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Delphinus

Family of 3 circumnavigating the globe

Vessel Name: Delphinus
Vessel Make/Model: Bavaria 44
Crew: Paul, Jayne & Lily
01 June 2015 | Western Brittany
21 April 2015
20 April 2015
04 August 2014 | Denmark
27 July 2014 | Sweden
20 July 2014 | Finland and Aland
25 June 2014 | words by Jayne
20 June 2014 | Riga
14 June 2014 | Lithuania
10 June 2014 | Gdansk
06 June 2014 | River Schlei and Nexo, Bornholm
30 May 2014 | Belgium and Holland
20 April 2014 | Brighton
20 March 2014 | French Waterways
19 August 2013
15 July 2013 | France
30 June 2013 | Sardinia & Corsica
10 June 2013 | Sicily, Italy & Malta
Recent Blog Posts
01 June 2015 | Western Brittany

Western Brittany

Strong winds were forecast so we took advantage of the good wifi in Brest Marina and caught up on blogs and admin, it's sometimes good when cruising to get a few days bad weather to stop you in your tracks and relax a little.

Northern Brittany, France

18 May 2015
words by Jayne
We arrived at the lock into St Malo just as the gates were closing so hooked up to a mooring buoy for an hour outside. Once into the harbour we were stunned to find the marina had disappeared and a new one being constructed, we moored alongside the harbour wall for 4 days free of charge which was a bonus. We had a great spot right next to the old town, very touristy but still keeping its charm, it was wonderful exploring the old cobbled streets within the city walls. One of our main reasons for visiting St Malo is that it’s the nearest port to Mont Saint Michel. A fascinating island with an historic monastery built upon it. Years ago the island would have been cut off from the mainland at high tide, nowadays there is a permanent road bridge connecting it, which kind of loses some of its charm. We walked to the train/bus station the following morning to get a bus but unfortunately we had missed it so after half an hour checking out car hire prices we hired a small car for the day. A couple of miles out of Mont Saint Michel we spotted a Chinese hitchhiker, who turned out to be Jimmy a foreign exchange student. We got along great and ended up spending the day together, we drove him back to the Dinan, a couple of miles from St Malo, where he as staying and he kindly gave us a tour around the town. It turned out to be a much more memorable day than we had expected.
From St Malo we had a great sail to Portreieux and then a short hop down to Paimpol, at low tide the sea is around 2 miles from the lock into Paimpol harbour and makes for very nerve wracking entry even at high tide, the entrance is peppered with fishing pots and underwater shellfish beds, rocks and sandbanks, somehow we made it to the lock entrance unscathed. The harbour was jam packed so we moored against another British boat owned by a great guy who had sailed it all around the world. We really enjoyed Paimpol and its lovely coastal walks. Just to the north of Paimpol is a small red granite archipelago, the largest of the islands being Ile De Brehat. We anchored to the SE of the island for a couple of nights and explored this lovely little island and its sandy beaches before another hop along the coast to Roscoff. For a large ferry port we were surprised how lovely the small town was and the marina was immaculate. We spent a couple of days there before heading off to L’Aberwrac’h a place which had been highly recommended to us. The sail there started off very uncomfortable as we rounded the headland north of Roscoff, heading directly into a huge swell up to 4 meters high and wind on the nose gave our skipper a nasty case of seasickness, not helped by a few too many drinks the night before. Once the sea calmed to a steady 2 meter swell and nice breeze we had a great sail into L’Aberwrac’h, thankfully Paul was feeling a bit better by then as the entrance surrounded by many rocks, with huge breaking waves, was very eerie in the swell, not for the feint hearted.
L’Aberwrac’h certainly felt more like the French harbours you read about, with people of all ages from toddlers to groups of school kids, teenagers to people well into their 80’s all out on the water doing a variety of different activities. It was a fantastic atmosphere watching the kite surfers, dinghy’s and old sailing boats out on the water. The small town is dominated by the marina and watersports and has only a handful of bars and restaurants. Jayne cycled with Alison, who we had met in Roscoff, to a nearby town for provisions (followed by tea and cake). After a couple of enjoyable days there we headed off towards the most north-westerly tip of France before turning south and onto Brest.
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