As we sailed pass Ile d’Ouessant the Thursday before, it was too foggy to pay this Island a visit. Being curious on this western outpost, I decide to go there by the ferry service but as I come to buy the tickets early in the morning, they were already fully booked.

Standing in long line for tickets only to get the message that the boat was full

Instead of taking another walk through the “diesel punk” city of Brest – I decide to take the dinghy for a trip. I read about the river Aulne and thought it should be a nice daytrip. The plan was to go in low tide, have a nice lunch in some city up the river, fill the tank and go back with the tide.

Taking my own boat instead

At the beginning of the river there were a number of decommissioned ships

However; I misjudged the tidal effect on the river and after a while – the ”river” was more a ditch and finally I could not go on. Instead of waiting for the river to rise, I decided to go back.

And the river gets tighter…

… and tighter

Finally, I found the pretty city of Faou just as the tank meter was hitting the big E. There was no gas in the harbour so I had to take a kilometer hike before I could fill up at a gas station next to the motorway. Carrying the tank back gave me a good workout and since I had to wait out the tide I thought that I should reward myself with the nice lunch at restaurant Piazza on the city square. It is a Italian restaurant but with Moules Frites as specialty and that suited me just fine. The Moules Normand (mussels, wine and bacon) was a prefect break and when I came down to the boat, the tide was high and the current was gone. This made the trip back to Brest enjoyable in the sun with only small waves.

Le Faou port in mid-tide. Note the sailing boats still standing on their keels.

An empty tank is useless but easier to carry….

…. than a full useful tank

Beautiful main street of Faou

Moules Normand – perfect Sunday lunch

The harbour at high tide

Leaving Faou

Coming into Brest

After that – I started to tick off boxes on the to-do-list. First project was to clean the dinghy thoroughly and redo the placement on the davits. Finally – I get the dinghy hanging, as I would like it. The rest of the evening, I walk the streets wondering about Life and the decisions that forms it.

The Dinghy position after some work

We take a slow morning and go for a breakfast at Quatre Vents next to the marina. As Michael and Susanne drive away in their rental car – I go back to Melody, do a thorough cleaning, and prepare a to-do-list for the week. As I am in the boat – there is a knock on the hull and Rainer and Maritha from the Swedish Ocean Sailors Club (OSK) comes over to visit. They are on their way South with their Najad ”Albatross” on open plans. Now they are waiting in Brest to wait for a good time to cross the Bay of Biscay and probably going to Camaret tonight. Nice to talk to other sailors on their dreams, plans and experiences. They have a blog (https://seglaalbatross.blogspot.com) and I decide to put up this blog. It is nice to be able to follow your friends. As a bonus – I will get a diary to look back on these memories.

I like going to museums and learn more on interesting subjects so after a nice coffee break with R & M (”Swedish Fika”), I head for the Naval Museum. Hosting the museum in the only historic building in the town gave a good feeling. A lot of naval history on display as this has been a center for French Navy since centuries. The museum is well worth a visit but my French is too weak to make me able to understand it all. Interestingly enough – they really tried to make it accessible to foreigners (which is far from common here). English audio guide and all signs in three languages. But only at the entrance… The further you got into the museum, the translator must have given up and the juicier parts are all in French.

Coming out of the Castle, I take a long walk on town and visit a scuba center and check if there should be any good diving this week. I got a calendar and a web address so we will see. The water is very clear and there must be much to see. Walking up and down the streets in the afternoon after that I get the impression that the town is deserted. Probably people are away on holiday. I reserve a table at the crab house next to yesterday’s restaurant and had their nice combo of Oysters and Crab that came served on a plank with a club. The seafood here in Finistère is as great as you can expect.

The marina from the Castle

A german mini-sub at display at the Naval museum.

The keep from the old fortress

Some nice models around

As old warships had a lot of political meaning to display wealth and power – they were well decorated. Interesting to see these masterships of wooden art

Nice

The main street on saturday afternoon.

Having dinner at Le Crabe Marteau

Today we arrived in Brest, which is the last stop for Michael and Susanne. As we approached Brest, the naval profile became very clear with a large portion of both the harbour and the city closed for public. The city has two large Marinas and we decided to check in at the Marina du Chateau – ”Castle Marina” which is located in the Town center. Again – we find it to be another neat and well-organized marina and the forest of masts was pretty impressive. Nearby is a neat row with seafood restaurants that make it look as a good choice.

