ALMA's SUMMER PLANS

Just to let everyone know our outline plans over the next two to three months. Dates are a bit flexible a few days either way but essentially the plan is to coastal hop down to La Rochelle by late August then make our way back north in September. Its fairly likely now that we'll bring ALMA back to Lymington for the winter. So plan is roughly as follows:

5/7 to 12/7 St Malo to Brest (with Doug, Edward, Lesley and Simon).

12/7 to 19/7 Brest to S Brittany

28/7 to 20/8 S Brittany to La Rochelle

26/8 to 10/9 La Rochelle to La Trinite (but alternatively may be in Les Carroz 26/8 to 1/9)

14/9 to 18/9 La Trinite to Brest

29/9 to 9/10 Brest to Lymington

Let us know if you'd like to join us for some sailing this summer. We'll update the timetable/plan when we see how we're progressing and we hope we'll be able to base ourselves for a week or two late July/early August reasonably close to Nantes and then later in August in La Rochelle, both of which should be good locations for flights from the UK.

Next update from north Brittany/Brest!

Best wishes

Iain and Helen

Now in St Malo, city of Corsairs, after a great sail from St-Q-P - but encounted our first fog with viz at times down to a few hundred metres. Thankfully we were well away from shipping lanes and very thankfully Alma has radar! However, it's still sobering when a fishing boat suddenly looms out of the mist.

A great walk around the old walls of the St Malo with lovely views of the Rance and the fortresses protecting the bay of St Malo which has been rebuilt after WW2 and still has an old feel even though approx 80% was rebuilt. (Jacques Cartier who discovered the St Lawrence River in 1534 while seeking a NW passage to China was born in St Malo)

We are in the Bassin Vauban (named after the architect of Louis XIV) on the edge of the old city - great location.

Now closing up the boat. Next few weeks in the UK - look forward to catching up with everyone there - then in early July, we're planning to sail from St. Malo to Brest and then on to southern Brittany in search of warmer weather!
Best wishes, Iain and Helen.

Enjoyed wonderful seafood in this area esp. oysters (the very best apparently come from Cancale just east of St Malo), lobster, crab (esp. araignnees), mussels, prawns, langoustines, shrimps, scallops (unfortunately the season is Nov to April and this area is said to be the capital of the scallop industry) and the shellfish(not so popular with Iain), bulots(whelks), bigorneaux(winkles), petaniques etc

Jersey, Saint-Quay-Portrieux, Binic, Paimpol, St-Q-P, Binic, St-Q-P to St. Malo

Left Channel Islands on 4th June - we really like its Britishness, friendly/polite islanders and the unspoilt countryside with lovely beaches.

We had a great sail to France (42 miles), arriving at St-Q-P as it is one of only a few marinas in this area with no tide restrictions on entry. It is a big modern marina but in a nice village with a great coastal path GR34 - the old customs path is now part of this path along the French coast from Calais to Nice.

Pete and Steve arrived on Saturday - great to catch with 'old' friends. They have a 28 metre Dutch barge on the River Saone near Dijon and live a life of permanent summers with 6 months in Melbourne and 6 months in France - sounds tough, doesn't it

Had a great week sailing with them. Visited Paimpol and Binic (both major ports in 19th century for cod fishing in Newfoundland and Island. For some unknown reason, the Paimpol cod fishing boats were called the 'Dundee' - must be a Scottish connection. These ports dry to about 6 metres. Timing critical wrt entry)

We spent a very wet day on the Isle of Brehat (France's first protected countryside area, wearing all of our wet weather gear!

SARK, HERM AND JERSEY

We're now in Brittany at St Quay Portrieux about 35 miles west of St Malo. Decided to bypass St Malo as we're keen to see smaller ports and we've been to St Malo before - although it is a wonderful town. Also crossing directly here from Jersey saves us a day's travelling so hopefully will enable us to get to south Brittany earlier.

We greatly enjoyed the Channel Islands - definitely recommend a visit. Friends Geoff and Shirley joined us in Guernsey and we set off immediately for Sark about 10 miles east of Guernsey. Wonderful, peaceful island - no cars! Just to the west of Sark is the island of Brecqhou owned by the Barclay brothers - owners (last I heard) of 10% of InterContinental Hotels!! They've built an extraordinary castle there - quite weird.

Next day off the Dielette on the French coast SW of Cherbourg - another lovely small port - great moules et frite!! But no shops so had to walk 2k to nearest village - luckily caught a bus back. Following day sailed back towards Sark and Herm but too rough to anchor overnight so went back to Guernsey. Sailed over to Herm on Sunday and anchored up for a few hours so we could walk around the island - its only about 1 mile by 1/2 mile! Getting in the an anchorage is quite tricky as the island is surrounded by rocks and the tides are fairly strong but GPS and electronic chartplotters are a great help. Scenery is magnificent - wonderfully unspoilt (again no cars) with beautiful wild flowers. The island is leased by Guernsey to private individuals - at one time the author Sir Compton MacKenzie.

Unfortunately Shirley had to return to work on Sunday (well I suppose someone has to) but Geoff was able to stay on for the trip to Jersey. Another beautiful day and a great sail. This is an exceptional period of good weather - not only sunny but winds almost perfect for sailing.

We'd been told that Jersey was much more commercial than the other islands and so it is but away from the capital St Helier there is lovely peaceful countryside and charming hamlets. Geoff and I cycled round the island (about 40 miles) - Geoff is in training for a cycling holiday so had no difficulty but I took a few short cuts! Great scenery and great food - especially seafood and of course Jersey Royals (new potatoes). Would be a great place to retire to!

Met up with some ski friends here - Doug who lives here and who kindly took Helen around the island (she preferred being driven around to cycling with Geoff and me) and another friend Mike who Helen met when she was a ski rep in Andorra - small world!!

Geoof left for the UK on Wed and so Thursday 0600 Helen and I set off for France (high tide was at 0430 and we had to get out the marina early while there was still enough water over the sill at the entrance). Terrific sail and arrived in St Quay to begin the Brittany leg of our tour. Friends from Australia, Steve and Peta, are arriving Saturday (from Burgundy where they spend their (Northern hemisphere) summers on the canals on a fantastic Dutch barge. Look fwd to catching up with them. Next blog will update on the N Brittany coast. Also, will add some photos from Channel Islands shortly.

Hope everyone's well.
Iain and Helen