Brindabella

Due to some stronger winds we have been in Roscoff for a few days.

We woke yesterday ready to go to the Wednesday market in Roscoff. When we had walked into town we realised that it was in fact Tuesday and not Wednesday. With a quick change of plan we decided to catch the ferry to the Ile de Batz. We had lunch on the island and went for a walk around the Western end.

Ile de Batz is a really lovely unspoilt island. We have added some great photos to the photo's section of the blog. We have been here a few times before, anchoring in the channel between the island and the mainland.

Wednesday we left for Ile d'Ouissant. This is the most westerly point of France and where the Ushant traffic separation zone is for shipping moving between the Bay of Biscay and the channel.

There was a 2m swell running. We were travelling directly into the swell, smaller waves and for part of the trip also the tide. So it was a slow trip. Eventually after about 8 hours the island came into view. Ile d'Ouissant is a barren island battered by big seas and weather from the Atlantic.

We were heading to Lampaul which is around the top of the island and into a bay. However, as we got closer, the swell started to build. Fiona thought it was a bad sign when Simon got the harnesses to clip us both on and finally clipped Bella on as well. It was evident that we were heading to some large overfalls. These are rough waters caused by tide running up an underwater cliff. In fact, looking at the chart the depth changed from 90m to 20m. Within a further 2 minutes after clipping on, we had aborted the mission. The boat was spun around and we were heading away from the island. It just looked too dangerous ahead.

However... where were we going to go now. L'aber Benoit was about 4 hours back and Camaret was about 5 hours away. We were also needed to get Bella ashore as well.

On studying the chart, we thought that the Baie du Stiff on the Ile d'Ouissant could be sheltered from the swell, so we decided to take a look.

As we got closer the swell abated and we motored into a lovely still bay with a few moorings in. However, the events of the day were not over. As we got close to the morning, a very large dolphin found it very amusing to hit the mooring buoy just as Fiona went to pick it up. The final time, Fiona hocked the mooring with the boat hook, only for the dolphin to hit it very hard from below. This completely knocked Fiona over and onto the deck. We quickly got tied up only to see the dolphin watching us from a few feet away.

In fact, each time a fishing boat came into the bay, the dolphin did the same thing!

Once we were tied up, Simon took Bella ashore and we had dinner on board.

We will stay here for a couple of nights and explore the island.

Time: 10:30 hours Miles: 52nm Total Time: 71:00 hours Total Miles: 499nm