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Tuesday 19 August 2014

MORE FRENCH SAILING

 
Just around the coast from Perros is another beautiful place called Trebuerden, very popular with sailors and holidaymakers for it's fantastic white beaches and rocky islands.  We first came here in our second year of sailing without a proper chart, only the guide in the almanac and a tourist leaflet given to us by some friends.  I'm surprised we made it as the entrance is quite tricky with all the submerged rocks to be avoided!
 
 
We used to pick up a bouy outside the marina to wait for enough water for the gate to open so we could go in to stay for a few days.  We only stayed outside in the calmest of weather as it could get quite rolly when the tide rose and passed between the rocks all around us.
The island in this sketch is a favourite for the locals to picnic on a Sunday but I've heard that the gulls will attack if they feel threatened when they are nesting.  As you can see we also had our fair share of stormy weather there too!
 
 
Trebeurden is at the beginning of the Cote de granit rose and from there to Perros this is what the coast looks like with lovely bays, lots of rock pools to catch crabs and shellfish and the softest white sand that gets darker as you go east gradually turning pinky orange.
 
 
Around this time I bought a very good book called 'Watercolour techniques with pen and ink' by Claudia Nice, which inspired me to try this new technique of sketching.  I spent many happy hours on the boat drawing what I could see, mainly rocks, pine trees and boats of course!
 
 
We came to Trebeurden almost every year that we sailed before moving to France, often meeting up with sailing friends for a few days before moving on, either west to l'Aberwrach or east to Perros.
When we decided to move to France this was the first place we came to start searching for a house.
 
 
We sailed the boat non-stop for 24 hours and arrived at 10 in the morning after a fantastic passage with fair winds all the way.  We had brought our bikes and arranged to meet an estate agent to get started on our search.  We spent a week or so here looking but soon realised that it's a holiday place full of houses that are empty for most of the year so decided to look in Perros where we finally setttled on our house on the edge of town.  The building in this sketch that looks over the coast at Trebeurden is divided into apartments, has always fascinated me and caused no end of difficulty trying to get the ellipses on thost circular towers right!
 

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