Off the Beaten Track

Construction of Roscoff's Port Bloscon marina - it must be six or seven years ago - has transformed the cruising status of this north west corner of the Baie to Morlaix. It is now an established all weather stopover on the cruising highway between chilly northern Europe and sunny south Brittany, Spain and Portugal. For some, including these drone flying Polish mariners, this passage west is to get into position for the annual, trade wind, November / December Atlantic crossing to the Caribbean. For most it is the summer cruise, with a return north for autumn.

Port Bloscon is built in the shadow of Roscoff's ferry port. On a still day, like today, the 'bing bong' announcements, calling passengers to the departure gates, can be heard echoing out. This adds to the sense of this port as a functional and efficient, but rather impersonal (in the way that an international airport is), crossroad of the seas.

A fifteen minute walk north reminds me how things were, in the Baie. The Vieux Port dries at low tide.

To the extent that local owners dispense with the dinghy, when visiting their moored craft, and simply walk. The tidal range here is six to seven metres. So it is only ever a short wait for those critical two metres of water, which make the difference between sailing and walking.

When I visited the Baie de Morlaix, aboard Goblin, it was off the beaten track for cruising sailors. Only those possessed of a vessel able to take the ground, and a certain independence of spirit, could make use of Roscoff harbour. The received wisdom was that it was a fishing port, not welcoming of leisure sailors. Most sailed past, without entering the Baie. The rest of us dashed past the harbour, making for the Morlaix river, at the foot of the estuary. Hurrying to catch the rising tide, in the tortuous drying river channel. To carry it, five miles inland, up to the security of the lock at the head of navigation. Beneath the famous Morlaix viaduct.

I suspect that the Baie itself remains off the beaten track. I do hope so. The majority of boats are scampering through, bound west or east. This leaves the inner Baie, and its many potential anchorages, for quiet exploration. An option which the light winds and sunshine, forecast for the next week, only encourages. 

There are some scenes which a camera, certainly in my hands, struggles to convey. The entrancing extent, and the raw beauty, of the maze of crags and channels, which make up the Baie de Morlaix, is one of them. 

It is the sheer scale that is the difficulty. On this chart the Baie is around five nautical miles wide and the same from top to bottom. The yellow bits are land. The Green are granite crags and tors. These cover at high water and stand tall at low. The pale blue parts are shallows. The white is water in which Stargazer can float at all states of tide. As you can see, there is alot of rock. And many channels. And many anchoring options, according to wind direction and taste. Port Bloscon, where Stargazer is today, is shown by the pencil point - it wasn't built when I bought this chart. The three coins mark potential anchorages, based on the current forecast.

In practice the Baie serves up twenty five square miles of this. Which I find magical.

Tomorrow, Stargazer heads off the beaten track - to discover some Breton anchoring magic of her own.