Blustery Day

The advantage of mooring buoys, as opposed to those complicated cram-as-many-boats-as-possible-into-a-small-harbour arrangements, is that you can leave when it suits you, without negotiation or cooperation. The Skipper also conceded that there is no shame in raising the mainsail before casting off from the buoy. His initial reluctance is easily understood, however, when you consider that, as the boat points into wind without the aid of a helmsman, there is no reason why it shouldn’t be the Skipper who does a bit of work for a change – ooh, yuk! Won’t that rope make my hands dirty? Taking the management aspects of skippering very seriously, he was delighted to have the opportunity to experience at first hand the challenges faced daily by his crew. Once.

Aeolus was most cooperative today. We had a steady Force 4 from WNW all day. Given the Dufour’s amazing enthusiasm for upwind sailing, we managed the Passage de la Teignouse on one tack, with the Mate enjoying herself immensely at the helm. (You don’t imagine I’d have been allowed to helm had short tacking been the order of the day, do you?)

Our destination today was Sauzon, a pretty little port on Belle Ile which we had not previously visited. We had intended to moor in the outer harbour, but of course when we got there it didn’t look like the plan in the book, so we picked up a buoy in the bay known as Port Belloc, at the river mouth outside the outer harbour. There was more fretting about Skipper’s beloved secondary port calculations, but after some squabbling about arithmetic we managed to agree that there was, and would be all night, plenty of water. I will take criticism from the Skipper on a lot of subjects, but maths is not one of them.

Sauzon's dinghy park

Nevertheless, when we went ashore (quite a long paddle, this one, and the Mate broke a flip-flop clambering out of the dinghy – catastrophe!) the Skipper sought reassurance from the Harbourmaster. In addition to confirming that there was no danger of running aground, he also kindly explained the procedure for mooring in the outer harbour: you simply raft up to anyone already tied up fore and aft, and then string a couple of lines to the buoys afterwards. He claimed they tie 20 boats up to 4 buoys. Here again, though, if you want to leave at a time of your own choosing you’re better off outside in the bay.

We considered eating ashore this evening, as there were several tempting restaurants. However, I was tired, and didn’t fancy rowing back to Nara after supper. Worth remembering that had we moored in the outer harbour that would have been a very short dinghy trip – another time, perhaps. Anyway, yet again I sat in the cockpit with an aperitif in broad daylight well after 9pm. I don’t think any restaurant terrace could have afforded a better view. Unfortunately, we only saw Sauzon at low tide, when the inner harbour is dry, but nevertheless it is charming, and well worth a visit.

Sunny Sauzon, plus Mate