A sad thing is that the allied bomber crews did their job very thouroughly so except for the castle; the city center got rebuilt in the post-WW2 style that it sadly shares with many European cities. We did a city walk through the city described on the tourist map and apart from the alternative Rue St Malo – it is all concrete and asphalt. And warships – this is the home of the French Atlantic fleet.

In the evening, we went for a crews-last-night-dinner at ”La Maison de l Ocean”. Amazing seafood – and a oyster sampler platter of different oysters in different sizes together with a lot of other well-tasting ”fruits de mer”. The oysters were all from L’ Aber Wrac’h that we visited earlier so we feel at home. A worthy dinner for a very nice week with M & S.

Arriving in Marina du Chateau

The promenade at the Castle

The main street Rue du Siam seen from Liberty Square

The closed naval harbour seen from the bridge with the castle behind. This bridge is the third largest lifting bridge in Europe…

The Rue St Malo – a bit of alternative lifestyle in Recouvrance – the west part of Brest. This village was originally the part for the less fortunate.

Nice way of displaying a message.

This display made the choice for dinner pretty easy.

Last night dinner with Susanne and Michael at ”La Maison de l Ocean”. This is the starter 🙂

The marina seen from the harbour office

Today’s tour from L’Aber Wrac’h comes facing the waves and with heavy fog. The plan is to go through the infamous “Raz du Four” on the very west end of France in slack tidal streams. We take a slow morning with a walk in the village and a long lunch at the ”L’ Ecailler des Abers” to have some more of the delicious oysters from the oyster beds in the bay. Hard to beat.

Lunch at this fine seafood restaurant

Meeting a wooden yacht

The fog continues all to the inlet to Bay of Brest. Passing the famous Phare du Four in fog is a Mighty experience and when the fog clears, we pass the Phare du Saint Matieu heading towards Camaret-sur-Mer.

Phare du Four

Not too bad tidal current

Passing Phare du St Matieu

Camaret is obviously a more tourist-oriented town with a row of restaurants at the harbour promenade. The visitors pontoon is at the outer harbour and we pass the old castle, church and ship cemetery to go to the town.

Outer harbour in Cameret-sur-mer

The castle…

the church….

the ship graveyard…

and stones

Today – Susanne gets her will and we go to the Crêperie les Embruns where they serve us Crêpe Flembees and some of the dry French cider.

Susanne finally gets her crepes

After having a good breakfast from the combined cafe/bakery/supermarket at the Marina, I go to pay the customs office a visit. They are open, the customs guy look at me with an amused look, and he answers that it is a “Guernsey thing” that has nothing to do with France. We are welcome into the country and we have not been illegal aliens. Good to know and we continued westwards. The original plan was to visit Ile-de-Batz that should be beautiful but the weather gods thought otherwise. In the fog and cold weather, we steamed on in the absence of decent wind and reached L’Aber Wrac’h that is one of the central villages in the Finistère Oyster industry.

Leaving Roscoff

As we came in at high water – these spots of delicacies was marked on the chart but not visible but as the water level came down – we could see them everywhere. The village also hosts a lot of youth sailing activity and the neat memories from my own sailing schools as kid comes back. So fun to watch these kids getting skilled in handling their dinghies, surfboards and small cats.

The village is very down-to-earth and we decided to take a Crepe lunch before going for a real seafood experience later on. Here I drank the French cider for first time. I normally do not like cider since I think it is too sweet. English dry cider is better but being in a pub – I rather go for the excellent Ales and Bitters. Turns out that this dry cider was perfect to the crepes and I learnt a new good combination.

Young sailors learning to handle their equipment

The boat was filled with wooden boats and ships and it turned that there had been a wooden boat festival the weekend before in Brest. I always get happy when I see a wooden boat or ship. Knowing my limits – the maintenance would kill me.

The oyster beds start revealing themselves

Tasting dry french Cider for first time. Turns out to be perfect to crepes

Low water in the harbour.

Then it was time to take a closer look at the oyster beds so we take a walk to the closest ones. Sadly, we could not come that close without proper boots but it was still nice to know that they were there so close. We also got a very nice walk up to the semaphore and through a forest.

