Brest to St Marine

After the long trek from Jersey, we planned a shorte trip for our next outing, but one which we knew could be uncomfortable - from Brest down to St Marine, one of our favourite marinas. The uncomfortable bit was the Raz de Sein, a notorious piece of water which we have negotiated several times in the past, in varied conditions from reasonable to very unpleasant and, on one memorable occasion, in a storm with thunder roaring and lightening flashing around us.

As we left Brest behind, the swell started to rise again and the nearer we got to the Raz, the stronger the sea became. We altered course slightly to avoid the worst of the slop and promised ourselves that if things got too bad, we would turn tail and head for Morgat. As we approached the lighthouses, Zaffina took a couple of waves side on, but she shrugged them off with almost no effort and suddenly we were past the worst and cheered as we turned the corner.

From then on, conditions just got better and better, with the remaining swell pushing us along. Seagulls were playing chicken by flying under the bow and only just avoiding being hit by the rail as we motored along, and the sea took on that oily appearance which tells you that the wind has dropped off completely.

Mooring went like clockwork and in no time at all we had the covers up and were sitting in the cockpit soaking up the sun - I'd like to say with a Pimms to hand, but it was just a mug of Earl Grey!

On a glorious, calm, warm evening we sat outside the Restaurant du Port for dinner, as the sun disappeared and a pearly night descended. This is the life!

Or it was until 2am when a massive storm broke and we had to drag ourselves out of deep, deep sleep to get the cockpit covers rolled down and back into place!