Three nights in Belle Ile

A year afloat: to the Caribbean and back
Sam and Alex Fortescue
Sat 4 Sep 2010 09:52
47:22.16N
003:13.00W
 
Three nights on Belle Ile.
 
Communications have been somewhat interrupted by the refusal of our satphone to work. This is due to an oversight on my part, so there's no one I can obviously blame for the problem.
 
We left Port Louis on Wednesday 1 September - an auspicious day to begin a trip, we thought. It was a very agreeable broad reach over to Belle Ile en Mer - 20 miles to the southeast. We decided to eschew the cosmopolitan pleasures of Sauzon in favour of a very wild but beautiful anchorage on the west coast (pictures to follow). Barely the width of three Summer Songs, it was a challenge even to turn around let alone anchor, but we managed with the leisurely swell crashing on rocks just 25 metres from us. I din;t sleep much.
 
We were rewarded in the morning with the dawning of a beautiful warm day, and set off to explore the island. We walked the 5 miles to Sauzon, peering over the cliff edge into tiny isolated beaches below. Swimming is harder because the water is colder here - just 15 degrees. And there are some fairly dazed looking jellyfish bobbing at intervals. It's worth it, though!
 
Sauzon is a really sweet little fishing port with three harbours, one inside the next inside the next - like Russian dolls. It also dries lmost completely. So, last night we were obliged to pick up a visitor morring in the deeper water outside the mole, which is exposed to a very gentle, but irritating rolling swell from the north east. Nonetheless, we slept better than we would have done at anchor.
 
Marina (my mother in law) came out to meet is in Belle Ile yesterday, and we've been floating about for the last day. We had a really good seafood meal in Sauzon last night, featuring incredibly fresh mackerel, sardine and whitebait, washed down with a good Sancerre. It's now hard to even imagine getting up in the morning to go and work for someone. We're both considering taking up a life of gentle crime to fund endless cruising. If you receive an email from us offering you Nigerian millions in exchange for a £1000 banking fee, it's sure to be 100% genuine...
 
No lobster yet, Tim. Keep watching this space, though - would a langoustine do instead?!