Position:  48:46.28N 03:35.25W

Trebeurden, France

We left Treguier after planning our passage to Trebeurden meticulously.  Although it is only 30 miles, there are numerous things to make it interesting.  First is that the tide runs diagonally through the marina at a fair lick, so you can only leave 30 mins either side of slack water.  Next, you need to get the fair tide out of the river and along the coast.  Then, you must avoid the Sept Illes and various other rocks along the route. The sea kicks up (as we found to our cost) between the mainland and Sept Illes, making life quite uncomfortable.  Then, entry to Trebeurden is completely exposed to the West, and cannot be entered for 3 hrs either side of Low Water.  What fun!  Good revision of all that Yachtmaster theory I did and never used 12 years ago. 

It was all timed to perfection, and going well until we hit the rough stuff through the Sept Illes channel.  We were earlier than planned due to more current than expected, and the ebb tide ran into the Atlantic swell coming in from the West.  This is the first time we’ve really encountered Atlantic swell – it’s majestic stuff even here where the wave height is no more than 1m.  The distance between crests is huge, and the waves come over so slowly that they are almost imperceptible – until you add in a wavetrain from a different direction, when it all gets lumpy.  This one lurched Nutmeg from side to side quite violently and unfortunately “mal de mer” got the better of Jemima and Sarah.  At one point they were both being sick out of each side of the cockpit!  Nice.  Fortunately they both immediately felt better and the sea calmed as we turned South towards Trebeurden. 

As we arrived, the wind dropped and we noticed a few local boats anchored off a lovely sandy beach on a tiny islet opposite Trebeurden (Ar Gouredec), so we figured, given we needed to wait for the sill to open into the marina anyway, that we would anchor off, pump the dinghy up, and head to the beach, so, conning the boat in on the depth sounder (we didn’t have a large-scale chart) we anchored off and went ashore to one of the nicest beaches we’ve been to.  Lovely sand and rocks.  The girls were, as usual, in seventh heaven and paddled and ran about. 

Ar Gouredec, nr Trebeurden

The rocks were literally covered in mussels so, after checking that it was OK in Pidgin French with a local who was collecting them in a bucket, we filled the kid’s buckets with the biggest mussels we could find and, as the tide started to cover the beach, headed back to Nutmeg and headed into the marina which by now was accessible. 

The girls washing their babies.  Nutmeg in distance

On entering the marina, a youth in a dory told us to find a space bows-to on the first pontoon.  We raised our eyebrows at the lack of space but nevertheless this was the only option.  We then had one of the most stressy berthing experiences so far.  Having scouted for a space from outside the marina sill, we came in, motored up the very narrow channel, to find that the space we thought was there was actually not.  So, against the wind, we had to reverse back up the channel (it was too narrow to turn in – if you had swung a cat it would have scratched the boats on either side) which we managed successfully – God knows how.  

We then spotted a space and managed to execute a neat 3-point turn with no more than 10cm clearance on bow and stern (I kid you not) and came in.  Several Brits came to our assistance, which was kind and also necessary because we then realised there was half a knot of tide taking us away from the pontoon.  We got warps on and winched ourselves into the pontoon but unfortunately scratched the bow against a ladder on the way, which was annoying.  I got on my high horse and galloped off to the Capitainerie to give them my views on berthing arrangements, but was quickly unseated by the simple fact that there was no-one around at all, despite signs saying they should be open.  Time to chill out and remember we are not in the Solent now.

Sarah cooked the moules (which were polished off by the resident piglets quick smart) and we retired.