It was a beautiful sunny evening, if a little chilly as we made our entry into Concarneau. A delightful town, steeped in ship building history offered us a deep pontoon mooring and a couple of very welcome pints once we had put the boat to bed for the night.

A french yacht has just pulled up and were sat in the only deep water area along the pontoon, a few words of broken french and had signals showing our draught, and the friendly fellows got the message and moved further down the pontoon. I believe we drew over 3 metres. Quite a boat.

We were due an early start int he morning, and I had resolved to take the opportunity to shower, as we had no plans to head into port again until we arrived back in Cowes. Concarneau promised state of the art showers, and they were, save the lack of hot water - Invigorating at 0530 in the morning!

I helmed the yacht out of the harbour the following morning once the mandatory baguettes had been secured and we had a surprisingly good breeze, holding a steady starboard tack for most of the day, taking us far into the Atlantic where we met L’Hermione…

Later that day, we passed again through the Raz de Seine, where I helmed us through the race with a series of tacks that took us within spitting distance of the coastal cliffs to get the benefit of the wind. The sea looked like it was boiling, as the current flows all merges into one point.

A little later we had a visit …from the French Navy..