Dandelion 33

 

The sea breeze is up, as Stargazer sweeps in beneath the multicoloured cliffs of Toulinguet.

She left L'Aber Wrac'h in the first light of a monochrome morning.

Riding the Atlantic rollers. Travelled three thousand miles, from the Newfoundland Banks. To break on this sombre shoreline, of reefs and pinnacles.

Stargazer lays the Le Four light in two tacks. By shaving, as close as she dare, to the craggy shoals.

The mood brightens: Stargazer eases sheets. Her skipper indulges in a light (second) breakfast, in a sun-warmed (and now level) cockpit.

For we are at the head of the Chenal du Four. Borne south on its fierce tide. Making seven knots over the ground.

Our route well marked. The wind on the quarter. The cliffs of Finistere to port. 

 L'Ouessant (Ushant), to seaward, providing a welcome wavebreak.

Stargazer gybes beneath the hexagonal red, Les Vieux Moines (Old Monks), topmark. Before the abbey, semaphore and lighthouse atop the Pointe de Saint Mathieu.

She romps across the outer Rade de Brest, down to the Toulinguet lookout. Broad reaching fast, as the midday sun whips up a thermal wind.

Before us, the warm glow of the ruddy brickwork, of Camaret's Vauban Tower, smiles a welcome, over the harbour wall.