Camaret to Audierne

The Vauban tower at Camaret

After a night in Camaret on June 19 we set sail again towards the next rocky channel, the Raz de Sein. I was already nervous about this passage as the pilot book was full of warnings about the potential hazards of the Raz, and this wasn’t helped by Cliff’s insistence that I look at a You Tube video of a small motor boat being flipped by rough seas mid channel! In reality the Raz was a pussycat with hardly a wave in sight, and we had another brilliant sail all the way down to the port of Sainte Evette where we picked up a buoy for the night.

We had now reached our jumping off point to cross the  Bay of Biscay, but the weather Gods were still against us, showing gale force winds in the  bay for later in the week, so the next day we decided to motor up river to the town  of Audierne and stay in the marina for a few days. Getting up river proved more hair raising than going through the Raz. The river is only navigable around high water, and the pilot book gave clear instructions about following leading marks to avoid hitting the shallow banks on either side. The problem was, visibility was poor and we couldn’t see the leading marks! Cliff and Derek insisted all was fine while I panicked as I watched the boat zig zag in and out of the channel on the chartplotter. Of course, it was fine and we reached the marina without going aground.

Yesterday Derek decided to head back to the UK for the weekend as it looks as though the next ‘window’ for the three day sail across Biscay will be on Monday or Tuesday next week.