. Sher’s got a sore throat again (maybe never fully recovered from the flu?) and Wim is still suffering with Sinusitis. After a few days we move back out to anchor again, and when the conditions are good and Sher’s throat is better, continue around the cape and on to South Brittany. We stop at St. Evette with good protection and pick up a mooring. Overnight, Sher has chills and then a fever in the morning. Conditions are good, and after discussing what to do, we decide to continue on and Sher can rest while Wim does the sailing. Happily, there are dolphins along the way!!! We stop at a group of islands, which are said to be so beautiful, like the “French Caribbean”, but we think that is a bit of an exaggeration….
Sher’s fever is still pretty high, and Wim decides that it would be prudent to head into the marina at Concarneau, where we would have access to medical care if required. It’s Saturday late afternoon when we arrive though, and none of the doctors are answering their phone. We don’t feel it’s an emergency and so don’t go to the hospital. And, after taking paracetamol, Sher’s temperature goes down and she’s starting to feel better.
Concarneau is a lovely medieval fortress village and we have a walk around before getting ready to sail on.
We take a mooring the next day at the island Ile de Groix, which was lovely. Then we continue on the following day to Vannes. It’s a bit inland and we need to time the strong currents through the Gulf of Morbihan carefully!
We buy delicious croissants and have lunch in the cockpit.
It’s a lovely summer’s day.
After two nights on the visitor’s pontoon in Vannes, and a lovely day walking through the old city, we’re ready to head back out. We go out just after high tide, but there’s a 2-hour difference from high tide at Vannes to the entrance of the Gulf of Morbihan, so we work our way through eddies and get a push to an unbelievable speed of 13.5 knots, which is about 8.5 knots of current! Good thing it’s going with us!
Sher enjoys the perfect French croissant we bought that morning in the bakery!
We have a beautiful day sailing down to a fishing village, where we pick up a mooring to wait to continue on our way. The current there is very strong and once we feed the line through the mooring, we swing violently around until we settle into the flow!
The Captain’s Log (T+70,71…84) – the complete story
September 8 – Roscanvel
We stay 2 days at the anchorage near Roscanvel. Wim is still having the sinusitis and a bit of fever and Sher is recovering from her cold. We take it easy and give our bodies time to recover. We enjoy the beautiful views over the bay and the hills.
After the weekend, on September 9th, we move to the Marina du Chateau in Brest. A strong northerly wind is forecasted and the bay of Roscanvel doesn’t have much protection to the north. Besides that, there are some some packages waiting for us at the marina office and we have to do some provisioning.
September 10 – Marina du Chateau, Brest
The weather is lousy. Strong winds from the north and north-west and a lot of rain showers. Pretty cool too: 14 degrees Celsius, in the nights below 10 degrees.
Sher does some shopping, and buys some medicine to ease congestion. Hopefully that will help to clear Wim’s head that feels pretty stuffed.
There’s a taxi service to a Carrefour supermarket. Very convenient! Sher comes back on board with 3 big bags of provisions.
September 11 – bus to town for sim card
The sky is clearing. We take a bus to the city center to visit a communications shop, Free Mobile, to buy a prepaid data SIM-card for our router. Great deal: 300Gb/month for 20 euro. Wim installs it in the router and it works like a charm! Great reception, great speeds (40Mb/s). We use about 60 Gb per month with both of our phones and both laptops so 300 is more than enough.
After that, we move back to the nice anchorage at Roscanvel. The view in the marina is very ugly, looking up against the dirty high wall of the wave breaker.
September 12 – back at anchor at Roscanvel
When we wake up there are some rain showers passing.
We see French warships all the time. Brest is a big navy base. Navy helicopters circle over the bay frequently. They even circle Dione IV but we guess we don’t look like terrorists because after a brief look they disappear 😉
When the rain showers have passed, the sky clears and the forecast is nice so we hoist our anchor and sail south with a nice N-E breeze of 10 knots.
In the morning, it’s chilly… only 11 degrees Celsius. Wim dresses warmly because of his sinusitis.
