Glenans & Groix
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
This our second day here. Since leaving PLF (whew!) our sailing adventures have begun. Our first foray out tested the boat and us. She passed, we scraped by with a lost sail batten. Back to PLF to replace it and then out that afternoon to Iles de Glenans – home of one of the world’s best-known sailing schools, started after the war to raise the spirits of the ex-resistance French. We see the school fleet just about everywhere we go. The wind was from the North so we picked up a buoy on the south side of the sandbar on the main island. First we’d tried the N side – too bumpy so we moved. Unfortunately it was getting late in the day so the choice of parking spaces (buoys) was very limited, like a game of musical chairs. We managed to get one with enough water – just. At low water we had about 30 cm below the keel – like floating in a puddle really.
Just after 2000 we got off SM and into the dinghy, hoping that the outboard that hadn’t been used for over a year, would start. Amazingly after some weak pulls (from me) and hefty ones (from Al) it coughed its way into life and got us to the beach. This is a white sand crescent at high water. These islands are little more than rocks and sand. Only one has permanent residents – the sailing school has decamped to Concarneau, and the islands are a summer destination for yachts from everywhere and day trip boats from Benodet. Lots of people come to fish. None of this does Glenans justice. I’ll try to include a photo that gives some clue.
A sandy path leads to the seafood restaurant. Unless you have a booking, you eat fish soup and crab, with a Magnum ice cream for desert. So that’s what we did. I love eating crab, but I do feel guilty about them. Maybe that was the peak crab experience, after which there should be no more.
We left our mooring around 1430, having missed the morning tide window (a depth issue) through dealing with a leaking petrol container. We went out into a steady F4, verging on 5. We sailed under a one-reef main and the number 2 jib. The wind was right behind us on our course for Groix, around 24 Miles away. The jib was in the shadow of the main, so we dumped that and went under the main only. There was a swell with breaking waves behind us, and the wind was steady. The sun was out with some wispy clouds in front of it and a NNW wind so not hot. All in all, it was as near to perfect sailing as you could want. We were doing around 5 Knots, occasionally more, surfing down the waves. Could probably have gone faster if we had goose-winged (one sail out either side), but it didn’t seem necessary. Can’t quite explain the feeling, but we could have been out there for days, weeks, with just the sea, the gannets, the wind.
We reached Port Tudy on the Ile de Groix around 1945. The wind was quite strong by then, so there was a bit of rolling right on the entrance. Al was on the foredeck, with me shouting ‘hold on’. Afterwards he said he really enjoyed it! Now the weather is coming up to a F7 so we are enjoying Groix. There were some heavy showers yesterday but dry and very windy today, with the same for tomorrow. After that we will head south, I think.
Al’s playing guitar on the boat, while I do this – bar has wi-fi – then we are going to walk to the other side of the island for lunch. I’ll try to get some more pix up on Picasa http://picasaweb.google.com/wikidrat/SNORKMAIDEN2010#
