10 August 2014

Sailing to Ushant

Friday, July 18, 2014

Farewell and adieu to you, gay Spanish ladies, 
Farewell and adieu to you, ladies of Spain, 
For we've received orders for to sail to old England; 
But we hope very soon we shall see you again. 

Well rant and we'll roar like true British sailors, 
We'll rant and we'll roar across the salt seas, 
Until we strike soundings in the channel of old England, 
From Ushant to Scilly is thirty-five leagues.

Before sailing on to our next destination -- the island of Ushant -- Captain Luke decided to take Agnes up the river Wrac'h for some sightseeing. Slowly up the beautiful river we motored, taking many pictures.

Scenes from the River Wrac'h

Boats moored fore-and-aft down the center of the river.

Turning around, we hoisted the sails and sailed down river, dodging the early sailing school students once again.

John coiling the peak halyard

Getting the foresail ready to hoist

Derek steering a careful course

At sea, the weather turned breezy, rainy and chilly. The waves shook the boat and John did take another Dramamine, just in case. I don't like the side effects of this anti-sea sickness medication and decided to trust that my sea legs were strong enough to withstand the bumpy ride ahead. Luckily they did, and although just a bit queazy, I was able to enjoy the passage.

The rocky island of Ushant (Ouessant in French) is surrounded by light houses. These are the famous lighthouses that are pictured in every lighthouse calendars -- the ones engulfed by gigantic waves. This area of the ocean is very famous for dramatic weather, sharp rock formations, extremely strong currents, and storms. Lucky for us the weather was not quite that bad.

Approaching Ushant


The rocky shore


Don't run into this at night!

Here are the pictures of the famous lighthouses we sailed by: Kereon, Jument, Nividic and Creac'h.

Kereon from Ouessant.jpg


Breizh-176.JPG
"Breizh-176" by Falken - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.



Nividic.jpg
"Nividic" by Samuel Lamotte d'Incamps - author. Licensed under CC-BY-SA-2.0-fr via Wikimedia Commons.



Phare du creach.jpg
"Phare du creach" by Pline - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.


We reached Ushant just as a thick fog began to engulf it. Safely anchored, Johanna dished up a delicious sea food pie (seafood with peas baked under a blanked of mashed potatoes... M'mmm) for dinner. After much talk (and a few glasses of wine), we all retired to our bunks and fell asleep to the haunting sound of fog horns.

Tomorrow we will explore the island and take a look at one of these light houses up close.

Next Episode: Ile de Ouessant

2 comments:

  1. Say, pretty keen trips you are having. Nice to see you enjoying yourself.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice stories, nice pictures too. Great country, France.
    One correction: the houses are built of stone and plastered afterwards and not built of concrete.
    Enjoy your trip.

    ReplyDelete

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