Dandelion 93

 

Stargazer top and tails a day, which brightens as we travel east, with classic company. The resourceful Roscoff berthing team, out in their RIB marshalling boats on arrival, at this busy time of year, find Stargazer a space, in a quiet corner of the port, amongst the smaller, local craft.

Last night, the Fifers Moonbeam V (pictured) and Mariquita arrived in L'Aber Wrac'h. Ahead of a rolling grey blanket of fog. Which brought an early dusk.

As Stargazer left, in today's pre-dawn twilight. Their lithe hulls glowed an ethereal white, amid the dark silhouettes and shadows of the estuary.

Clouds cloak a breathless sunrise. An oily swell rolls across an otherwise still sea.

Stargazer's engine will be getting some exercise, if we are to make progress today. In just three to five knots of wind.

Six hours of sluicing tide races around this north westerly corner of Brittany. Predictable and reliable. When the breeze decides to turn fickle. With no change to the throttle settings, Stargazer's speed leaps from four to six knots, sometimes seven, abreast a hazy Ile Vierge.

The tide has us in its grip. Hurtling Stargazer east, to the Ile de Batz. On a, two to three knot, watery conveyor belt.

The sight of a ferry, loading at the Roscoff terminal, is our cue to dismount.

Stargazer skirts the reefs and crags. Down into the Baie de Morlaix. Picking her way past the (drying) Vieux Port. To be greeted by the Roscoff RIB riders.