Yacht Pipit

      

Port Louis, 3rd September 2010

We left the windy Iles de Glenan early on Monday morning, sailing past another boat motoring out of the anchorage, and had a perfect sail for a couple of hours before the wind gradually decreased, and so on came the iron tops'l... There are a number of marinas in Lorient, but we decided to go across the river to Port Louis, a world away in character from Lorient but only 10 minutes by ferry. This turned out to be a good choice, the marina has clearly been improved in the last year, with good pontoons, the staff were friendly and helpful, and the showers, albeit in a Portakabin, were free, with very good pressure and hot! Port Louis itself is a quiet and pretty little town, with an impressive Citadel, although a bit lacking in shops - we had to resort to the store cupboard for a couple of meals.





















Port Louis Citadel.


On Wednesday we took the ferry across to Lorient to visit the submarine pens, but we couldn't find them (big concrete buildings with submarines in them, but that's not important right now...) To be fair the ferry 'terminal' is in the back end of an industrial part of town and the map we had wasn't very detailed, and as we were on foot we were not homing in on them quickly enough before they were due to close, so we aborted the mission. The next day, after a bit of investigation, Ann discovered that there is a bus that runs from the ferry terminal to the submarine museum. Andy, not being familiar with buses (the last one he went on was in Italy over 10 years ago, and then he got trapped trying to get out through the 'in' folding door...), was a bit hesitant about the prospect, but in the end there was no-one else on the bus, so it was a bit like, well, being in one's own car...

The museum and visit of the submarine was excellent, sobering in places, and the submarine had 'that' smell of oil and bakelite - very atmospheric. The bunks made those of a Bavaria 36 look positively palatial, and we don't have torpedo tubes for company either... Alas we don't have many photos - verboten, but more info here for those interested.


Looking across the river to the submarine pens in Lorient.


Ah, there they are...


'Flore', a Daphne class diesel submarine, in service from 1964-1989.


Eyeing up tomorrow's competition - see the next report...