1-5 June: Passage details - Douarnenez to Belle Ile via Loctudy,River Odet and Concarneau
Gaudeo
John and Prue Quayle / John Quayle
Fri 1 Jun 2007 17:45
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Douarnenez to Belle Ile: 1st - 5th
June.
Early departure from Douarnenez on
a murky day with slight SW head wind in order to get to the
Raz de Sein at slack water. The evil reputation of this turbulent rock
strewn point at any other time, especially with a spring tide,
makes precise arrival important. A remaining westerly swell after last
week`s gales took its toll on the newly joined crew member who remained confined
to quarters until an hour or so of our completing an otherwise uneventful
60 mile passage to Loctudy.
We had not visited this port before and were
pleasantly surprised by the happy combination of a busy fishing port and
yachting centre, and the pretty picture-card Breton village of Ile
Tudy nearby with its magnificent beach. The lure of an excellent fish
market, particularly the plentiful supply of native oysters (not as easily found
in Biscay as the Pacific oyster) and live langoustine, dictated a further
night`s stay, an easy decision since spring tides and thick mist,
caused by a ridge of high pressure across Biscay, had ruled out our
usual sun drenched sojourn on Iles de Glenans.
Onwards then to the beautiful river of
Odet up toward Quimper, 10 miles inland, the attractive medieval
capital of the region. Crew hunger and tides militated against the final
push upstream as we approached a splendid chateau, Keraudren,
described in Frank Cowpers 1900s "Sailing Tours" as " a new and rather
stuck-up-looking chateau", where we anchored for a more
than ample lunch, during which we were entertained for
approximately half an hour by a friendly, playful bottle nosed dolphin
which virtually posed for photographs (attachments later) and used our anchor
chain as a back scratcher. The presence of circular scars around its
neck suggested previous entanglement in fishing nets, and a wedge on the
dorsal fin indicated another major incident. Extraordinary that he should
have ventured so far up the river to find us - must have heard corks popping!
The windless day gave way to a perfect evening
off-shore breeze to carry us on to Concarneau, a bustling fishing harbour
with charming granite castle on an central islet - 14th C, completed
with ramparts in 17th C - where were to rendez-vous with
a service engineer for our Eberspacher marine air heater which had been put
out of action by water ingress during the earlier bumpy passage down
Cardigan bay. Though there were groans from the crew who felt that
it was inappropriate to waste time on a piece of equipment which may not be
required for at least a year, it was fixed with remarkable speed and
flourish to allow us to enjoy a trip around the castle. Its narrow alleys
of shops offered mouth watering confectionary, nautical Breton clothing,
surprisingly tasteful tourist trinkets, and delicious ice cream of every
imaginable flavour, whilst echoing around the fortified inner courtyard,
were sounds of Celtic music provided by a highly talented group of
musicians - Gaudeo now has copies of 2 CD recordings, an essential
purchase for which to remember the occasion.
As it was her last night, Andria treated us to Chez
Armande`s harbour side restaurant - the rotund, lugubrious,
physiologically much advanced chef being the very archetype of
his profession, a cardiac case in waiting - and scrumptious fish courses
were liberally washed down with a Dezat Sancerre and Pinot Noir, and
puds with an excellent Coteaux du Layon.
With sore heads, and in a light NE breeze
and burning haze, Gaudeo cast off for Belle Ile, a lazy 50
miles SE and to the present pretty and almost deserted
anchorage in Port Kerel on the West coast. This side of the island has
previously been denied to us on account of its exposure to
prevalent SW winds and westerly swell, though I had visited the Grotte de
Apothicairerie ( this must have been study leave) a little north
of the present anchorage by bicycle - not my favourite means of
transport- after a marathon sailing/gastronomic week in bad
company in the mid
70s. |