When we round the cape “Pointe du Raz” the wind increases to 15-20 knots. With this kind of wind on a half reach under full sail Dione IV sails at full speed: 8 knots.
By the end of the afternoon, we turn into the bay of Sainte Evette. A beautiful bay with free mooring balls, white sandy beaches, and white houses.
September 13 – Sher has a fever, but there are dolphins along the way!
The day starts with a beautiful sunrise.
Sher wakes up with a bit of a fever. There is a nice N-E breeze to sail down to the next cape and the forecasts for the days after that are East winds. So, today is a good opportunity to sail around the cape Penmarc’h and go east after that, to the islands of Glenan.
We discuss what to do: wait here and see how’s Sher’s fever develops or go. Sher says: let’s go. She will stay relaxed while Wim does the sailing. Well, Dione IV can be solo-sailed easily so let’s go.
When we get closer to the cape, the wind decreases to almost nothing so, Mighty Mitsu has to take over. We see a lot of dolphins near the cape Penmarc’h. Multiple groups pass at a distance. Then, one dolphin leaves the group and comes to us. He’s the explorer of the group and is going to check us out. He (or she) plays in our bow wave for about 10 minutes!
After the cape of Penmarc’h we turn east to Les Iles de Glenan. This should be a beautiful archipel with white beaches and turquoise water. The French say it looks like the Caribbean.
After a while, a light breeze comes back from the West and we set sail again. We could have set our gennaker but Sher is still not feeling well so she’s resting in the deck salon and Wim decides not to hoist the big sail singlehanded. So, we continue on our Yankee and with a speed of 3 knots we reach the islands by the end of the afternoon.
There are about a hundred mooring balls and numerous boats moored. But because it’s the end of season, there are plenty of free places and we pick up a mooring ball at a lagoon called “La Chambre” (the room).
Well, we think the comparison to the Caribbean is a bit exaggerated but it certainly is a beautiful area. We enjoy the sunset and go to bed early. Hopefully, tomorrow we’ll be feeling well and explore the islands by dinghy!
September 14 – on to Concarneau
We wake up with a lovely sunrise.
Regretfully, Sher is not feeling better. We decide to take it easy today and not to inflate the dinghy yet. The weather will stay nice and we’re in no hurry.
In the afternoon, Sher’s temperature is still rising. We measure it and it appears to be 40.2 degrees Celsius! That’s too high. She needs to see a doctor. Of course, there’s no doctor on these uninhabited islands so we decide to sail to the nearest city: Concarneau. Wim phones the marina but they say they’re closed for visitors because of a regatta. When Wim explains the urgency they say: come in and we’ll find you a place!
At 3 o’clock we leave the islands. There’s hardly any wind so we motor to Concarneau and arrive at 5. The harbormaster has reserved a nice place for us at the inside of the wave breaker and in his office he makes some phone calls to find a doctor available. There are 5 doctors in Concarneau. No one picks up the phone 🙁 The only option is to go to the emergency in the hospital. But that takes a taxi ride and a lot of hassle… And is this a real emergency? Sher has a fever but nothing else. No pain or such. A doctor might say: take a Paracetamol first. We decide to try that. We have bought strong Paracetamol recently (1000mg). She takes one and after an hour the fever goes down. At midnight, her temperature is back to normal.
This is why the visitors pontoons were not available: a hundred solo sailor boats have arrived from a contest!
September 15 – Concarneau
In the morning, Sher’s temperature has risen a bit but luckily not as high as yesterday. She takes another Paracetamol. We decide to stay here till she has recovered. If needed, medical help will be available.
Wim goes to the bakery and gets fresh croissants and baguette!
The rest of the day, we take it easy. Sher is sleeping a lot and Wim is slowly recovering from the sinusitis.
In the evening, the moon rises in pink clouds. Lovely!
September 16 – recovering
Recovering day… Sher’s fever is gone but she’s feeling exhausted.
