We were off to go through the Raz de Sein, and apart from the dire warnings in the Pilot Books etc my only real concern was that the forecast was showing winds starting off in the NW (good) then going W or SW for a time before then going back to NW.

Now wind against tide would be a big no no for this trip, but I reckoned that with it only being light winds we should be fine…………

Going to the Raz de Rein from Camaret you can opt for the extremely cautious route around all the rocks but this adds about nine miles to the journey. Or you can nip through the narrowish channel between the mainland and some jaggy rocks (creating a kind of “Jurrasic” atmosphere) which is what we decided to do and it was real neat with no Pterodactyls flying off buttresses.

We were happily sailing along and keeping a keen eye on the time and distance as we needed to be off La Platte lighthouse at slack water. We had just finished a coffee when the radio jumped into life and broadcast a “securite” in French and then repeated the message in not so clear English. What I did manage to capture were a bit of the coordinates and the words “underwater explosion” whatever it was seemed to be close to our course. Jings imagine that said I……………..O’ no I didn’t. I quickly got on the blower requesting a repeat of the “securite”. The coordinates were thankfully about a mile away on our port side, and we listened to the countdown (from 15 mins with repeated broadcast for all vessels to stay clear) and looked for a big whoosh at “zero”. But the truth is that we never saw anything, but it was either the caffeine from the morning coffee, or this warning broadcast, but I can honestly say that I was now wide awake………….

Approaching the Raz de Sein the swell did build up noticeably, but thankfully it was all straightforward and we arrived off La Platte bang on time, rounded the corner and headed for Audierne. We had a nice feeling of achievement (perhaps even a sense of relief!) in having come through the two main tidal gates of the Raz and Chanel de Four.

The lighthouses at southern end of the Raz de Sein

How could we go wrong with such a studious navigator figuring out the tidal range for our next stop at Audierne?

Audierne is up a narrow river entrance with a stated minimum depth of 1m albeit subject to silting. Just outside the breakwater is Ste Evette where there are visitors mooring. Sara had calculated we needed to wait, so we picked up one of these moorings to have a spot of lunch, and wait for at least one hour, (to ensure we had plenty of water under the keel) for the 1 mile trip up to the town.

St Evette from the moorings.

The leading line markers are obvious, but the line is pretty close to the channel markers therefore shallow. Whilst running up the leading lines we were constantly checking the depth of water under the keel all the way up to the small marina. A deep keeled boat would be limited to a window either side of high tide. Approaching the marina we were fortunate that one of the hammerheads for visitors was free. Rather neat that the marina is bang in the centre of town.

You can see from this shot how narrow the channel into Audierne is – this shot was taken around one hour before low water.

Pretty short day at 30 miles but that’s the last “tidal gate” now behind us, and we are getting closer to South Brittany and warmer weather.