Cruising in France continues...

EXPLORING THE NORTHERN FRENCH COAST

Over the past several months, we've continued to base ourselves out of Treguier, BRAVO's birthplace, and an area of which we've grown quite fond.  It makes a good base to explore the region, and given the realities of visa restrictions (Schengen, British, and French long-stay visas are all in play), Covid restrictions, especially with our American (aka North Korean!!!) passports, and remaining boat bits to be finished by Boreal, we've settled into life in Treguier.

Work on BRAVO is nearly complete, with just a few items remaining on the warranty list.  We'll be hauling out next week for Volvo to remove and rebuild the gearbox, which has been giving us problems going into forward gear.  Hopefully that will just take one week.  A few last bits of sail work and miscellaneous other repairs and we should be good to go, as we prepare to head to the UK in late November.  (We'll have to quarantine for 14 days on arrival in Dartmouth, which will be our home for the winter at the town quay.  The nice harbormaster there has offered to bring us groceries to the quarantine mooring if we need it!!!).

Note that this post is a bit long, but it includes lots of photos, so hopefully it goes quickly.  If not, well, what else are we doing in these Covid days???

We've managed a few coastal cruises this summer, of one to two weeks.  All told, we've sailed a bit over 1100 nautical miles.  

Here are a few spots we've tucked into...

PAIMPOL:  

Paimpol is a sweet Breton village, just around the corner from Treguier as the crow flies, but better than 1/2 day away depending on the tides.  It is also at the end of a channel which dries at low tides, and access is via a lock, only reachable within 2 hours each side of high water.  

It was exiting the lock that we learned an ESSENTIAL lesson of maneuvering a centerboard boat.....with the board fully retracted in the UP position, they don't respond to the wheel worth a damn!!!  So, with our board up due to anxiety about depth in the lock (unfounded fear, as it turned out), when the inner gate opened to the little fishing village, we motored through with the concrete wall on our port (left) side, scraping our brand new rear corner for what seemed an eternity until we could get enough steerage to move away from the wall.  I'm sure it provided plenty of excitement to the locals and tourists who see locking boats as a major spectator event.  Ughhhhh.....Happily little damage was done except to our egos and a torn BBQ cover which Cindi had sewn the week before.  Lesson learned!   (Oh, the joys of a metal boat!!!   If this had been the teak rail and fiberglass topsides of old BRAVO, it could have been ugly!!!)

Paimpol is a pretty, traditional Breton fishing village, dating back to medieval times, which served as a major port for the Iceland and Newfoundland cod fishing fleet.  Looking out at the harbor, it was easy to imagine the port packed with fishing schooners, preparing for their long voyages, or returning home after months at sea.

The port is still a hub for local fishermen, and we enjoyed several days hiking and riding bikes to explore the area.  

The large tidal flats make it a major mussel and oyster farming area, and we enjoyed the sidewalk cafes around the harbor.

Boats drying out at the entrance to Paimpol

Bravo at the pier in Paimpol

ST. MALO:

St. Malo was another interesting stop on the Brittany coast with a fascinating history.  The walled city, founded by the Gauls in the 1st century BC, has been the fortified home to hundreds of years of privateers, corsairs, and pirates.  

 The walls protected the city from raiders from the sea, while the inner harbor gave safe quarter to the ships of the privateers living within.

These walls still stand today.  During WW II, Nazi soldiers occupied St. Malo.  As the allied forces pushed to liberate France, they repeatedly attacked and bombed the city, destroying many of the old buildings thought to house enemy forces.  After the war, the city was rebuilt, with the reconstruction successfully capturing much of the sense of history of the city.

St. Malo, painted c. 1900 by Emil Krause

Entering the inner basin after passing through the lock.  (photo from close to the same location as painting above)

Bravo is in the middle of this pic.

French sailors are some of the best racers on the planet, especially when it comes to single handed ocean racing.  St. Malo is the start of the Route du Rhum, a single handed trans Atlantic race from France to Guadeloupe in the Caribbean.  

The race attracts some of the worlds best, and the winners are permanently commemorated in bronze plaques, set as pavers into the sidewalk around the marina.  Here, for example, are the handprints of famous Loik Peyron, who won the 2014 event in 7 days, 15 hours on maxi trimaran Banque Popular VII.

YEE-HAH!!!  Must be a handful in a big blow on an inky night passage, especially single handed!!!  Here is BP setting a 24-hour solo record of 677 miles, in 2014!  With Armel Le Cleac'h aboard, she averaged over 28 knots!!!  (Current solo record, by Francois Gabart, also on a trimaran, MACIF, is 850 nm, set in 2018, average speed of over 35 knots!!!)

The St. Malo marina itself is fun to stroll, looking for past and present ocean race boats lying to pontoons and in boatyards all around the area.  These are boats that you just don't see in every marina!  Here is some of the local boat porn:

Kriter V is a legend, first racing in the Route du Rhum in 1978, where she came in 2nd, she is still ocean racing today after a major refit a couple of years ago.

