On Sunday we were joined by Debbie and Della, who arrived at Dinard airport and took a taxi the 10km to St Malo's Bassin Vaubin - the Ryanair shuttle bus apparently having Sundays as their day off. There was time in the evening for a walk around the old town and ramparts before preparing for our early start the next day. The weather looked favourable to make the 50 mile passage to Lezardrieux, which would be our most westerly landfall on this leg of the trip. Locking out of St Malo at high water would mean we arrived in the Trieux river on a falling tide - not something which we prefer to do, but there is plenty of water and the outer marina pontoons are accessible at all states of the tide.

We had very light north easterly winds for the passage, which again meant quite poor visibility. As we approached the Trieux river there was quite a strong tidal race across the entrance which in these light winds was just a confused small sea. In stronger winds however, it would be important to avoid wind against tide in this area.

The entrance channel past the Ile de Brehat is littered with rocks which must rise out of the sea bed quite steeply. Although we were in over 100 foot of water there were rocks either side of us only a cable away. We had taken care to check the datum on our charts and set the GPS to match - European for the Admiralty charts and WGS 84 for the plotter - so were confident of our position in this narrow channel.

We spotted the visitors berths on the outermost pontoon and chose a likely looking berth. None of the French marinas seem to mind if you just turn up and moor - which is much more straightforward than trying to discuss your requirements over the VHF in french.

Cruising Statistics

Distance: 50 nm

Total to date: 1102 nm

Avg Speed: 13 knots

Duration: 4 hours

Diesel: 250 litres (est)

Wind: Calm

Mooring: €29/night

Electricity:Free

Waypoints
(European datum)

Bassin Vaubin Lock
48 38.62N 02 01.50W

Mole des Noires
48 38.54N 02 01.87W

Le Grand Jardin
48 40.26N 02 05.10W

Chenal de la Grand Porte
48 40.22N 02 08.42W

Nord Horaine NCM
48 55.30N 02 55.30W

La Croix Lighthouse
48 50.34N 03 03.25W

Olenoyere PHM
48 48.76N 03 05.13W

Pointe de Coatmer
48 48.36N 03 05.43W

Lezardrieux Marina
48 47.44N 03 05.80W

Charts

AC 2700

AC 2669

AC 3673