Days 10 – 13 (7th – 10th May)
We departed the beautiful surrounds of L’Aber Wrac’h (stress on the B of L’Aber for the correct inflection) – the weather wasn’t sure what it was doing, but there wasn’t much wind. After a while, it started raining, so cause to add a few extra layers! A couple of tornado jets past us by – just checking I guess?
Our track took us past the infamous Channel De Four Light
Our next objective was the Baie de Lampaul, the SW sector of the Isalnd of Ushant or Ouessant (pronounced “way-son”) which is all part the of the westerly part of Brittany, known as Finnisterre (Finnis = end, terre= earth) – so the end of the earth. We motor-sailed, but the wind was disappointing, approaching the island from the NW arriving in the Baie at 1555, attaching to one of the many free mooring buoys. 
Approaching the Baie de Lampaul
Views from the mooring
After deploying the dinghy and outboard engine we went ashore – although it wasn’t very clear where to go – some local fishermen shouted and pointed to help us out and we tied up on the wall with what seemed like an interminable ladder – it was low water.
We had a little explore of the local town and booked ourselves dinner.
Local wool for sale!
Unfortunately I had a zoom meeting to facilitate… but soon the video and microphone were off and we could enjoy a very good repas at the Hotel du Fromveur.
Friday 8th May – Day 11 – VE Anniversary Day
A bit chilly overnight but very calm on the mooring and the half moon was apparent in the middle of the night (my photo doesn’t do it justice) dictating neap tides. The moon is totally relevant and crucial to the tides. Full or new moons point towards Spring tides which are always the biggest ranging and fastest flowing tides. A half moon relates to Neap tides – a gentler tide in terms of range (rise and fall) and speed. Just now we are on Neaps.
After a few jobs: checking the engine – one of the belts was a bit slack, so we tightened that up – cleaning the heads, pumping up the dinghy etc., we came ashore: a small VE celebratory ceremony was occurring at the local Marie (Town Hall) with important folk dressed in their uniform. But we went on to find the best deal on electric bikes (bringing our own ashore was not an option here – to ambitious/risky on transfer). Half a day’s hire was 17 Euros and these were excellent mountain e-bikes. We soon cycled to the top of the island (only about 4.5km) to Port Ligoudou and then onto Stiff to see the lighthouse – listed as an ancient monument.
Stiff Lighthouse
The bikes were easy to use with 6 gears and 4 different settings on the electric assistance – although Bob didn’t engage with these….
It was lovely sunny, breezy weather and we cycled pretty much over the whole island – so beautiful and a myriad of birds including cuckoos, larks, swallows and sparrows and many. many more. It is quite a rural community reminding me of the crofters communities of the Scottish isles. We also saw a rabbit and cattle and sheep – not sure of the breed though).
Port Arlan (not used…)
The view towards the mainland
On returning to our dinghy, we discovered that this had been moved and was now resting on solid ground (tide out) so had to pay the penalty of waiting for the water to re-appear – forcing us into the local Hotel and hostelry of the Duchess Anne for a beer…
The town of Lampaul
Saturday 9th May – Day 12
We have decided to stay in the Baie de Lampaul until Monday and ride out a storm on the mooring buoy here…
Keeping the power levels (batteries) up is essential, so we ran the engine for an hour, which meant we could run our heating system and I could charge the battery on my laptop and begin on this update for the Blog. All this blogging is taking a while… uploading photos and inputting text then arranging it in some kind of sane order. (It will serve as a good record when it is done).
A visit ashore via dinghy to stock up on a few groceries: eggs, fruit, cheese and gin (!) – we also hoped to buy a couple of baguettes, but were greeted with c’est termine – so that was that! We had a wander around town but came back to BONI for salad & cheese lunch up on deck in the cockpit (and eating up the disgusting mini pork pies purchased in Lidls back in the UK).
The afternoon’s game of Scrabble was a far more successful one for me: 370 points vs Bob’s 221 – a win at last! Then some other things took priority: talking to Nick, my son, who has just bought his first flat, my daily Duolingo/French and some knitting. Bob was reading.
We had booked ourselves into the Duchess Anne Hotel Restaurant for a meal and this was the most incredible Seafood Platter that we could barely finish! Did we want dessert? No way!
It was a dark and stormy night (you know how the story goes?) – we shipped the dinghy and engine, checked our mooring lines and took to bed – the wind was gusting 35knots – it was bloody noisy!
Sunday (Day 13) the wind got worse – a North Easterly, gusting up to 42knots, a bit of rain – what’s not to like? We did not leave the boat all day and today was day 3 without a shower…. eugh! …. you may well think! So a super strip wash it was (or as my grandma would say “a lick and a promise”).
One can understand where the phrase cabin fever comes from – it’s all a mindset thing though and I was quite happy with plenty to do – small jobs mending the velcro on the back of the cushions, etc.
Time for Scrabble again – another win for me, so the 6 games then stood at 2 wins each and 2 games drawn. Later, we had another game – this time Bob got the better of me – hey ho!
By bed time the storm had calmed some what.