Perfect single handed cockpit

Cindi chatting with the lock tenders as we exit the lock of St. Malo.

Iles de Chaussy:

This little archipelago sits nestled in the corner of the Bay of St. Malo.  Though it feels very remote, it's proximity to Jersey (in the Channel Islands), Granville and St. Malo makes it a popular boating destination.

Chaussy Sound is in the background, about 1 mile from our "remote" anchorage.

What a difference a mile makes!  We are anchored just beyond the white lighthouse barely visible on the horizon, to right of center.  We took the dinghy over here to Chaussy Sound to check out the scene.  This is in September, after kids are back in school, so we could imagine what it was like in summer....we liked our quiet anchorage spot, just over 1 mile away, much better!

Chaussy Sound, shown in the previous photo, is to the upper left in this shot.

Honfleur:

Together with mates Will and Jo aboard their new Boreal 47 SV FYNBOS, we headed to Honfleur in Normandy.  It was an excellent cruise, taking us past several of the landing sites of D-Day fame.  It was indeed sobering to think about the events of just over 75 years ago, and the many who lost their lives fighting on the beaches here.

Port of Le Havre, across the Seine river from Honfleur

Entering the Seine at sunset, under a squall

Although we were here after peak tourist season, the village is still a major stop on the French tourist circuit.  It was easy to see why!

FYNBOS and BRAVO outside the Honfleur basin.

St. Vaast:

We enjoyed exploring this little Normandy fishing port, and got out the bikes for a 40 km ride north to Barfleur.

This is the entrance channel at low tide!!!

Dining at Chez FYNBOS

Isle de Hebihens:

Spectacular view property on this private island.

Classic gaff rigged one design racing!

The Brittany coast is famous for it's rocks, as this unfortunate boat found out this morning.  We know, we touched one with our centerboard as well.  Happily for us the results were nowhere near as severe.

Happily watching the miles go by...

The Code Zero working fine in a light breeze!

Cindi on night watch in the dog house....dry and warm!!!

Back at our home base in Treguier

CRUISING, BRITTANY STYLE:  

OK, we've been sailing for over 50 years.  Yup, we're OLD!!!  And in all that time, being aground has always been high on the list of things to avoid!!!  Yes, it sometimes happens.  The old saying, "There are only two types of sailors...'Those who have been aground.....and liars'" really has truth to it.  (Yes, we have been aground!)

Neighbor with his outriggers deployed.

But here in Brittany, with the typical 30 foot tidal range, "taking the ground" becomes a way of life.  Indeed, boats are designed for it, and many make it an art form, living on their moorings on the beach, drying out twice every 24 hours.  

Cruising, Breton style, can mean searching for the next beach to dry out on, giving the sailor a beach condo in every little bay or harbor!

We decided that we needed to change the zinc anode on our propeller.  It had been 5 months since BRAVO was launched into the brackish water of the Treguier marina on the tidal Jaudy river.  Brackish water is hard on zincs.  So it was time for boat maintenance, Breton style.  With our centerboard boat, we would give this drying out business a try.  Big "gulp".

We found a likely beach in a deep bay on the west side of a small island Ile de Brehat, and taking a mooring buoy we dinghied in to shore on a scouting mission.  The idea is to find a nice flat sandy spot, in between other moored boats, where you can happily spend your hours going down on the tidal elevator, and then, hopefully, back up again!

Cindi on reconnaissance mission.  Note the red "channel buoy"!!!  This will be our entry point !

Having found our spot, the next day we positioned ourselves using both our main anchor, and our stern anchor set from the dinghy.  The water at that point was about 6 meters deep, and we just draw a little over 1 meter with the board up.  Since the tidal range for the day would be around 8 meters, we'd certainly be high and dry at low tide.  We secured the anchors, and sat around to wait.

Looking behind us, deeper into the bay, we watched as boats slowly began to show bottom paint.  The tide line kept getting closer....a very WIERD feeling!  We kept adjusting the tension on the stern anchor, winching it in as the boat went steadily lower.

Finally there was no denying it.....we were solidly on the beach.  We waited until we were high and dry, and scrambled down the ladder for a walk about.

All was fine.  BRAVO was perfectly level on the sand, allowing easy access to change the prop anode.

And then, after a couple of hours, we were floating again, and continued the journey!!!  Cruising, Brittany style!!!

Here's to hoping we get a vaccine for Covid soon, and that the US gets a badly needed new president!!!

STAY HEALTHY, EVERYONE!

Rolling the dice, in crazy 2020

It has indeed been a crazy year so far.  Covid 19 has turned everyone's lives upside down, and life for these voyaging vagabonds is certainly no exception.  All plans for heading north to Norway and Svalbard are on hold until next year, and due to our Venn diagram's overlapping circles of visas, virus closures, and seasonal weather patterns, it's become a real crap shoot to predict any itinerary for the next year.

Our full lockdown in France lasted for 2-1/2 months.  During that time we were basically confined to the boat in our closed marina here in Treguier (all marinas in France were officially closed).  All water sports and activities were forbidden.  As was bicycling on our new folding bikes.  We took our allowed daily 1 hour exercise walks, so got to know the area really well!  And the historic area is a beautiful region to explore.

