Thursday, 18 October 2018

Boating in Brittany - Part 4

Day 7
Back up the Vilaine

Some interesting vessels in Redon Harbour

Looking over the basin

A last wander around town

Time to leave Redon and head back up the Vilaine

Some local talent

Our last view of Redon

On the outskirts of town and the start of the abandoned boats

More interesting vessels on the move

Port Roche. Our mooring for the evening

More pretty buildings

On very pretty streets. But this village is a ghost village. No people to be seen.

Back to the boat just in time as the rains arrive.

Not a minute too soon as the heavens open.

Day 8
Back to base

An early morning start

The promise of another glorious day.

The sun is peeking through the clouds

A still morning

Approaching the first lock of the day

But where is the lock keeper? The first time we have had to wait for a keeper this week!

Soon on our way again

On the approach to Messac

And back to base for our final evening onboard. An early start beckons tomorrow.

Day 9
Back to the UK

After a 6am start and hour and a half drive we finally get to relax on the ferry Bretagne

Light seas as we leave the harbour at St Malo but this will not last

A bar that is open. And we have it to ourselves. Mind you that is probably because you can't let go of your drink or it will fall off the table!!

Back on UK waters. After a ride back in big seas even the 9th floor Commodore Lounge windows are salt strewn!

Day 10
Back to our boat

After a long and exteremely wet drive up the motorway we are glad to be back

And Sydney is glad to see us as well.

Exhausted from his trip to the dog sitters but more on that tomorrow.

So there you have it. The trip is over. We are glad we had the change to experience cruising in French waters and it was interesting to make comparison with how these waters are managed and maintained when compared to our own.

There were many differences, for example all of the locks are manned but are also very well maintained. There were many similarities, they also have problems with abandoned boats. But the way they dealt with these problems was far more effective than on our own waters.

Would we go back and boat in Brittany?

Yes we would. We would certainly consider Le Boat again for the trip although next time we would opt for a less budget boat. But at the same time we would also consider Loca Boat who were very helpful when we pulled into their yard with a couple of problems with our boat. Their boats looked very well presented even for the end of season and also being almost at the limit of where we reached from the Le Boat base it would give us some further waters to explore.

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