24/05/2018
Saro's Gyda
Derrick Thorrington
Sat 9 Jun 2018 19:04
Anse de
Penhir
Having timed the
Chenal du Four just right and with the wind in the NE, we rather fancied having
a look at Ouessant (Ushant), the most westerly island in France. However, on
closing in we realised that the visibility was too poor to identify our way
confidently throught the many fierce looking rocks and reefs.We therefore
decided to continue towards Camaret and the Crozon Peninsula, hoping to find an
anchorage which gave us shelter from the NE. This proves rather difficult so,
after poking our bow into several likely places and finding them full of
moorings, we continued past Camaret and found peace behind a high headland in
the Anse de Penhir. D enjoyed navigating through a very narrow gap in a string
of rocks (Les Tats du Pois, or "Pile of Peas") in order to take a short cut to
the Anse!
Hindsight is a
wonderful thing. We woke fairly late the following day due to our lack of sleep
on passage. D inspected the weather reports and we realisied that if we had
continued over the Bay of Biscay without stopping in France we would have had
perfect conditions. It was now too late to make the tide through the next
obstacle, the Raz du Seine. However, we quickly sorted ourselves out ansd
backtracked the 25 miles back to Ouessant as we hadn't visited this island
before.
Visibiloity was
still quite poor but the wind was good and we enjoyed a fast sail. It was quite
difficult to find the transits that we needed as one was a lighthouse (Le
Stiff), high up on the other side of the island.After a bit of tacking to and
fro in the entrance to the little port of Lampaul, we eventually located our
landmarks and entered,
picking up a
visitors buoy off the little harbour.
On the way into
Lampaul
That evening we had
a stroll to get our bearings and ended up at a very smart little hotel, perched
over the harbour and advertising Moules a la creme with frites. we both
immediately diverted and enjoyed the delicious food and convivial atmosphere.
Adding to our enjoyment was a lively discussion with 3 friendly French people.
Its amazing how well one can discuss Brexit in mixed French and
English!
Lampaul
Harbour