Stargazer swoops from crest to breaking crest. Two reefs in the main. Seeking the gap in the reef, through which she must pass. The height of the seas, and the salt caked upon her skipper's spectacles, serving to obscure the buoyage.
Our day, of scenic and sailing superlatives, began with a martian sunrise. Lighting a sea ruffled by twelve knots of easterly breeze.
We beat east. Our tacking angle flattered by, the power of, a favourable spring tide. Which courses around the Cote de Granit Rose, at between three and five knots.
Les Sept Iles are lit by an ethereal golden glow. Fitting colouration, for the main island, which I call Aslan. For it reminds me of a recumbent lion.
Stargazer stands close in, beneath Men Ruz. The gateway to the pink granite wonderland, of Ploumanac'h. Where a Tolkienesque castle forms the centrepiece of an amphitheatre filled with nature's granite sculptures. In a fantastical landscape, which is rock and water, in equal parts.
Stargazer tucks the first reef into the main. The breeze eigthteen knots, gusting twenty. A wind-over-tide sea beginning to build. Salt spray starting to fly.
We take our second reef, as the wind increases to twenty two knots, making better than seven knots over the ground. In preparation for Stargazer's entry to the river Jaudy. Which has a wavebreak of reefs and islands at its mouth, that confuse a stranger's eye. Even with the benefit of modern navigational aids. The more so, when the locals take to a rock girt shortcut.
Within, peace reigns. Wind and sea quelled, by the topography of a majestically meandering watercourse. Which sweeps sinuously beneath high banks, clad in rolling corn fields and wooded dells.
Around one last bend, a tall perforated conical steeple stands proud, upon the river cliff. Stargazer has arrived in Treguier.
Picture Credits
Stargazer track screenshot courtesy of MarineTraffic.com
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