View from our "front deck", up at the bow

A few views from our walks about town....

Sartorial splendor.....NOT!

Treguier is definitely off any of the global cruising routes.  Unlike, say Mexico, the Caribbean, or the islands of the South Pacific, the area sees relatively few international sailing visitors, particularly in winter.  And the virus shut down has made us even more of an oddity!!!  We've enjoyed meeting local Breton people who have all been friendly and welcoming.  We had a full page article about us in the local paper, and a French TV channel, recording a feature show on the Boreal boats and company spent quite a bit of time interviewing us for the program.

The other thing about the lockdown is that of course all non essential businesses were shut down as well.  So details remaining on BRAVO had to wait until Boreal could get back to work.  We also had several projects on our list to install, but these too had to wait until we could get missing parts and fabrications.  Arghhhh.....all dressed up (or nearly!!), and no where to go.

The currents here in the marina on the Jaudy river are quite amazing.  Our electronic "odometer", or log, records only in the forward direction, so only increases on the tide against the way we're facing.  Here we logged our first 200 miles while still tied to the dock.  (We're now at over 350, though we've only actually sailed less than 50 of those!!!)

Finally the lockdown in France has eased, in stages.  Happily the Treguier area, Departement 22, has been spared a large number of Covid cases, so we've felt quite safe here.  Most people are wearing masks, even on the streets, and they are required in most stores.  The Boreal team all masks up (as do we) when they need to work aboard.  Nearly all remaining projects have now been completed.  Rigging, canvas, sails, done, as well as our own projects, installing the watermaker and HF radios.....all aboard and working well.

Watermaker

We've now gone for a couple of sails, including a few days in the Ile de Brehat area.  Not far away, but it was great to test out all systems on the hook, as well as getting in some nice sailing in the light steady breezes.  Now we're waiting for the final payment on the boat to go to customs, so that we can receive our final documentation proving that no EU VAT (20% sales tax) will be owed for 18 months, as we're officially a boat for export out of the EU.  We'll then be clear to come and go as we please, though at this point, due to Covid, we'll be staying in France.  International borders remain largely closed, especially between the EU and UK. (Surprise!)   Hopefully it will open later in the summer, so we can get in some cruising around Britain before returning here for a few remaining boat tweaks in the fall/winter.

Back from a trip to the local oyster farm

Life at the marina hasn't been a bad place to spend lockdown (AT ALL!!), given many of the alternatives of cruising friends around the world.

Local artichokes are monsters, and sold everywhere in season

We're finally allowed to ride our new folding bikes, great fun, and good to expand our radius of exploration on land.  The little bikes ride really well, though pot holes are a bitch!!!  They live in the lazarette when not in use.

Boreal navy!   BRAVO on the left, SYL on the bow, with EGATTA, ASKELL WENN, NANOOK and TANGUERO behind

Anchored off of Ile de Brehat

We've seen some interesting boats around town.  This little guy, around 6 or 7 meters was apparently used in the single handed Mini Trans-At Race from France to Brazil quite a few years ago.  We loved the paint job!!!  (all of the rust, wrinkles, rivets, and holes are painted!!!)

But here was our favorite:  

Most days our walk took us over a bridge crossing the Guindy river.  We always admired this beautiful old wooden gaffer, tied up on shore.  

Wikipedia had this to say about her:

"This horn cutter was built in 1855. It served, until 1934, as a pilot cutter at the port of Saint-Hélier in Jersey. She is one of the oldest sailing ships that still sails. She was found on the banks of the Rance and bought by the navigator, writer and painter Yvon Le Corre. It was restored at the Conrad shipyard in Paimpol and is now used as a cruising sailboat for its owner."

Old and new

One day we saw a crowd aboard, and watched them shove off for a sail.  When we returned to our dock, we found GIRL JOYCE tied up to the dock, just behind us.  It turned out that famed Le Corre, now in his 80's, had just sold her to a new owner, and they had come to the dock to finalize the transfer.  We had a great chat with Yvon about his history with GIRL JOYCE (several solo expeditions to Antartica, the arctic, and points in between, as well as his exploits on his previous gaffer, a British "smack" named IRIS, before being ship wrecked off the Scottish coast.  

We were invited up to his studio in town, and we had a lovely visit there, chatting for a couple of hours about sailing ships, art, and travel (among his other amazing exploits, Le Corre had crossed the African Sahara twice, on foot, solo, just for the exploration of it!!!).  He shared his amazing life with us through his many sketchbooks (long ago, he was the documentation artist on an exploration schooner to Antartica).  A man who's truly led life to the fullest, we felt privileged to spend time with him.

So that's the story from Brittany.  It's great to see new BRAVO  finished, and we're eager to continue to explore the local region as we wait to see what the future holds for voyaging.....Stay healthy, everyone, and WEAR YOUR MASKS!!!  Hopefully we'll all roll 7's and 11's in the weeks and months ahead.....