Snork Maiden redux

Getting here Well, this has been a really odd trip in that it felt as though it was over before it began and the middle bit is like one of those dreams that you would really like to fall back into. After a really prompt launch, the time in PLF expanded to fill the weather – cold and often wet. Then we got started. Then Al got THE CALL – an offer he couldn’t refuse, so we put ourselves in serious delivery mode (5 knots under sail or else the engine goes on) and left Groix as soon as the wind dropped away from the enthusiastic F5-7 it had been blowing for the last 3 days. Not an early start since our destination (Belle Ile) could only be entered a couple of hours before high water. An uneventful but really enjoyable sail of just under 30 Miles (nautical ones, that is) with one reef in the main and the number 2 jib and steady NE 3-4s with a fairly flat sea ( I think it was what the French call ‘peu agitee’ (apologies for missing accents)). For landlubbers I can only say this is jus...

16 June Groix Today is biking day. We rent bikes from Bikini Bike Hire (really). It’s still pretty windy F6-7, but away from the harbour it is a bit more sheltered. We cycle first to Locmaria – I think I left the video camera case there yesterday (groan) with an SD card & spare battery in it… we put it down to bad juju from photographing the wreck. From there we went to St Nicholas – an inlet on the SW coast of the island, further North than Locmaria and shallow and sheltered today. It is hot and there are a couple of boats in there, one tucked right in with a stern line to the shore and one further out. Some people are spear fishing. Al goes swimming. It’s cold but he doesn’t mind that. If we get the chance we’ll take Snork Maiden around there. After a couple of hours there, we pedal off to the end of the island, to the lighthouse. It’s late in the day and deserted. We watch the gulls, one of which checks us out, walking about and looking at us. It looks comical with a st...

On the cliffs we saw gulls soaring and diving – doesn’t sound like much but they were so close we could see into their eyes. And why do they do this? It just looks like they are having fun – no feeding involved – is it something to do with social bonds? Lots of animals seem to have a happy hour or mad time when they just seem to do things because they feel good. Walking along the coast path hardly a kilometre away from the port, we come across an ancient looking circus tent. No caravans, or animals, even people, just the tent. I tightrope walk across the grass outside the tent and Al takes a photo but I just look mad. We walk around and find the entrance. It seems pitch dark inside. We call ‘Bonjour’ and a man emerges from the gloom. He tells us that there is no circus, now or ever. This circus has definitely left town, but the tent is used for summer festivals, dances, gigs… he’s probably making a living out of hiring this tired old tent to the commune for its summer enterta...

Port Tudy is an old tuna port. Whole island of Groix once depended on this fish for a living. Decades ago the tuna left and now the boats from Brittany go as far as the Indian Ocean. But not from Groix. The skippers from Groix were considered to be the best in France - hence the school, now deserted but having a face-lift, thanks to a Government grant or 2. Vive social democracy. We could learn a thing or 2 from the French. Island also complete haven for wildlife - birds, insects, wild flowers, rock pools full of shrimps, hermit crabs, little snails. Off on bikes for the (windy) afternoon.

Glenans & Groix Tuesday, June 15, 2010 This our second day here. Since leaving PLF (whew!) our sailing adventures have begun. Our first foray out tested the boat and us. She passed, we scraped by with a lost sail batten. Back to PLF to replace it and then out that afternoon to Iles de Glenans – home of one of the world’s best-known sailing schools, started after the war to raise the spirits of the ex-resistance French. We see the school fleet just about everywhere we go. The wind was from the North so we picked up a buoy on the south side of the sandbar on the main island. First we’d tried the N side – too bumpy so we moved. Unfortunately it was getting late in the day so the choice of parking spaces (buoys) was very limited, like a game of musical chairs. We managed to get one with enough water – just. At low water we had about 30 cm below the keel – like floating in a puddle really. Just after 2000 we got off SM and into the dinghy, hoping that the outboard that hadn’t ...

The Enchanted Forest – Port-la-Foret 11 June 2010 So blogging has taken a backseat in the scramble to get the boat ready for sailing, and to stay dry. In spite of carrying more recording technology that ever, we seem to be able to post less on the web! Have a new waterproof Sanyo Xacti but superannuated Powerbook groans under the task of processing its files and needs a futuristic version of Flash to get it on FB. So apologies for lack of pix. Will have a go at YouTube from café. The Marina at Port la Foret has very fine facilities, yes, even the showers are hot and free, but the Internet is badly represented in a draughty tent. Last night the table and chairs had been removed so had to sit on a very cold floor with a very intermittent signal. Oh the privations of a sailor’s life! The forest in ‘Port la’ used to be a very real one, probably stretching from here to the Channel. There are still some chunks of it to be seen between the commercial sheds, housing developments, camps...