Trip Update - 1st August 2008 Belle Ile, France
Position: 47:22.57N
03:13.07W Sauzon, Belle Well, today was a classic “let’s
just carry on for a little bit longer” sail, which I will get to in a
minute. Jeremy Vines had sailed his Dufour
345, “Pickle” out to This wasn’t our idea of a good
forecast, so we decided to go out anyway, throw a couple of lines over the back
to catch our dinner, and head the short distance over to Port Tudy, the main
town on Ille de Groix, which would be sheltered from the
South. Unfortunately, the fish weren’t
biting (how do you know if it is technique or luck?) so after an hour or two, we
dropped the sails and motored into Port Tudy. Despite it being mid-week, and arriving
at midday, Port Tudy was full! The
only space was on a fore-and-aft mooring in the outer harbour. However, the space between the buoys was
about 4 feet less than the length of Nutmeg so after having a go, we bailed
out. I may have mentioned it
before, but I am sure we will lose our self-steering gear before the year is
out! The wind was in the South but it was
quite light in the lee of Groix, so on sailing out of Port Tudy and not really
knowing where to head for, we thought we would just stick our nose out past
Groix to see what the wind was really like. Finding that it was only a F3, we
decided to put the motor on and point towards Belle Ile, 20 miles to
windward. The swell increased and the wind
swung around a bit, allowing us to get to a point where we could beat towards
Sauzon, a small harbour on the NW tip of the island. The last hour got quite breezy, with 27
kts over the deck and a nasty chop on top of the swell (influence of the corner
of the island), so we were glad to get into the lee of the island and after
sailing 30 miles since leaving At Sauzon, you either dry out on the
sand, raft up to other boats on visitor’s fore-and-aft moorings, or take a buoy
in the outer harbour. We saw the
good ship Pickle on a buoy, and managed to get onto a buoy just in front of
them, our stern swinging about 2 feet from their mooring buoy (the buoys are all
very close in all of these harbours) with a few fenders strategically
placed. Very soon, Ed, Genie and Sam were on
board Nutmeg, the kids were all playing happily in the aft cabin and the adults
got stuck into the Pimms and a bottle of wine. Within 30 minutes of our arrival, the
wind got up to F7, so we felt lucky to be in shelter. Ed ferried us all ashore in Pickle’s
dinghy, and we went for a very pleasant meal at one of the small restaurants
along the harbour (this restaurant was literally Mum cooking on an Aga and
Daughter doing the serving – very small!).
Really great to catch up with Ed and Genie, and to pick their brains on
long-distance cruising.
(Ed and Genie Webb sailed around the
world on their Rival 38 Wandering Dream in four years, returning a couple of
years ago. They were certainly a
big inspiration to us in our planning phase and at one point we were seriously
considering buying Wandering Dream for this trip. They are the only people of our
generation that we know of who have pulled off a trip like
this) Genie, Sam and Ed Webb – sailing
legends More ice creams! Sam, Emilia, Jemima,
Ollie An accordion player was playing in
the street, so Sarah and the kids danced with the French children – very
enjoyable to watch! We spent a very rolly night on the
buoy. Not the best when you have
drunk the best part of a bottle of wine each. I got up at about 0400 to check all was
OK – there were lots of bumps and bangs, mainly as the buoy banged into the bow
– and saw Ed up on the bow of Pickle doing the same. In the morning, after Genie and Ed
kindly delivered us some bread and pains au raisin, we sailed in company along
the Northern side of the island, all the way to a long sandy beach (I don’t know
the name) on the Eastern end of the island. We tested out our DSC radios en route as
neither of us had used DSC before!
We anchored and spent the rest of the day in the sunshine on the beach
with Genie, Ed and Sam. A lovely
day. Sam, Jemima & Millie on the
beach at Belle Ile Ollie, Ed,
Genie Around 1630 Pickle headed back
towards Lorient, promising to get the kite up en route (we never saw it! :o),
and we sailed NE through the Passage de Teignouse with the wind and swell behind
us, before hardening up for a lovely flat-water 3-sail reach to Port
Haliguen. |