Having a leisurely time

We left Concarneau on Saturday 19th May and headed off to Ile De Groix and Port Tudy where we stayed last year whilst on holiday, it’s a fairly small picturesque island which we fell in love with. We planned to stay there a couple of nights before heading further south to Belle Ile. On the Sunday we decided to get our new bikes out of their bags for the first time and cycle round the island. As we were moored on a mooring buoy rather than a pontoon Kevin had to take the bikes in the dingy and row ashore, the precision required for this was a feat in its own as Kevin had to balance the bikes in such a way as they didn’t fall into the water, and have enough room in the dingy for himself.

Loading the bikes on the dinghy for a trip ashore

With this achieved Kevin assembled the bikes ashore before rowing back to collect me, we got ready to set off round the island, however I was a bit “gung ho” and ended up with my bike chain stuck around the gears, so Kevin had to row back to the boat again to get some tools to fix it, I was not in the good books. We took the coastal path round the island which included several inlets and bays,  to get across there were steep declines and inclines which required us to get off the bikes to walk down and up again, on occasions Kevin  turned into a kid again and attempted to cycle down the steep rocky declines. At the end of our trip which was approximately twenty miles we both had sore rear-ends, and could have entered the silly walks competition.

Bike ride around Ille De Groix

After Ile de Groix we moved onto Belle Ile another beautiful island approximately ten miles long so we were not going to attempt cycling round it, however we did intend to circumnavigate it in the boat. Like Port Tudy on  Ile de Groix this was also a busy Ferry Port (Port Palaise), and so we needed to ensure we kept out of their way when entering and leaving the port. Whilst there we met another British couple who were also on their way to the Med, and like us was in no major hurry to get there. On our second day on Belle Ile we sailed off to find a quiet anchorage somewhere on the islands south coast, the one we found had a beautiful sandy beach and when the sun was shining you could have taken it for any beach in the Mediterranean.

Bev hard at work cooking

Anchored off Belle Ille

We liked where we were so much we stayed for two nights before moving off to find another anchorage further round the coast, however the swell was quite high and we could see the waves crashing onto the rocks on shore and so felt that to enter some of the inlets where we could anchor might be a bit treacherous so we decided to head back to Port Palaise and spend the night there.
Its now Monday 28th May and we are in Port Haliguen which is a large marina at the head of a peninsula in the Quiberon Bay just across from Belle Ile, and is a big sailing area. There is a fairly large tourist town  called Quiberon about a mile away, which has a ferry port  (Port Maria) and a lovely beach adjacent to the port, however yachts are not welcome there unless in an emergency. We intend to stay here for a few days stocking up and getting a few jobs done before we move off to Morbihan, an inland waterway.

As there are very little in the way of shops in Port Haliguen we have once again  got the bikes out, this time however as we are moored onto a pontoon so Kevin didn’t have to repeat his balancing skills whilst rowing to get the bikes ashore. We cycled to Quiberon which has some very expensive fashion shops, so no shopping for me, we also checked out some of the local restaurants for somewhere to eat  on the Saturday night.

As it is a French bank Holiday weekend there is a regatta going on and therefore Port Haliguen   is very busy, at one point we were rafted four abreast, however they only stayed for lunch before moving off, we are now rafted to just one boat with a couple of men, Martin & John from Dublin who are sailing along the French coast for the summer.
Yesterday we got the bikes out to cycle a 15Km circular trip around the tip of the peninsula, my rear-end had just about recovered from the tour on Ile de Groix. Whilst on the ride we came across a sign post pointing to Looe in Cornwall and giving the distance, unfortunately we hadn’t got the camera with us otherwise we would have taken a picture for the blog.
Last night as it was such a lovely evening Kevin decided to put the hammock up that Chris and Steve Wilshaw bought as a going away present, have to say it was very comfortable.

Today we are getting the boat ready to sail to Morbihan tomorrow, as we will be anchoring there we need to ensure we have enough food and water to last us several days before we move south again to another port or marina

Our location at the moment is Port Halgiuen, a link to Google Maps is below:
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=Quai+des+Sinagots&hl=en&sll=47.585905,-2.945194&sspn=0.05986,0.16222&geocode=Fc-S1AIdGKvQ_w&mra=ls&t=m&z=16

Our total nautical miles to date is 336m