We have just
left L'Aber Benoit, our most beautiful harbour so far. Not many visiting boats
as most go to L'Aberwrac'h where there is a marina. We called in there to fill
up with water, charge our batteries and have showers but we left the next
morning as L'Aberwrac'h has little to offer except these facilities.L'Aber Benoit is a different kettle of fish. A
truly unspoilt harbour, the entrance is very rocky and full of outcrops which
seem nerve wracking but the buoyage is very good.
An
excellent feature is that moorings are free! There is a trot of buoys mid river
for mooring fore and aft so they are very secure once roped on and with good
shelter from the steep sided river banks. This is excellent as moorings in
Brittany have been expensive, approximately £25 -30 per night for our 13 metre
boat. We had 2 very peaceful nights at L'Aber Benoit, no swell and joyous
scenery.
In this sunny
weather the water is bright torquoise fringed by sparkling white beaches. The
rocks here are unlike those further north, such as St. Malo, where oysters and
mussels cling; here they are full of abundant and colourful sea weeds harbouring
pink shrimp and crab.
We didn't have the
right tackle so didn't catch anything but the locals are really into food for
free and wade up to the knees for hours filling their paniers with shrimp. Up
the steep hill from the beach is the village store and boulangerie. As with a
few other of the smaller local shops in France, the fresh produce has been
sparse and disappointing; we think they are suffering from influence of large
supermarkets as we do in UK.
We sailed off
the mooring this morning starting off on a sail to Ushant (L'Ouessant), wind
soon dropped to fishing speed ie. 2 knots but caught nothing and are now
motoring a 6 knots in order to get the right tides for Passage du Fromveur where
the tidal stream runs very strongly. Chris saw a Porpoise as we approached Ile
Molene passing Hell's Plateau on the port side with a towering rock so high that
we thought it was a lighthouse until seen with binoculars.
