After the motoring journey “around the corner” we finally arrived in Atlantic France and the Rade de Brest on 25th June!

Rade De Brest

First impressions were it was like Poole harbour … but a little bit bigger!!  We found a great anchorage called Posterman and ended up staying there for 4 nights – because it was foggy and misty virtually the whole time! We felt safe and secure and did venture ashore one day and had a very long sweaty walk, followed by a beer at the little tabac in the town.

We wanted to extend our time at anchor, so when the wind shifted, so did we – to another anchorage with different shelter. We were also tracking another yacht who were also new to life aboard and we had met in Roscoff –  they had left a vape on our boat and we wanted to give it back to them, so we were tracking their progress towards us.
Their boat was called Starfish Enterprise – such an amazing name and amazing crew! They came and found us at our next anchorage (Anse de l’Auberlac’h) and it was lovely to catch up. They also had 2 kids onboard who paddled over the next day to take Chris on a little trip on the board!

In this blog we aren’t going to talk through every place we have been – too much time has gone by and we are writing this in September.  If you are interested in the full journey then you can find it here – Noforeignland Journey

Marina Life

After 8 days at anchor (woohoo – new record!) we moved to Brest marina as we needed water and provisions. We also had a toilet blockage and had to take the system apart and flush out the whole system. This was a horrible job and we were glad to have fresh water available. Chris eventually found a valve which was totally calcified and where there should be a 2 inch flow, it was narrowed to 1/2 inch! A hammer and chisel was needed to get the calcium out, which is caused by the interaction of urine and salt water. Frustratingly this was the only valve we hadn’t specified to be replaced during fit out but we were very glad we had done the others.  We now have a thorough programme of maintenance and fresh water flushing to prevent build up in the future. Quite possibly one of the worst boat jobs there is, so we treated ourselves to a meal out that evening!

Brest was great for provisioning and with bikes available for a day we explored, Chris got a haircut, but there wasn’t much more there. We were realising how busy and dirty the marina was compared to a lovely anchorage so we set off again to Pen Hir on 3 July. This was a very big anchorage and it was funny deciding where to drop our anchor!  We identified being under the shelter of some cliffs as being best, but most other boats went for the middle of the bay – why? Were we missing something? What don’t we know?

Whilst we stayed at Pen Hir for 4 day most of the other boats left, and new arrivals came to anchor where we were, possibly a little too close! Its always interesting watching the decisions and how us humans are ultimately pack animals and take comfort in numbers!!

The beach at Pen Hir was amazing, with great coastal walks over amazing natural stone structures. There was a creperie on the beach (although we took our own packed lunch!) and one day we walked over the hill to Camembert (our easier way of remembering – real name was Camaret-sur-Mer).
We probably should have left that day as had seen the weather coming in, but we were enjoying ourselves too much – another lesson learnt!!
Getting the dinghy off the beach was another first – we had to strip off to underwear as knew we were gonna get wet. All other boats left other than a small 21 footer with some young folks on board – equally silly! That night was like being in a washing machine for us, so don’t know what it would have been like for them.  We all left as soon as there was light the next morning, after a very sleepless night.  Another lesson learned – go before it is too late!

More anchoring

We didn’t have far to go and on 9 July got to Morgat after a quick 2 hour journey. This was a beautiful bay with a lovely town and a small marina … too small for us to get in to.
We had some fun shopping and bought a snorkel set and had our first Plat du Jour (meal of the day) as a fish-tastic treat!  We were also watching the tides as our next trip was around another notorious headland – the Raz de Seine!