Being Tourists in Brittany: Mont-St Michel and Vannes. Explaining the Choices We Face as Cruisers.
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- Опубліковано 21 жов 2024
- Our lives are full of choices as full time sailors, but as we cruise along the French coast we're wondering whether we always make the right ones. In this week's episode we sail from Concarneau to Port Louis, reflect on our time in Scotland and try Far Breton before leaving the boat for a weekend in the Brittany countryside with friends. We check out the Mont St Michel, find the best vending machine ever, try oysters, ride a train around the medieval town of Vannes and eat some andouille.
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We’ve found that the length of pontoons and attachment point types vary so much that it’s not practical to rely on a midship or stern cleat being in the correct position. You can always guarantee that if you’re going bow in, there’ll be a bow cleat available. So if you’re going in port side to, get the port bow line onto the attachment point, helm to full port and motor astern. You’ll be pinned in alongside the pontoon and can get the rest of your lines on. The added benefit of not motoring forward into the pontoon with a spring; if the attachment point or line fail, you’re driving into the pontoon instead of away from it. This also works starboard side to, with the helm over to starboard. We learned midship is always the way to go, and it is great if you can get it on in the correct position, but invariably it’s rarely in the correct position. Try the bow line!
It's a good recommendation, but to be honest I think we would've been in the same position if we stepped off with a bowline! Lying across the two slips because the wind was blowing hard, pushing us off the finger pontoon, needing a line of some kind to that metal ring to pull the stern in.
The experience did make us rethink our approach quite a bit though, for sure! We'll be rigging a line to run from the midships cleat to winch soon.
@@DelfinoDiscovers big wind, more revs. Wind still too big? Throw the midship line to shore and secure it wherever safe in the knowledge the boat is fine. The point is when you’re hanging by the bowline, it buys you the time to get other lines on. Everyone has their way!
Yeah totally! And there are so many different forces happening at once, plus every boat is different. Re-reading your first comment it seems like you get prop wash even in reverse? I'm not sure the rudder does anything with Delfino in astern (assuming no way through the water), but I'll need to give it a try!
This is rad as hell! Great story telling and well made video! Cheers and happy travels
great video
Thanks!
Bad food in France... Sacrebleu! The desert post oysters looked divine...
I’m sure the andouille was lovely if you like that sort of thing! The dessert definitely much more to my taste
Hi I sail in Brittany every year and quite a lot of it single handed on 36footer. A tip that I was given by a French sailor and use all the time is fit a good bow fender and when you motor into the slip gently motor your bow onto the end of the slip and keep it in gear while you your lines out.. If the finger is to port turn your helm to starboard and if finger is to starboard turn helm to port ,this keeps your stern near to the finger .No jumping off all very simple .
Another tip with fenders is rig fenders low as for a pontoon both sides ,them if your not sure which side to your going to be as you get near to the berth what ever side you may be almost against a boat lift those fenders up pass under bottom guard wire and back over the top and these fenders are short without untying knots and retying.
Ha yeah we have seen the French use that technique a couple of times. They also are big fans of steaming at some speed into the slip! I guess with a good bow fender it means you always have steerage!
Great to meet you in Leixios. Marisa made it back to the UK. 22hrs upto NW Spain, refuel then 3.5 days across Biscay direct to Plymouth. Bit lumpy on the Tuesday as we discussed, otherwise very favourable winds. All the best for your onward journey.
Hey John, glad to hear you made it back to the UK! Sounds like the conditions were ok in the end. Did you roll a lot in the end?
Enjoy your adventures on Marisa, she seemed like a beautiful boat!
Can;t believe no-one warned you about Andouille. i thought it tasted like the sweepings from an slaughterhouse floor / mixed with a french latrine. i could still taste it two days later. Hope you've recovered!!
Ha! We knew what we were getting ourselves into. I think we chose one of the more intense versions of it and then intensified the flavour by grilling it.
Always a nightmare coming into a strange place where you don't know the geometry of the berth. My suggestion would be to spend some time on the approach sussing out where the cleats are and then having plans for whether it is forward of your midships cleat or aft of it. If forward of it, full astern and if behind, full ahead. then get the other lines on.
Yeah, we have gotten much better about taking our time before actually entering the slip. Sometimes if you are tired and full of adrenaline it is hard to remember to slow down!
nice
Great video :) I don't care how you cast off :)
When you say cast off are you referring to the segment leaving the dock in Concarneau?
Not sure what you did there just tie your spring line to the spring cleat on the dock plenty of time to tie off properly then?
We usually run the spring line aft (so it runs from the midships cleat aftwards) to a cleat at the end of the finger pontoon. The issue is that there is no cleat at the end of the finger pontoon.
So when Laura stepped off with the line she went to the end of the finger pontoon and wrapped the line around the loop. But with nothing to tie off against, I couldn't motor forward and bring the boat alongside. We were then blown off by the wind.
We could've run it forward but by the time we realised our mistake Laura had the spring line around the weird metal loop but with nothing to tie off to and was holding the weight of the boat.
@@DelfinoDiscovers yes I understand the situation you ended up in just suggesting an alternative. Some people with out spring cleats will use a long line from the forward cleat to the aft cleat with similar results. Have fun out there 🙂
Ah yeah! That was our take away when we talked about it. Just get the midships line on a cleat, any cleat, and then we can get the boat into position by motoring forward or aft.
I'm really glad for the midships cleat on Delfino. We'll probably implement the solution talked about in Attainable Adventure Cruising at some point, with the line led back to a winch. www.morganscloud.com/2017/04/03/rigging-the-spring-that-makes-docking-easy-or-an-alternative/
So Brits don't like andouillette , sorry for your bad taste .