Bad Weather

After three says of lovely blue sky and plenty of wind for racing the forecast for Saturday night and Sunday looked dire. Wind SW force 6 gusting 8, with torrential rain.

Julian and I walked over to Treboul on Saturday morning and had a talk to the Capitanerie about taking refuge in Port Rhu. He had a look round and found Robinetta a berth well inside the harbour. A lot of the boats wanted to do the same, and space was at a premium but being small is an advantage when space is tight.

With the evening sorted out we went back to Rosmeur and I rowed Julian across to Kett with the new sternlight on the old mount. Once that was fixed I rowed to see Sheerwater, with some charts. They were planning to stay where they were and brave the weather.

We released Robinetta's mooring at 16:05, and motored towards Treboul with the stay sail up, but the sail cover on the main. All the official racing had been cancelled but the big boats were still out, entertaining the crowds. The pilot cutters had also decided to have an unofficial race, well away from the quay side.

The wind was pretty strong, and just the staysail gave us 1.5 knots. There was very little swell, since Douarnenez Bay is well sheltered from the South West.

For a change we headed for the Passe du Guet, rather than round Ille de Tristan, which gave us a much shorter trip, and we were securely moored in Port Rhu by 16:55. Our berth was well away from the visitor pontoon, with space for Worm ahead of us.

We spent two nights there, while the gale blew through. Sunday at Rosmeur was pretty much a wash out; the stages were taken down and the musicians squeezed into the bar. We ate dinner in a Creperie, courtesy of Philip and Tanuja from Sheerwater. Our first meal away from Robinetta or the festival site since we got back to France! They reported that the moorings had not been bad at all in the end, but we were glad to be in Port Rhu.