Yacht Pipit

      

Concarneau, Iles de Glenan, 2nd September 2010

Pont de Cornouaille in the background.

We stayed in Sainte Marine longer than intended, in fact the longest we have spent anywhere, 10 days. We intended to stay there for a few days, but bad weather meant it was sensible to stay put. However, we really liked it there - Sainte Marine had a nice feel about it and, although in a marina, we had a lovely natural backdrop of woodland and nice views up & down the river. For some reason we had a double berth to ourselves for the whole stay, and because we stayed so long we got a discount - bargain! (well sort of...)


Return to Sainte Marine from a long walk to Ile Tudy.


Morning char and blue sky - time to move on...


On Saturday we finally left Sainte Marine and made the short passage to Concarneau - blue skies, sunshine but no wind, so a motor, which we didn't mind too much as it was only a couple of hours and we had new engine oil - it was just good to be on the move again in pleasant weather! We arrived in Concarneau at lunchtime, and spent the afternoon looking around the old town and the citadel (the Ville Close), next to which is the marina.


Concarneau Citadel.


Inside the citadel - the Ville Close.






On Sunday, another lovely day, we decided to go to the Iles de Glenan, described in the pilot guide as the closest thing to the Caribbean you'll find in France. Jamaica? No, she went of her own accord... (never thought I'd get that one in on these pages...) Anyway, we had an excellent sail across the 10 miles or so to the Islands, arriving at just about low water, so we had to thread our way very carefully to the anchorage (with the depth sounder often reading zero...) where we picked up a buoy. The excellent sail was of course due to good wind, which then never dropped below about 15 knots all day and night! As it was from the east it was cold too, so not exactly sitting on beach weather, even though it was sunny. The anchorage was busy, with many day visitors, and there was rather more 'entertainment' than was ideal - a yacht dragging its anchor and travelling through the anchorage towards us, the owner on board and apparently oblivious to what was happening, subsequently coming to rest against another yacht, a dropped boat hook, an escaped dinghy... It is indeed very pretty there, with white sandy beaches, one of which completely disappears into open water at high tide!

The beach disappears at high water...



It's still windy...


And so on Monday morning we set sail for Port Louis, across the river from Lorient - more on that story next time...