Dennis and I joined Renegade in St Quay on 2nd September and spent the next 24 hours sheltering from the weather. Although the journey from UK was somewhat complicated; train, plane, train and bus, St Quay made a good place to change crews, being accessable at all states of the tide.
The weather forecast was not encouraging, but a brief lull in the strong westerly winds provided an opportunity for Renegade to get back to sea. In W 4-5, with the occasional stronger gust we beat north to L'Ile Brehat. Then motored to windward through the Ferlasas Channel, to moor at Lezardrieux.
Dinner aboard was provided by the local traiteur and accompanied by Breton cider and bread from the boulangerie.
Next morning an early visit to the same boulangerie supplied croissants for the crew's breakfast.
Friday is market day in Lezardrieux, so we spent the morning stall gazing and adding to our supplies of essential items and some luxuries. We spent the afternoon investigating a malfunction in the bilge pump, so our time was not wholely given to pleasure.
We took the evening tide between deserted wooded banks up the Trieux river to Pontrieux, arriving just in time to pass through the lock into the yacht station.
As well as being a commercial port for sand barges, Pontrieux appears to provide moorings for superannuated ocean cruisers, and a few visitors like us. The town had a definite "out of season" air and we eventually found a creperie, which, unlike the other restaurants in the town, had decided that there was just enough trade for it to stay open.
To lift our spirits we stopped at the quayside bar for a coffee etc., where there was a group of youngsters in celebratery mood. We didn't discover what it was that they were celebrating despite their attempts to explain. And so to bed. In the few moments between our nightcap and bed we decided, contrary to our original plan, to leave Ponrieux on the morning tide and to investigate the Ile de Brehat.
So barely 12 hours after Renegade's arrival in Pontrieux we were passing through the lock in the other direction. Perhaps it was the proximity of so many yachts in an advanced state of decay, but we felt no desire to linger.
The Trieux looked, if anything, more deserted in the morning light. The same sand dredger, which had caused us to take evasive action the evening before, had another go, but this time on it's way to sea.
Passing our previous mooring on the pontoon at Pontrieux, we ghosted under genoa alone toward the open sea. Near the entrance to the Ferlas Channel we were hailed by an English yacht on her way to Harwich. She turned to starboard into the channel, but Renegade quietly took the northern route to the west of the Ile de Brehat.
We picked up a visitors mooring, but abandoned it when we calculated that Renegade would be well and truely aground at low water.
At this moment two French yachts sailed past us into the narrow drying Kerpont Passage between the islands. We decided to follow and , punching into a fierce tide, we sailed after them, eventually arriving in the Ferlas Channel, which presented a much calmer picture than when we had arrived only two days before. We found an anchorage out of the wind and tide and this time with sufficient depth. After lunch we joined the trippers ashore, who had crossed over to the island by ferry. There are no cars on the island, which is criss-crossed by narrow tracks, which link the settlements . Many of the houses are built of granite blocks, some are inscribed with 17th century dates and many stand in luxuriant gardens.
The sun shone, but the air was cool as the afternoon advanced. When the tide had risen sufficiently, we took La Trinite channel to Paimpol. I'm sure that you could have walked most of the route when the tide was out, but the depth sounder never registered less than 4.5 metres.
Paimpol harbour was crowded, but we just managed to squeeze in beside a sparkling new motor yacht.
Dennis and I rounded off another memorable Renegade day in a dockside restaurant.
Adrian
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