It was a short trip to get from L'aberwrac'h to Roscoff and the last for Kim, Bells, and (little) Whistle who would be returning to England on a Brittany ferry to Plymouth in order to comply with Defra regulations. We also needed to get the dogs to the vets at Roscoff to get their papers stamped up with their worming treatment (needed no earlier than 5 days and no later than 24 hours before the ferry sails) administered by the vet. We kept a close eye on the forecast and decided to depart with a few days grace - definately didn't want to miss the ferry scheduled. We checked the tides and we left after filling the diesel tank as we had found out that the new marina at Roscoff which is not yet finished had not any diesel available yet. The understood pontoons had water but no electricity we also found out and this was reflected in the fact we would only be charged half the usual tariff.

We left L'aberwrach (where we had enjoyed some fine food again) at about Low water having gone up to the top of the harbour to peer out to see - visibility was pretty bad with fog coming and going. We decided to go and once we were out and went through a fog bank the vis did improve a little thankfully. Not much wind but what there was pushed us on down the coast, and the tidal flow meant we were doing about 7.5 knots over the ground. I decided to give us a bit of a safety margin with the rocks and navigational points of interest in view of the strong tides and not great vis. We saw a few other yachts going our way, and a fishing boat as we neared Ile de Batz. I had read up on the short cut inside Ile de Batz but as we were making such good speed over the ground and were probably a bit early in that it was about mid tide and big springs so decided best to go round the outside (north) of the island and save the Batz channel for another day - plus the fog was still lingering so no point in going in there and losing vis! A couple of yachts went through the channel which I calculated saves about 3nm and we gave the off lying rocks on the north of the island a wide berth and met the yachts that did the channel as we came in towards the ferry terminal. Down with the sails and we had checked the Brittany ferry timetable so no big ferries due to be entering or departing thankfully. All very new and no point in looking at the chartplotters as we searched for the new marina - plus Reeds Almanac is wrong on the entrance for the new marina - it is entered by the north entrance within the fishing port and just south of where the large ferries dock - oh and although it is referred to as 'Roscoff Marina' it is actually at port Bloscon more precisely. The entrance was easy keeping a sharp lookout for fishing boats movements, and there are traffic signals which should be obeyed when departing etc We were met by a nice chap in a RIB and shown to a space - there were plenty to choose from with the marina less than half full. We berthed next to a friendly French couple on our port side with an Ovni, and an English couple with an immaculate Halberg Rassey 42 on our starboard side. We were able to have a look around the Halberg which was very kind of them - maybe one day?

We found the cafe at the ferry terminal very friendly and did a mean deal on chicken wings and chips - so we went over there a few times in the following few days. There is not a supermarket nearby and with no electric (and our gas run out) our cooking options were rather limted. We also found a very friendly lady taxi locally who took us with the dogs to the vets in the next town - she had dogs too so was more than happy to transport Bells and Whistle! The vet was very friendly and we were a little surprised that even fussy eater Bells scoffed the tablets down like they were treats – Whistle wanted more! Kim was very relieved as had been a little worried about getting the dogs ready for the trip on the ferry. We went for a pleasant walk passed the gardens nearby and up the river a little to a small beach – it is really a very nice place to visit and we said ‘we must come back here and visit properly exploring further up river) Keeping an eye on the weather for the final trip back across the English channel to ‘Blighty’ and Kim’s brother Mike expected on Friday by ferry to join me for the sail back to England whilst Kim would be getting onboard the ferry with Bells and Whistle to meet us in Plymouth – bit of a Top Gear challenge with ferry vs Petrella!.....