Camaret-sur-Mer to Sainte Marine 65nm
Wednesday 22 July
We had a nice wind leaving pretty Camaret and had main, Yankee and staysail pulling us along gurgling through the flat sea.
Turning the corner we put away both headsails and got Lily up. Then the wind died.
We wanted to make the tidal gate of Raz de Sein by Brest high water so we motored through past the light house and rocks and inside the Isle de Sein enjoying up to 3.5 knots of tide helping us along.
We saw dolphins – only a couple came over to say hello – 4 knots is not as exciting as 9 knots I guess – and gannets feeding in a big boiling mass. One of the boats sailing along with us was a catamaran with Chinese junk sails.
As we crossed the Baie d’Audierne the wind filled in to 8 knots and we got Lily up again.
We are always a lot happier when we can turn off the engine – which has been behaving well after its moment off Aber-Wrach.
We turned to port to make our last approach to the Bénodet river and the wind died again so we discussed dropping Lily –
But she was having none of it and summoned a lovely 12 knot wind as we hardened up – we now had a beautiful wind angle for our asymmetric Lily and stormed along at 8 knots – sadly we had to drop the sails to go up the river.
Benodet itself is on the East side of the river and we stayed out Saine Marine on the West bank – all the locals we’ve met think Benodet is a dump but that Sainte Marine is lovely. We thought the river was charmante with lots of happy boaters and pretty views in every direction.
The port staff were very helpful but the marina office is miles away – so I stayed at the pizza restaurant next to it and waited for the boys to turn up – with a nice piscine of rosé.
Sam and David swam off the boat to cool down – first time so far. The endless summer continues!
David has a new toy: check out this video!