Another angle into the bay

The view out to sea from the semaphore

The oyster beds

The top of the visit was however the seafood house ““L’ Ecailler des Abers” that we got recommended. We had to wait for a table a couple of hours but it was sure worth it. The place is small and the exterior does not indicate the cosy interior and superb food. Having local oysters and the Seafood Cassoulet was a true experience. Five out of five oyster shells in “Guide Hugo”.

At the restaurant, we start talking to Alain and Cecile who were in their nice wooden yacht next to us. I have this passion for wooden boats and I would love to have one but knowing my limitations – the maintenance would kill me. As they had been cruising around a lot – we invited them to our boat, went through the plans for the next weeks, and got some useful tips. It turned out that Alain grew up in Les Sables d’Olonne so obviously – this was the right guide.

Having really fresh oysters

The Seafood Cassolette

We start the day with fresh bread from the bakery and decide to leave as soon as the tide permits us to. They open the sill at nine and since there is a line of boats at the diesel pump, we continue out of the harbor heading for France. There is no wind, which makes the transit easy but a bit boring steaming forwards on a lame sea.

Our berth in St Peters Port. Could not be more central. But is it a coincidence that I often get a space next to the Church?

Leaving St Peters port

We arrive in Roscoff late and there is some confusion whether we need to do a customs clearance. There is a ferry terminal but no personnel so we decide to go and have something to eat – illegal immigrants or not. The only restaurant that had an open kitchen was Via Roma in the harbour and it became a very nice evening with Moules Roquefort and a great chat with the owner who had us as his only late evening guests.

The old harbour of Roscoff

Moules Roquefort at Via Roma

The lighthouse in the harbour

It is time to leave St Helier as the tide rises and we take the opportunity to fill up the tanks at the tax-free diesel station. On our way out, we see that the Elizabeth Castle is again an island as well as the Corbier lighthouse. The tidal scheme never stops fascinating me.

The sill is open and we can continue

Really cheap diesel

Elizabeth Castle again

I have seen pictures of the Havre Gosselin at Sark and the original plan was to have lunch there before continuing to Herm. However, we decide to continue but take the detour through this beautiful natural harbor and the Guillot Passage. The tidal stream is favorable and we are shot like a cannon ball through the passage. Our plans is to dry out completely in Herm as one of my zinc anodes has been eaten up and the others looked in pretty bad condition.

Havre Gosselin

Coming through the Guillot pass

As we reach Herm, we really do not know which buoy to pick as we could not see the bottom and there was a warning that there be some rocks. We pick what seemed like a good buoy and prepared lunch and started waiting. I went down with a mask to check so there were no real mess under the boat but it looked nice. A thrilling experience to wait to go aground… As the water disappeared, I went out, stood in the water, and literally saw the earth lift the boat. Amazing! I could sit in the sand and replace the anodes and after some cleaning, we took a walk on the island to check out the scenery. The boat was not going anywhere – that was for sure.

Waiting to dry out in Herm

The water leaves the harbour

And finally, we are on land!

New zinc anodes installed

Herm is a very calm and beautiful island – one hotel and a souvenir shop. We wandered over the island and had a look at Sark and a bird’s colony at the south side. Coming back, we waited for the tide that neatly lifted us back in the sea.

Melody seen from the harbour pier

A walk on Herm

Sark in the distance

The island village

Nice

As Guernsey is not within the EU, we need to set the Q flag and before we sailed the last miles into St Peters Port where we got a nice berth in the middle of the city. The customs clearance consisted in filling in a form and leaving it in a mailbox in the harbor. After picking down the Q flag, we stroll through this nice city and although the late hour we managed a hot meal to finish this exciting day. Nice to see this city more closely as we visited the port only to fuel as we sailed Melody from France back in 2007.

