Le Guilvinec to Isle de Glenan

We woke late this morning. I could hear someone chatting on the pontoon and stuck my head up to see a fisherman about to get into his tender to go out to his boat. He called out to a younger man who was heading up the pontoon bridge. This turned out to be the Port de Pleasance harbour master, who had everything he needed to take our money. After a discussion of boat lengths we settled on 14 euro, 44 cents. 14 for Robinetta, and 22 cents for each person. It was good to be in a place that recognised that boats under 7m long might turn up!

He also told us where the shore heads and showers were, on the Lechiagat side of the harbour and the nearest place to buy bread. I jumped on the idea of a shower, so we headed there first, then bought croissant and pain au raison, plus a loaf of bread and a bottle of wine. Breakfast and lunch sorted.

We ate breakfast on Robinetta, then went for a walk on the Le Guilvinec side of the harbour. It turned out to be market day, and we got sidetracked into tasting some Loire Château Grand Cru wine. The wine maker fed us oysters, bread, cheese, and strawberries as we tasted, and it was very easy to be tempted into buying half a mixed case.... We also bought some cheese and fruit, then purchases in hand we headed back to Robinetta.

There had been a lovely breeze in the morning, but by the time we were clear of the harbour it was dying away. We put the main sail up anyway, but within half an hour it was doing nothing, and we were motoring across a glassy sea, with the sun burning down and a swell pushing us around uncomfortably. We covered ourselves in suncream, and rigged the parasol against the glare.

A couple more hours did nothing to improve matters. I got the main sail down to save the UV damage, and Julian went below to stay out of the sun. He fine tuned my rough course to steer, and we headed for St Nicholas, on the Isle to Glenan.

The best bit of the journey was when a big pod of dolphins came and played alongside for ten minutes just as we reached the islands.

The anchorage on the north of Saint Nicholas seemed very busy. Most of the yachts were on moorings, with only two anchored. We joined them in dropping our anchor, seeing no reason to pay for a buoy. We are being cheap this holiday (helps to pay for the wine....) After getting the sail covers on and having a rest away from the heat we got into Worm, and I rowed us ashore.

One of the bars on St Nicholas

The sand had looked very inviting from Robinetta, and I entertained visions of wandering along the water line while Julian had a swim. The reality was a disappointment. The wet sand gave too much so walking was hard work, and I could see broken glass, with sharp edges that were not yet quite smoothed away. Julian decided not to swim either, and we ended up walking to one of the two pubs on St Nicholas and having a half of cider each.

The Isles de Glenan had supposed to be wonderful, but Julian and I decided that they were well down the list of islands we have visited in Robinetta. Part of our lack of enthusiasm was probably down to the heat, which neither of us like much. They have the air of tropical islands, low lying and fringed by sandy beaches, but have no other real points of interest. Not our cup of tea.

Back on Robinetta we ate tinned curry and rice for dinner, glad it was finally cool enough (at nine in the evening) to be able to face a cooked meal.