Brittany sailing trip – Sept 2009
BISC keeps on expanding! We broke new territory again this year with an exciting flotilla sail along the coast of Brittany.
This is a challenging area to sail in with strong tidal currents, multiple shallows, rocks, fisherman’s pots and oyster beds to contend with in order to reach lovely coves and harbours. The area is very well buoyed and we had all the necessary charts and tide tables, yet the trip was a serious test of our navigational capabilities. Fortunately we didn’t hit anything (but went aground once – see later).
The weather could only be described as fabulous. We had a lot of fun weaving our way up narrow estuaries in the sunshine, to visit charming fishing villages such as Auray and Le Bono as well as on the way back squeezing through the narrows out of the Gulf of Morbihan into the Bay of Quiberon.
Having entered the bay area we headed off to Quiberon where we stayed for two nights, enjoying the super fresh sea food (the on-board hammer was put to good use cracking open the giant crabs) and making a day excursion to Belle-Isle en Mer.
Seeking even more adventures, we sailed out to the ring of islands and took off in the dingy to set foot on a beautiful sandy beach on the island of Hoyaut, before returning on board to enter the internationally famous trimaran harbour of Trinity sur Mer. Impressive!
The last day rounded off a brilliant week with fresh winds enabling us to reach 12 knots on the lead boat. The only problem being we had to heave-to in order to slow down enough to photograph the other boat (sorry Roger!). Still, his boat did get into the final mooring point without going aground (which is what happened to the lead vessel just 10 meters from the end …
We plan to have a presentation and training evening session during the winter months based on this trip, as there was lots to learn from this challenging week and it will be fun to recount all the stories. Please send me photos on CDs if possible, so thatI can use them for the evening as well as putting a few up on the web site.
My apologies to those who I could not include in this particular trip as we were full and needed more skippers. We were really packed in. You will have priority should you apply in time to join a future trip.
Keep your eye on the BISC program for the presentation evening and more on similar BISC adventures.
Leslie Seymour