Thursday 9^th August – Arrival Camaret sur Mer

48:16.785N 4:35.345W

Today we arrived at Camaret sur Mer, just along the French coast from Brest, and were tied up alongside a large German yacht by 1700 – just under 28 hours at sea. 

The clear night gave a great view of the constellations and shooting stars as we sailed.

We arrived near the entrance to the Ushant TSS just before dawn and waited for the sun to come up before crossing the shipping lanes just outside of the TSS – even at dawn the traffic was quite heavy.  Having managed to sail all night, the wind eased and we had to start motoring. 

We continued under motor and approached Ushant during the morning with no wind and virtually no-one in sight.  The sea was flat calm (for a change) and it felt quite eerie with a slight haze over the land. 

Other vessels appeared as we cleared Ushant and we then came through the Channel du Four/  Channel de la Helle – the passage was smooth and uneventful with the tides at Neaps and virtually light airs. 

As we turned the final corner towards Brest the wind came onto the beam and we then had a lovely sail across the bay to Camaret.

We will explore Camaret tomorrow.  The interesting thing so far is the facilities – they are in the basement of a castle and the entry door is a coded entrance on a really thick heavy door. 

The weather is still glorious and the sun hasn’t stopped shining all day – it is really quite hot in Camaret, we seem to have found some summer at last.  Wow.

Now that we have reached France, the ships clocks will be moved forward by 1 hour tonight for local time.