The historic town of Dinan is a popular stopping off place for tourists, as well as the end of the line for larger boats, who cannot pass under the old 2.5m town bridge. The steep walk up to the town is best avoided by taking the petit train, which stops just outside the harbour office, and provides you with a great view on the way up of the quayside, framed by the viaduct, built in 1852 to improve access to the town. The cobbled Rue de Jerzual used to be the main way into the town and is still lined with 15th century half timbered houses.

The next morning we set off on the return trip downstream, this time leaving at high water Chatelier in order to have good depth for the passage. The banks of the river are dotted with old mills, powered by the tidal flow prior to the building of the barrage. The 15th century Moulin du Prat ceased operating as a flourmill in 1920, but opened again last year as a visitor centre. We approached the barrage lock around 0940LT expecting to tie up and wait for the 1000 locking. In fact once we were tied up, the lock operator closed the gate and began emptying the lock. Such was the tidal fall that we could pass easily under the swing bridge and so did not trouble their hourly bridge schedule.

Arriving in St Malo a couple of hours before local low water, we had planned to stop briefly in the outer marina to time our passage to arrive in Guernsey around local high water. Instead we opted to continue straight out to sea, making a slower passage and conserving the last dregs of our fuel. However, this meant we did have some wind against tide conditions, making for a bumpy passage. Lady Martina, of course, took it all in her stride, which was more than could be said for the crew...

We experienced fairly poor visibility despite the winds, and on arriving in St Peter Port were greeted by worried looking yachtsman deciding whether to head out without radar. We made a detour up to the neighbouring harbour of St Sampson's where we had arranged to take on fuel direct from a tanker, who makes a regular business out of undercutting the St Peter Port fuel berth. We had coincidentally arrived on the day before the start of the Island Games, an Olympics for islanders from Cayman to the Orkneys. This meant that there was limited space in Victoria Marina, but we managed to find a vantage point from where we could watch the festivities.

Cruising Statistics

Distance: 74 nm

Total to date: 1251 NM

Avg Speed: 8 knots

Duration: 9:00 hours

Diesel: 285 litres, 20p/l

Wind: W 3-5

Mooring: £17/night

Electricity:£2/night

Locks

Chatelier

Barrage

Bridges

Lessard 20m

St-Hubert 20m

Chateaubriand 23m

Waypoints
(European Datum)

Mole des Noires
48 38.54N 02 01.87W

Le Grand Jardin
48 40.26N 02 05.10W

Le Bunel WCM
48 41.14N 02 05.70W

SW Minkies
48 54.04N 02 20.00W

St Martins Point
49 25.00N 02 31.00W

St Peter Port
49 27.50N 02 31.10W

Charts

SHOM 4233L

AC 2700

AC 2669

SC 5604.7