Position:  47:52.55N 04:07.20W

Sainte Marine, France

I have to say, all these French ports are merging into one – a glass of vin blanc and I cannot distinguish between the different places we have been.  It is amazing to look back at where we were a week ago and 2 weeks ago and marvel at how much we have packed into each week.

We arrived at Sainte Marine in the early evening on Sunday, after a windless motor round the Point de Penmarc’h.  It was like being back in the Solent again – a steady stream of yachts and small fishing boats, all heading back into the Odet River after a sunny Sunday on the water. 

Rather than go into the big marina at Benodet, we moored alongside the long visitors pontoon on the opposite side of the river, at St Marine.  This is a lovely little place.  A cross between Bellagio on Lake Como, and Dartmouth – perhaps a generous description – but on a sunny day it is quite special.  There is a buzz of activity as all the boats come and go, and you walk off the pontoon straight into a beautiful café bar with overhanging trees for shade.  I walked round to the Capitainerie to pay and they couldn’t be more helpful.

Nutmeg alongside at Sainte Marine

We met all sorts of interesting people here – the Celtic Goodwill Raid rally was also in town – this is a low-key rally which starts in the Irish Sea, and gathers boats as it goes, all the way down to Lorient.  There was a great Hillyard which had a sizeable herb garden growing on the deck in a box (this has given Sarah all sorts of ideas – now on the lookout for herb plants), and had a hand-driven outboard engine!  In effect a big egg whisk, with a handle on the top which you turned to make the prop go round – I think they only had it to make people ask what it was!  Lots of lovely people stopped to chat.- very sociable place.

Monday Morning, Sainte Marine

We spent a rained-out day based at Sainte Marine and did a bus trip to Quimper.  We researched the PAYG 3G option and were thwarted as the only company in France to do it, Orange, required a French bank account and proof of residence in France.  So clearly we were being too clever – we’ll try again in Spain.  For now, we are using wifi in marinas (where we can get it – normally have to sit on top of the cabin to get a signal) and paying around 10 euros for 3hrs connectivity.  This is why we are only emailing/updating the blog every couple of weeks.

Quimper was nice, but very wet.  Lovely cathedral, lots of half-timbered buildings and I am sure much more on a sunny day.  We spent a happy couple of hours drying off in a creperie with hot chocolates!