15 AND 16 JULY DUARNENEZ AND OFF TO THE SOUTH COAST
On Wed the weather settled down enough for us to move on to Duarnenez (about 30 miles) although the first part of the sail as we headed out of the Camaret bay was quite rough as there was still a significant swell after the storm. Surprising how long it takes for the sea to settle after strong winds. Duarnenez was interesting - it used to be the world's leading city in sardine exports in the 19th century and still claims to be the place where the best canned sardines are to be found. Duarnenez sardines are fried, dried, and then put in a can ("préparées a l'ancienne"), whereas most other countries processing consists of steam cooking once the fish is canned. Sadly the fishing of sardines in the bay has died out as the sardines just stopped coming - not surprising really when you consider the vast quantities that were caught each year.
We'd decided to visit Duarnenez to see two friends who work in one of the restuarants in Flaine in the Alps where we ski. They were shocked, but I think delighted, that we'd made the effort to visit them in Duarnenez. I don't think they see many UK visitors in Duarnenez!
Thursday the weather forecast was just good enough for a major part of the journey - from Duarnenez through an infamous channel called the Raz de Sein and round the SW corner of Brittany onto the south coast. It was a long day, 64M, and as the wind was from the SE, almost dead ahead, it took us nearly 12 hours. But finally we were in south Brittany. The weather is supposed to be significantly better on the south coast. Well it wasn't this week. its been wet, very windy and quite cool. Grim in fact. We'll keep heading south until it gets better.