Au Revoir Normandy, Bonjour Brittany – Working our way west
by Maree & Phil 17 Jun 2018 20:08 UTC
Paimpol harbor © Red Roo
This leg will see us change regions in France leaving Normandy and entering Brittany. France is dived into 13 regions, (similar to Australia being divided into States).
It was our intention to leave Îles Chausey early in the morning (7am ish) with the tide for the 32 nautical mile stint to Erquy, however our plans were foiled with heavy mist and very poor visibility. We ended up departing around lunch time when we finally had around one to 1.5 miles visibility which was the maximum we got for the entire journey.
We had the head sail out to catch any wind there was to assist us along the way but there wasn't all that much to be caught, so a slow motor / motor sail it was. We arrived early evening and anchored off the beach at Erquy for the night (didn't go to shore).
The next day we covered the 26 nautical miles into Paimpol. We were able to use the tide for this passage and arrived about lunch time which meant having to anchor in the dedicated deep water pool about two miles out of the harbour and wait for a couple of hours for the tide to come in, as it almost completely dries that far out. Once the water level raised to give us enough depth we ventured into the harbour via a lock.
Then after being firstly directed to a barely four meter long finger (for our 12 meter boat – that wasn't going to work) we were directed along side in a space that must have measured only 12.5 meters, a tricky manoeuvre to say the least when the boats aft of the gap were rafted two deep and a wide motor boat at the front. Luckily the English motor boat crew assisted from shore taking our lines and giving us a sideways pull in (it was in their boats best interest really) and despite Maree stressing we slipped in without touching anything (it was very close tho!). And of course Murphy's Law we walked to the office to register and pay and came back to the boat 10 minutes later and all boats aft of us had left!!
Paimpol town is snuggled around the harbour making it a great spot to be located. We also were very fortunate to have arrived in time for market day the following morning, French markets are always an absolute delight, although Paimpol seemed to have a lot more merchandise as opposed to fruit, veg, meat and seafood which is our preference for market shopping – Red Roo has no room for merchandise just fresh food.
We left on high tide the following afternoon having spent an enjoyable 24 hours walking and exploring the town and enjoying the market.
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This article has been provided by the courtesy of SV Red Roo.