QUIBERON AND THE LOIRE

After our friends Nick and Lindy left from Concarneau we continued east along the Brittany coast towards the Quiberon bay and the Loire visiting en route Lorient (just an overnight stop), Crouesty (great base for exploring the nearby Golfe de Morbihan – but as it was a strong spring tide and very busy we stayed in Croesty; we explored the Morbihan on bikes and Helen took a vedette cruise – looks a great area for nice anchorages but just too busy in August), Les Roches Barnard on the Vilaine river (this is a really beautiful and peaceful river – we stayed 3 days but we could feel ourselves getting settled down and seduced by the tranquillity and could have stayed a long time just chilling out – we met a British couple on an Endurance 45 who had arrived early July and were still there mid August!! We will go back there), Pornichet/La Baule (one of France’s main seaside resorts with a fabulous long sandy beach; we also cycled to the nearby village of Guerande famous for its salt – wonderful, ancient walled village) and finally south of the Loire to Pornic. We’d thought this summer we would get quite a bit further south but there’s been so much to see we’ve made slow progress so now we’re heading back north again. We returned to Pornichet and have left ALMA there while we return to the UK for a week to catch up with family and friends. When we return to the boat on 26th Aug we have friends Tim and Chris visiting for a few days then we plan to get ALMA back to Brest by 17 Sept for a final leg back across the channel to UK for the winter. So sad that summer is fast coming to an end. But now planning for next year!!

The weather has been great on this leg of the cruise and we’ve had some wonderful sailing – incl a few days with the gennaker up enjoying lovely reaches in 8 to 12 knots of wind, sunny blue skies and 25 deg C – just perfect!! Still not confident about gybing the gennaker with just 2 of us but with a snuffer its easy to just snuff it, gybe the boat and then fly it again. Great fun.

We’ve also managed to do a bit of fishing on this leg and had our best ever catch – Helen caught 3 lovely plump mackerel within minutes of putting the line out!! Lunch within an hour – so fresh; superb. Great feeling to eat so well for free (well almost, we spent 85cents on bread!). Next step is to start catching lobsters!!