4 Kidneys and a Wonky Leg

Today we made a short hop from Lezardrieux to Paimpol. By land it’s about 2 miles, by sea it’s about 12 miles and as you can see there are lots of shallow bits and lots of rocks.

Now Paimpol Harbour has a lock that operates between 2 hrs 30 before HW and 2 hrs 20mins after HW. HW today at Paimpol is 19.09 so the earliest we can arrive is 1639. There may be a queue!

One little trick I use to ensure we have enough depth to navigate is to write a list of tide heights for each hour of the passage, as it will only take 2 hours to get there, today its a short list. As we come across shallow areas a quick mental calculation is all that’s needed to ensure we have enough water below us.

We left Lezardrieux at 12.30, partly because we were bored but also as it was also low tide, you get to see all the normally submerged rocks along the way. It did mean we had to anchor off la Pointe de Trinity

for a while, whilst the tide rose high enough to get into Paimpol.

Having spent 3 hours sailing on our own we were surprised to find no less than 6 other boats arrive at the harbour lock during the final 10 minutes of the journey. No problem though, we all got in.