September 17 – Sher feels better, we walk the fortress city before moving on
Sher is feeling better. We decide we don’t have to stay here any longer and don’t need a doctor. In the morning, we take a stroll through the beautiful fortress city. Because the summer season has ended there are only few tourists. Very nice!
At the end of the morning, we leave the marina.
We have a 15-20 knots wind from the North-East. Fantastic sailing! Dione IV at her best, under full sails at her top speeds!
By the end of the afternoon we arrive at the island “Ile de Groix”. We check out a bay at the south side of the island (Port Saint Nicolas) but we find that too narrow. Rocks all around, pretty deep (20m) and with these wind gusts funneling over the high, steep rocky coast there’s no room to swing. So, we continue to the next bay.
A shallow bay at the village of “Locmaria”. There are a few mooring balls and we pick up one. It is high tide but we calculate there should be 1m water at low tide tonight. So, we will touch the bottom. We look around, but there are no rocks, just flat sand… So, no problem.
It’s a beautiful spot. Very calm and sheltered, nice white houses of the village.
That night, we are on the sea floor indeed. Dione IV heels a bit at low tide but we didn’t bump on the sand.
September 18 – Ile de Groix to Vannes
At 0830h in the morning we leave Ile de Groix. We have that same North-East 15-20kn wind again and it’s a lovely full speed track to the cape of “Quiberon”. After passing the rocks of the cape we have an upwind course to the gulf of “Morbihan”and we tack 3 times before we reach the entry of Morbihan.
When we enter the narrow passage to the gulf of Morbihan we have a strong current with us! We see eddy’s and crazy water all around us. We have a top speed of 8.9 knots over the ground! That means there’s 4 knots of current.
We cross the beautiful area of the gulf of Morbihan and enter the canal to Vannes. Here, we have to wait for the lock and the bridge to open.
At 2 hours before high tide the lock opens and the harbormaster comes out with his dinghy and tells us to which berth we have to go, once inside the port of Vannes. After that, he opens the bridge and we move into Vannes.
We get a nice berth alongside the quay near the center of Vannes!
September 19 – Vannes
In the morning, we visit the lovely medieval center of Vannes. Again, there are almost no tourists!
We buy delicious croissants and have lunch in the cockpit.
It’s a lovely summer’s day.
In the evening, local people enjoy the evening sun sitting on the terraces and quays.
September 20 – back through the lock and Morbihan, with strong currents!
At 0930h, the lock has opened and after a big sailing vessel has got out of the way, we depart.
With the current on our stern we cross the Gulf du Morbihan again. Having a superb fresh croissant we bought this morning!
When we are in the narrow entrance of the gulf, it’s half tide. Meaning: maximum current. We are in a washing machine of crazy water and we reach 13.5 knots! That means 8.5 knots of current! Very impressive!
Once we are at open sea the current is gone. There is a light breeze from the North-East, gently blowing us over a completely flat sea towards our next destination.
After a beautiful and relaxed sailing day we arrive at “Croisic”. We enter the bay in very calm conditions with almost no current. But when we get deeper into the bay, it narrows. And the current (on our stern) increases to 5 knots. We have to pick up a mooring ball here and that goes pretty good: Wim moves Dione IV slowly against the current to the mooring ball until it is halfway on our side so that Sher can attach the line into the ring on the ball. But… because of the strong current, the boat turns around and the mooring ball plus its chain moves under the boat vigorously! A lot of noise and wild movements of Dione IV! But then, the mooring pops up at our bow and we stabilize. Pffff! That was scary… We always have our centerboard fully retracted when we enter shallow waters but this is one more reason for that: if we would have had the centerboard down, the mooring chain going around under the hull would have damaged it severely… Don’t try this with a boat with a deep keel: that would have snapped off…
Well, after this adventure we enjoy dinner in the cockpit in a warm evening sun 🙂
September 21 – Moored at Croisic
A cloudy day with some rain and wind from the South-East. That’s a nose wind to our next destination along the coast of Pays de la Loire so we decide to stay in Croisic.
Around noon it’s low tide and the ports of Croisic and the sandbanks around us dry out. We stay afloat.
Leave a Reply