From Camaret to Lesconil – The dreadful Pointe du Raz
After our relatively pathetic sail through the Le Four Channel two days before, where we had to motor against the tide, we had to tackle the new difficulty of rounding the Pointe du Raz, which, as already mentioned, some local sailors like to call their “little Cape Horn” .
Fortunately, our new friends Patrick and Josi completely demystified the challenge. Sailing there was like routine for them, and they had given us precious advice for our tide planning.
Leaving Camaret
We left the pleasant harbour of Camaret at 08h30, on September 12, waving our friends good bye.
Le Grand Tas De Pois
They had also recommended us to round the Toulinguet Point, just west of the Camaret cove, sailing through the rocks of Les Tas de Pois, which we would otherwise have carefully avoided. In fact, sneaking between them was a very easy sail, and a rewarding sight.
Our first intention was to overnight in the harbour of Le Guilvinec, but our friends advised us to choose Lesconil instead, as being more “yachts-friendly”.
Once again, unfortunately, we had to use our engine, the wind being too light and from the wrong direction.
Two and a half hours later, we were motoring through the sound between the little island of Le Sein and the Pointe du Raz.
It was a great moment. The sea was lightly choppy but the flow was with us.
This time, we were right on schedule: the GPS showed a speed over ground of above 10 knots!
La Pointe du Raz
Just a few minutes later, the famous sound was history.
There were still some pretty overfalls here and there ahead of us, but they were mere tickles for China Blue. The crashing waves had magnificent colours ranging from jade green to dark blue.
In the afternoon, we rounded the Penmarc’h point, then headed east for Lesconil.
There was some confusion when coming to identify our destination harbour. The 2 harbours of Le Guilvinec and Lesconil do not have very distinctive details for the foreigners we were, and are close to each other. We were uncertain and had to sail twice along the coast to be sure we were heading for the right one.
But we had stopped our engine and were sailing, so it felt like we were locals, who had just gone out for an afternoon sail!
Lesconil
Lesconil is a very small and picturesque harbour, nothing like a marina.
At 18h00, we tied up China Blue alongside the harbour wall, just below the harbour office (a temporary structure). The harbour master was very friendly, so were the fishermen moored on the same wall.
It must be said though, that our southern accent always brings smiles and jokes from the people of other regions, northern of us.
It was clear to see, by the average age of the visitors and the early closing hour of the bars, that the summer season was over. But we managed to have a beer and treat ourselves with a meal at the harbour restaurant.
China Blue in Lesconil
Back on board, we planned our next day route to Belle Ile, at the lock-harbour of Le Palais, carefully verifying tides, and lock operation schedules checked on the town’s website.
We didn’t go into Lesconil, looks very nice. Our first port of call after the Raz was Belle Ile as far as I remember or it could have been Lorient.
Lesconil is a very little town, and very quiet. Belle Ile is a very lovely island, with a lot of trees and flowers. We stopped there on our way to Roscoff, and, unlike the year before, had a very warm welcome from the port staff. I haven’t been in Lorient yet.