Douarnenez and Treboul

The morning greeted us with drizzle again!  The weather forecast was OK in terms of wind, force 3-4, and the tide suited us for an afternoon sail around the corner to Douarnenez.  So, with another five days worth of fresh food supplies bought and stowed we planned our route.  Our general direction was west out of the Avant Goulet de Brest, south west to the Tas de Pois, (a group of three small rocky islands which look like peas in a pod on the chart!) south east to the Pointe de Chevre and finally east across the Baie de Douarnenez.

We ate a large pasta lunch to keep us going, said cheerio to the crew of Spirit of the Gift, a wooden sloop from our old home-town of Maldon which was headed south to the Mediterranean in much larger hops than us, and cast off.  The sails were hoisted within minutes and we were away!  Another yacht, from Cork, Ireland, motored out behind us and seemed to have no intentions to get up its sails.  That didn't stop our competitive spirit, however, and as we tacked across the bay in the westerly wind we were pleased to find that we were only a few metres behind them in the Chenal de Toulinguet.  This is a route marked on the charts, which takes you directly between a group of rocks and the rocky coast, quite scary!  Here we turned south a little, on course for the "pod of peas".  We were under full sail, going to windward with a top speed of about 5.9 knots.  Not bad.

Unfortunately the angle of heel meant that I was not going below for the camera so you'll have to take our word for it that the rocks, quite close in, were a sight to behold.  This was our best sailing yet, close hauled on a starboard tack with the weather remaining cloudy but dry.  At the Tas de Pois we passed a fishing boat which appeared, to us, to be dangerously close to the rocks.  A little local knowledge...

As we started to head southeast for "Goat Point" we bore away a little and the Irish boat was still well within reach.  He had rolled out a small amount of genoa, probably to reduce the rolling effect of the waves but definitely maintained the iron sail! We were gaining ground!  We passed another mad local fisherman, this time close to the Chevreaux, a rock that lost its warning beacon in the gales of 1988 and only the stump remains.  By this time I had taken up position on the leeward side of the cockpit to keep an eye under our genoa for the Irish.  The waves seemed much louder and closer down on this side and more than once I let out a squeal as the boat heeled a little further!  We had reeled them in though and the overtaking manoeuvre was complete.  We still did not know at this point that they were even going to the same place as us!

Point de Chevre was next, and we knew it was necessary to keep off the rocks by about a quarter of a mile.  Charted depths were useful here too, and Chris told me to keep an eye out for the gauge going below the twenty metre mark.  We thought we had eyeballed the outer rocks and were happily sailing along when I suddenly realised we were down to fifteen metres and falling!  We altered course and headed out a bit further, just to be on the safe side.  The Irish boat, however, continued on that course and apart from being tossed about in the overfalls they got through safely and ahead of us! 

Although there was no water or electrics on the visitors pontoon at Treboul,  we didn't think it would be much of a problem because we were not planning on spending more than a few days there...little did we know!  Our next planned port of call was Benodet and that meant tackling the infamous Raz du Sein.  We wanted wind and tide to be right for that.

Our pontoon was about two hundred yards up the river, on the west side opposite the Isle Tristan, once home to a pirate called La Fontanelle.  It was very pretty too, the wooded island to one side and the steep sided rocky bank of the mainland on the other.  We considered it to be well sheltered and found the facilities ashore made up for the lack of electrics and we were able to do three loads of washing and have hot showers.  If we had continued a little further, rather than turn into the river, we could have picked up a mooring in the Port de Rosmeur closer to Douarnenez town centre, but we preferred the convenience of the pontoon berth.

Douarnenez, twinned with Falmouth, was, and still is, an important fishing port, particularly known for its sardines!  Now, it is also home to a floating museum of boats which is publicised as open all year round but was not particularly up and running while we were there.  It housed some interesting looking boats, however, and we happily wandered through Port Rhu, along the banks of the river.  We assumed the traditional boat building being undertaken there was also part of the museum's activities.

We have been impressed by the French approach to teaching sailing and, as it turned out, we had plenty of time to observe classes of children experiencing water sports including sailing in little aluminium Optimists, sailing in a traditional wooden fishing boat, learning fishing skills and the most surprising to us (but exhilarating we were sure from the looks on their faces) a ride in a rigid dinghy during a Force 7!  We felt that regulations in England would have prevented such an activity.

Having mentioned the Force 7 I should perhaps explain that our planned trip to Benodet was postponed due to inclement weather!  By Friday the forecasts were definitely coming true.  We returned to the boat after a shopping trip and were greeted within minutes by waves whipped up the river by the wind.  Out in the bay white horses were everywhere and spray was beginning to fly off them.  Then, round the corner of Isle Tristan came a boat full of children, followed by another three!  They turned up the river and surfed the waves back to the shore.  Meanwhile we were busy putting out extra fenders and warps and keeping a watchful eye on the other boats around us.

The previous evening, Adelaid II had arrived, which had been chartered by Jonathon and Katie for their honeymoon!  They had arrived in Treboul a couple of days after us and were spending the night with their best man who happened to live in Audierne (twenty minutes by bus!), which, given the conditions, was very wise!  On their return the following morning, our Navtex was indicating that there was worse to come, and so changed their plans, deciding not to sail round to Audierne and instead they spent the evening on La Premiere (having popped out into the bay briefly to retrieve their lobster pot which they had made using some wood and wire bought in ‘Monsieur Bricolage’ in Cameret!  No luck, however, apart from a couple of little crabs and a starfish!).

We were delighted by their recount of their wedding.  The reception was held in a marquee near the quay in Falmouth, with the yacht dressed overall with flags etc.  They changed for the last dance . . . . . into all their foul weather gear, wellies and harnesses included!  Then they actually set sail, after midnight, out of Falmouth to the Helford River, about an hour and a half away!  This was all very appropriate as they met about a year ago when crewing for different yachts in an offshore racing event.  Unfortunately for them, everyone had said that cruising Brittany for a few weeks in May would be a fantastic honeymoon but the weather has been appalling!

We chatted for hours about all sorts.  By about half past midnight they decided to make a move back to their boat.  The weather had deteriorated still further and it was difficult enough just getting on and off the boats.  I don't think any of us slept particularly well and we found out it had been a good Force 8 with stronger gusts.  Chris had stopped Charlie at bedtime because he started to make a strange noise.  His investigation the next day uncovered part of the problem . . . a twenty amp fuse had blown, but with such ferocity that the plastic fuse holder had also melted!  We have yet to find out whether it has damaged Charlie internally.

Katie delivered a present to us that afternoon...a patent ‘Joka’ mackerel line.  We are yet to put it into action but be sure that we will let you know of our first successes, or failures!  We also had some other visitors, Les Douanes.  (Customs Officers)  They seemed a little surprised that we are "retired" but were friendly enough and content that we had all the correct paper work and no "weepons" otherwise known as guns.

On Sunday, our last day in Treboul, we were mystified as to the continuous barking of some large dogs nearby.  We wandered round the coast path a little way to find a group of people in wetsuits with a number of large black Newfoundland dogs.  They appeared to be training them for water rescue, although one or two were rather reluctant to go in the water even to retrieve a bundle of clothes.  We decided it must have been the beginners class!