La Penze River

The La Penze river is silent, save for birdsong and the occasional returning shellfish boat. Stargazer gently swings to and fro, at her anchor. Lightly jostled by a tide impatient to fill the coves and bays, before it is time to leave once more.

We navigated, gingerly, in from the outer estuary   - sketch chart in hand, French large scale chart spread on the hatch, eyes on plotter and depth guage. And watching the channel markers. Ticking them off on the sketch chart - to be sure that we don’t accidentally miss one, cut a corner and end up impaled. 

Threading our way between crags. Seen and unseen. The tide increasing the depth - and driving us relentlessly onward. 

The deeper into the estuary we go, the tighter the channel and the smaller the markers.

Villages and beaches crowd in.

Stargazer has granite walls close to either side. The engine is on tickover, in case we need to stop by swinging one hundred and eighty degrees and stemming the three knot tide.

Oyster farmers, tending their fast submerging tuiles, work only a boat length or two away - marking the edge of the rock channel.

Cormorants look on. Too languid, in the heat of this midsummer’s afternoon, to hold their wings up to cool off in the gentle sea breeze.

Around one last bend in the channel, the water shoals so that Stargazer will only just float at low water. We round up, under the lee of the rocky point marked by the green perch, and anchor.

A beaming grandfather, grandson at the helm, madame and grand daughter waving from the sternsheets, puts out from the village shore to say “Bonjour.” To welcome us to the La Penze river. We are well and truly off the beaten track.

En France 7

 

The sun rises over a gently ruffled sea.

Stargazer is reaching north, a light south easterly breeze on her quarter. Too deep an angle for us to deploy the cruising chute. She is making a sedate four knots over the ground. And enjoying the view.

We thread our way though the craggy 'granit rose' wonderland of the Ile de Brehat archipelago. Following the towers and markers of the Chenal Ar C'high Bras.

Past fairy tale bays and anchorages, which must wait until another day for exploration.

Clear of the Brehat reefs, Stargazer turns west. Able now to deploy the kite. Reaching in twelve knots apparent. The true wind now from the south.

The tide is away, pouring the waters of the Channel into those of the Atlantic. Powering Stargazer to nine and ten knots over ground, as she romps past Les Heaux de Brehat.

 Some inner instinct, as well as the urge to enjoy the gloriously rugged view, draws us inshore. As high on the wind as we dare, whilst keeping clear of the outlying rock pinnacles.

Lunch is punctuated by the need for sail changes: I furl the cruising chute. The apparent wind is up to sixteen knots. And rising. Then take the first, followed fifteen minutes later by the second, reef. The apparent wind climbing steadily to twenty two knots. In part due to the degree of our tidal assistance.

Stargazer sweeps past Les Sept Iles. The breeze is still climbing and veering south west.

The sea is starting to build (apologies for the blurred photograph!). With the shift in wind direction, the wind now cutting up the tide. It is also in danger of becoming a full head wind. Glad now, that we hugged up to windward earlier, Stargazer shaves the craggy corner, off  Ploumanac'h, and the Mean Ruz tower, which marks its hidden entrance.

Stargazer dips down, among the reefs of the Baie de Morlaix. Not the most obvious approach option, for Roscoff. But one which, I hope, will shed some of our, now unwanted, tidal assistance (which is also lifting the apparent wind. Now at twenty seven knots); and an option which will allow us to fetch the harbour entrance on this tack. Fortunately, there are tried and tested waypoints already in the plotter (from Stargazer's 2020 exploration of  Le Guerzit Bay and the La Penze River) to guide us.

Stargazer rockets in, close reaching. Down to double reefed main only, in thirty two knots true. Seeking the lee of the harbour mole. Spray flying. Shaving the jetty fine. Skirting the bows of the waiting ferry (still loading, there is no smoke from her funnel). In under the lee of the Roscoff breakwater. 

Dandelion

".....I held a dandelion

That said the time had come 

To leave upon the wind...."

Stargazer is afloat once more. The evening sun warms her cockpit. Where I sit, mug of coffee in hand. At peace with the world.

Delayed delivery, of spare parts (seals) for the sail drive, meant that we had missed our allocated relaunch slot. With the crane booked solid, beyond Easter.

But, we are blessed with two still, dry, days. On day one, Taylor (Marina Manager and crane driver) conjours a gap, in his hectic pre-Easter schedule, in which to return Stargazer to her natural element. On day two, I bend on the sails. Alan and Sarah (from Wilkinson Sails) arriving with a set of tapered battens, for the new genoa.

On day three, the March wind doth blow. An equinoctial gale, out of the south. I manhandle the long-life provisions, stockpiled over the winter, aboard. They fill the saloon. And I wonder if I have overdone their quantity.

But, by midday, the mound of tins, jars and packets has been persuaded into lockers. Or the aft cabin storage bins. Followed by my clothes and bedding. The spring relaunch rush is over. Stargazer feels like home once more. My racing mind slows to 'sea tempo.'

Idly, I scroll through a week's backlog of e mails. Including one from Helene, on the Passeport Escales team, who sends a preview copy of this year's brochure.

(See ‘French Connections’ post)

Which features ‘Doug de Chatham’ (yours truly) and a fine portrait of Stargazer, at anchor, on the La Penze river, in 2020.

CREDITS

"Curtains" (Dandelion quotation) by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, 1975. 

 

Le Guerzit Beach

Stargazer has discovered her very own anchorage. Not mentioned in any of the pilot books. But looking suitably sheltered and craggy on the chart.

We leave the sylvian delights of the La Penze river an hour before low water. When the depths in the channel will be at their shallowest - but the hazards within it, most visible.

Winds are light. Perfect for this kind of intricate pilotage. There is time to reconcile what the eye sees with what paper chart and plotter say is there.

And time to marvel at our surroundings.

Stargazer faces a wall of tumbled granite. I bring her over to starboard, about thirty degrees. A gap opens up. A jagged rock head is visible to port. The chart says that there’s a submerged rock off the starboard bow. Where a pot marker buoy bobs. That will be over the shoal, I reason. The pots are laid among the rocks which shelter crab and lobster.

The  bay opens up to either side us, as Stargazer feels her way in. Two arms of riven ‘granit rose’ jutting out to sea - like a protective lobster claw. At its head, a broad sandy beach - where we anchor.

PS. If the layout looks odd today ‘Please Do Not Adjust Your Set’ - as TV stations used to say. To conserve laptop battery, whilst at anchor, I posted the photos from the laptop and added text via the phone app. Worked OK for the previous two days - but not today. No matter, we’re on pure phone app now - until we next see mains electricity.