A day on Ushant

The moorings at Ushant are not the calmest, and Robinetta rolled a lot over night. Not that it stopped us sleeping! We woke to bright sunshine, with not a trace of yesterday’s fog, and after a morning spent tidying up the boat, while Julian rebuilt George’s tiller attachment, I rowed us across to the island in Worm.

At low water it was impossible to enter the drying harbour, so we decided to go ashore at the steps on the side of the landing stage.

 The constant swell made getting ashore quite challenging, but we both managed it dry shod. The steps have a succession on rings for tying tenders to, and not knowing how long we would be we tied Worm to the highest one possible.

South side of the Pern Peninsula

After a good lunch of Moules Frites and cidre doux (which is only 2 % alcohol) at Le Fromveur we decided to have a look at the Phare de Nividic that we had sailed past yesterday evening. This is at the end of the Pern peninsula, and the walk along the cliffs of the bay of Lampaul was spectacular. Pern is an amazing place, with wild goats keeping the grass short, and granite outcrops that put sculptures to shame.

Goats on Pern

Sculptural rocks

West side of Pern Peninsula

Phare De Navidic and its electric pylons

The Phare De Navidic was built  in the early 20th century to be remotely operated, with its power supplied by electricity. This was brought to the lighthouse on cables strung from pylons. A cable car used the same pylons to enable people to reach the light house when needed. Lack of maintenance during WW2 brought the cables down, and it is now powered by solar panels, and maintained by helicopter.

We bought supplies in the supermarket in Lampoul, and carried them back to the harbour. The tide was now high, and while we could see Worm’s mooring line well enough Julian had to reach under water to untie it.

Once back on Robinetta we settled down for a quiet evening, or as quiet as it could be on a constantly moving boat. Five of the boats that had been there when we arrived had gone, with only two arriving to replace them. The CA Almanac says to come on neap tide for calm moorings, and we were closer to springs.