Mervyn Wheatley enjoys a French summer afloat
With the 2020 OSTAR cancelled due to COVID-19, Mervyn and Penny Wheatley opt to sail to the Brittany coast for a French summer afloat
Most years I race long distance, and in 2020 I had expected to compete in the OSTAR aboard our Bowman 40 Arethusa of Yealm. But with the transatlantic race postponed due to COVID-19 we had to change our plans. My wife, Penny, prefers cruising to racing, and likes to enjoy at least a couple of nights at each stop.
As Penny notes, ‘I can’t see the point of crashing to windward. I’d sooner we change the plan and have a good sail in comfort. I think Mervyn has generally adapted well to this ethos when we are cruising!’
With no commitments for August and September, we decided to sail to the north coast of Spain and the Rias. However, that plan was thwarted by COVID-19 restrictions, so we opted to cruise to the north and south coast of Brittany for seven weeks instead.
Thankfully, Arethusa was only out of the water for a couple of months over the winter. We relaunched her in February 2020 before the first lockdown restrictions were imposed. We were lucky as, from March, many boats were stuck in marinas or yards with their owners unable to access them.
It had been our intention to start by sailing from our home port at Newton Ferrers on the River Yealm in South Devon to Roscoff to stock up on wines but, by the time we set off on 8 August, the wind was southeasterly, so we opted instead for a good sail to L’aber Wrac’h, arriving in the river in the early morning in clear, sunny conditions.
SUMMER SOLITUDE
Being the August holiday, we expected L’aber Wrac’h and Landéda to be lively with sailing school pupils and holidaymakers, but numbers were low and some cafés and bars were closed. The marina is small, and was moderately busy with French boat owners. We saw only two other visiting yachts - from Germany and the Netherlands.
We had excellent weather the majority of the time and rarely needed waterproofs or warm clothing. Penny was grateful for the calm seas as she suffers from seasickness and has to rely on hyoscine-based tablets to ease the discomfort.
We didn’t cook on board more than half a dozen times in seven weeks. We bought fresh French bread every day and were content to sit in the
cockpit enjoying the sun, scenery and ‘cabaret’, whilst eating and drinking our French goodies. Two or three times a week we ate ashore and became pretty good at seeking out the smaller, cheaper cafés.
By now, we had sailed to the tiny and serene marina at L’aber Ildut where we rafted up on a classic yacht with family on board. Unfortunately, whilst clambering across the neighbouring yacht, I tripped on a guard wire, cracking a rib as I fell onto their foredeck. Painkillers meant we could continue our cruise. The marina at L’aber Ildut offered the usual facilities, but there was a short and attractive walk upriver to Lanildut where there was a small, well-stocked supermarket and a couple of cafés.
QUARANTINE COMPROMISE
It was while moored in Camaret that we found out via BBC news that France had been removed from the UK’S travel corridor list; we had 72 hours to get back to the UK if we wanted to avoid 14 days quarantine. We decided not to return home but to continue to live as lotus eaters, ‘in a state of dreamy forgetfulness and idleness’, as Homer would have us.
Having rounded Pointe du Raz we anchored in the bay for a night before going upriver the next day. Once at Audierne’s small marina, we moored up next to a large French yacht. The owners were convivial and invited us to spend the evening in their cockpit drinking Finistère white wine from their vineyard. As France had not imposed quarantine on UK travellers, our hosts expressed surprise that we faced 14 days of quarantine on our return home.
After the first three stops, Arethusa was now well stocked with French wine, seafood, pâtés and cheeses, particularly as Audierne had an excellent covered market. Everywhere we went people were wearing masks, both indoors and in the open air, particularly in pedestrian precincts.
Leaving Audierne with a good northeasterly, the sail to Pointe de Penmarc’h was excellent and then round to Loctudy; we decided only to stay for a night. The marina facilities at Loctudy were good, but the walk through the industrial and fishing area to the local town was unattractive. All that was open in the town was the boulangerie, but the upside was an excellent fresh fish shop next to the fishing harbour.
It was a short hop from Loctudy to the walled town of Concarneau, followed by the low lying Île de Groix. The islands are usually seething with family groups out and about, on hired bikes and enjoying the sun, but the beaches were quiet on the mainland and the islands and restaurants, cafés and bicycle hire shops
were doing poor business. COVID-19 had certainly bitten the French tourist trade.
By mid-august we were in La Trinité-sur-mer admiring the fantastic designs of some of the major foiling racing yachts such as the IMOCA 60 L’occitane and the 38ft Walter Greene-designed trimaran, A Capella. As we left Trinité we had the opportunity of seeing these exciting yachts being put through their paces. The French deserve to be proud of their innovative yacht design.
With good sailing conditions, we continued south, stopping for two or three nights at Île Houat, La Turballe and then Île de Noirmoutier, with its lively marina and fishing hub at L’herbaudière. We arrived in time to celebrate Penny’s birthday.
As is usual in France, the bus service was excellent, so we had a chance to explore the centre of the island before three days of walking and cycling on a quiet Île d’yeu and two days at the very pretty town of St Gilles Croix de Vie.
Home of the Vendée Globe, Les Sables d’olonne, with its extensive marina, sandy beach and fantastic architecture, was a total contrast to Trinité.
It was here that we realised it was time to stop the lotus eating. We were getting towards the end of our cruise and reality was kicking in. We started to plan the final few days of our shoreside holiday in France before quarantining on Arethusa for 10 days whilst we returned to our home in South Devon.
We headed south, enjoying two days cycling and walking around Île de Re before passing under the bridge that connects the island to the mainland and continuing to Vieux Port in the middle of La Rochelle.
As it was the start of a weekend, the visitors’ pontoon was busy, so after a noisy night, we decided to move downstream to the enormous Minimes marina where we stocked up for quarantine.
Initially, we had planned to complete our exile off the Isles of Scilly and the coasts of Cornwall and Devon, but persistent northeasterlies dictated that we remained on the coast of Brittany.
We spent the 10 days isolating in some of the most beautiful Breton rivers and sheltered bays, anchoring or mooring in good weather with mostly light winds from the northeast. With some good sailing, we gradually made our way back up to anchor in the River Wrac’h.
Two days later the wind turned southwesterly and we had a mostly good sail straight home to the River Yealm, with the cruising chute up for much of the journey. We arrived at 0300 on day 12 of our quarantine and anchored in Cellar Bay for a few hours of sleep before daylight arrived and we had our last sail up the Yealm to the pontoon to unload Arethusa.
We certainly made the right decision to continue with our Breton cruise, despite the imposition of quarantine for visitors from France. Access to all the French harbours and anchorages was much easier than it usually is at the busiest time of the year.
In our 38-day cruise of north and south Brittany, we only had to raft up twice as the visitors’ pontoons were relatively quiet. We saw only a handful of yachts from outside of France, including boats from the Netherlands, Britain, Germany, Denmark and one from the USA. The effects of COVID-19 have been a killer for the Breton coast’s tourist trade.
We were something of a curiosity and were greeted with effusive smiles wherever we went. The Bretons were clearly delighted to welcome foreign visitors!
We decided not to return home but to continue to
live as lotus eaters, ‘in a state of dreamy idleness’