Tuesday 4 – Wednesday 5 June
On Tuesday morning we again waited for the tide, leaving late morning under full main and genoa in the direction of Paimpol. We passed the iconic Cap Fréhel lighthouse, well, both of them, with Mate enjoying fond memories of childhood family holidays on this coastline. In the usual mix of showers and drier patches, we changed from genoa to staysail in anticipation of a squall darkening the sky ahead, but it passed out to sea in front of us and, that time, we stayed dry. As elsewhere, we played dodgems with fishing vessels and ‘Spot the Pots’ to avoid picking up lobster or crab on our rudders.
The final hour, heading up the massively drying channel into Paimpol with the incoming tide, the wind built to an intense F5-6, right on the nose, and in the end we gave up trying to hold our line and turned back to sea, and improved sea room, until the wind eased and there was a better margin of water under our keel. It was with great relief that we entered the free flow lock into Paimpol harbour, and were soon directed into Bassin 1 where the harbour master kindly moved a boat along and helped us tie up to the town quay wall – in almost complete calm and shelter.
On Wednesday we chatted with some other visiting British crews, and played dodge-the-shower to wander around town and replenish our fridge. We walked down to the entrance to the harbour to see the channel at low water: hard to believe it’s the same place, and spotted an older Allures 45 tucked into a side area of the port. Up on the hard near a chandlery was a steel yacht that has sailed around the world – with a pet chicken on board, that laid an egg for her Skipper each day!
We enjoyed Paimpol, and its vibrant atmosphere of all things maritime. It’s a pity we won’t be here in early August, when they have a famous shanty festival, of which there are photos of previous years’ events all over town.