Lyn's Log, 10th August 2005
France, Gulf of Morbihan
Vannes, France.
N47º38', W2º47'
1,931 miles.
Our next major stop was the Gulf of Morbihan. We anchored overnight on 20th July at Le Palais on Belle Isle and then a few days in Le Crouesty marina. (See article on the Morbihan area.)
Andrew’s sister and various other relatives were holidaying nearby and we often met up. Unfortunately the day we planned to take sister Helen and her husband Des out sailing for the day, from a peaceful anchorage in the Eastern end called Le Passage, it poured with rain all morning. So instead, they took us out for a day in the car visiting Roche Bernard and Radon. Roche Bernard was a particularly scenic and historically interesting town, and would no doubt have made an enjoyable trip by yacht up the beautiful river.
The day we took niece Katy and husband James out was a glorious day for a sail. We sailed out to the island of Houat, the nearest offshore island from Morbihan about two thirds of the way to Belle Isle. We picked up a buoy off theharbour by the town but it was too rough there to row ashore, so after lunch we went round to the ‘swallow tail’ end of the island and anchored off a fantastic sweep of soft golden sand with many other yachts. The chart states that there are high tension cables prohibiting anchoring in the area. But it seemed this can be ignored! The little town seemed somehow in miniature with small white painted cottages round triangles and squares with copious flowers. It also had a decent supermarket considering the size of the town. While Andrew rowed our guests back from the beach, I had my first swim in the sea, once round the yacht, and then James, who had never sailed a yacht before, thoroughly enjoyed helming all the way back in a fairly stiff breeze.
For the last part of our stay, my daughter Nicola and granddaughter Rebecca, nearly four, came and stayed with us (see pic). We organised a variety of things including visiting La Crouesty marina, mainly for eating out, finding pirates treasure at Pen Mar on the Ile Aux Moines and a swim round the yacht with Nicola off Ile D’Arz. The rest of the time was based in Vannes marina, where Becky could have a go at trying to row the inflatable dinghy. We hired a car in order to get to St Malo in time for the early morning ferry when Nicola returned, so for her last day we drove to Carnac to see the stones. There were thousands of them in fields and woods. Sometimes you could see they were in straight lines. There were also burrows and tumuli. We took the tourist train round the area first while it was a bit rainy, and then walked around dome others. In the afternoon we went over the sand dunes onto a marvellous beach between Carnac and Quiberon, where the sun shone and Becky and Nicky had a wonderful time in the sea jumping over the shallow waves, while we built sandcastles. I would have liked Nicola to have stayed longer but we had forgotten just how much patience is needed with a small child.
On our last day in Vannes, 10th August, we found a good wi-fi place where we tried to put extra credit on our phone, without success, and check our bank statements. We then left with a couple of good days weather forecast to cross the Bay of Biscay for Spain. It seems a great shame that after being in an area covered with oyster beds, Andrew never got to eat any of them!