Guernsey courtesy flag and Q flag indicating that we request customs clearence

Sun sets as we approach Guernsey

Leaving Herm harbour

The fortress at harbour entrance

St Peter Port

Night in St Peters Port

We decide to stay one day and see a bit of Jersey by bike and to go out to the Corbière lighthouse that we passed on our way in. On the way we follow the biker path along the St Aubin bay and try not to bike on the pedestrian areas (50£ fine) or end up on in front of a left-driving car (worse). The water is on its way out and we are interested in how it will look like when we come back at low water. At St Aubin, we stay for a quick refreshment looking out on the drying harbor. We are on spring tide so the range between high and low water is 9.7 meters, which makes it possible to see how the water disappears. Then we go out to Corbière, where you are able to walk out to the lighthouse at LW. The lighthouse was closed but still impressive to see from the outside. Instead, we took a lunch at the restaurant overlooking the scenery and went back.

On the back roads to Corbière

Corbière Lighthouse in distance

Closer view. Note the black line that shows HW level

Waiting for lunch

We stopped by to see the tidal effects both to the St Aubin harbour as well as to the bay that now more or less was gone. As expected, we could take a walk out to the Elizabeth castle instead of taking the ferry. However, the ferry ran for the lazy ones but now it was a bus. Back in St Helier, we head for the Mimosa restaurant that overlooks the marina.

St Aubins bay at LW

Taking the walk to Elizabeth Castle

”Ferry” arrives

Note the closed sill and its depth difference to the boats downstairs outside the sill.

Today is a big day. As I took the Ocean Sailing Training, we used the chart for the Channel Islands so I know these waters intimately in theory… Now it will be interesting if reality matches the theory. We wake up before five in the morning to get the optimal wind/stream combination. We are expecting slow winds so we need to steam in the beginning. The fog is very thick and it is a bit tricky to get out of the sleeping Yarmouth harbour with a combination of strong currents and low water. There is maximum 50 m visibility so Radar, AIS and sharp lookout is needed. Passing the Needles at the west end of Isle of Wight, we hear its fog signal and we check out of England.

Leaving in thick fog

The fog clears a bit when we pass the Needles

We opt for the S-curve channel crossing strategy as we learnt at the training meaning that we set a fixed course and let the current move us in an S over ground, which is most effective through water but looks strange on the GPS. Coming closer to Alderney, we decide that we should take the Alderney race as the winds were moderate and we could make use of the strong current. This is an infamous passage and the sea get rough even in the light wind against the current. We could accept this as we continue onwards up to 16 knots over ground in very light wind. We have spring tide so the currents are very strong. This current makes it hard to see the buoys that the fishermen put on their nets and some of them are actually under water and are hard to see, so sharp lookout is needed.

Undetermined current ways in the Alderney Race

Sunshine 🙂

The buoys get dragged under the surface and are hard to see

We arrived to Jersey in the evening according to plan and could come close to the beautiful Corbière lighthouse that guards the southwest point of Jersey along with a German WW2 bunker from the Atlantic Wall. Feels very fascinating to see the places that only have been names on a training chart before.

Cliffs of Jersey

Corbière Lighthouse

One of the scary ferrys that sneaks up behind of you in 40 knots

The last part of the plan also worked out – getting over the sill in St Helier just in time. You do not want to come too early so you just gets sitting on the waiting pontoon but on the other hand you want to come ashore when the restaurants are still open. The sill opened 15 minutes after we arrived and with a bit of luck we were directed into a nice spot directly by the entrance. We celebrate the crossing with seafood at the Yacht Club J Things always work out.

Waiting for the Sill to open up.

The harbour master knows his game – everyone has a berth as the sill opens.

On Friday morning, we first leave Michaels and Susannes rental car in the harbour and we take a quick sightseeing tour of the town as we go shopping food for the next week. I enjoyed the Shamrock Quay stay but now it is time to move on. After filling up diesel, we continued out to Isle of Wight where we plan to stay the evening before we cross the channel. A very undramatic transport sail and we time the tidal currents right in the Solent so we arrive on the afternoon to Yarmouth at the western tip of Isle of Wight.

Yarmouth was another pleasant experience. This was a nice little town, a well-run marina. In the evening, we went to On the Rocks that turned out to serve high-class food on hot stones. We even managed to buy the delicious Isle of Wight Blue cheese that we had at Quay Fifteen and that can only be bought on the island. Early evening as we set the alarmclocks at 4:30 to be able to match the tidal gates.

This looked so fun. A lot of speed in almost no wind flying over the water

The crowded Yarmouth marina

My new crew – Michael and Susanne