Smooth Sailing All The Way Home

Day 21 & 22

Smooth Sailing All The Way Home

Our trusty steed takes a break as we "picnic" near Pouancé

The thunderstorms forecast for the Loire and for Brittany never materialised or at least not on our route from Chinon to Roscoff last Friday. True, there were a few showers in Brittany but nothing major and, indeed, the trip to the port was a very easy one.

The only bit of autoroute came early on and took us close to Angers. With time on our hands andthe sun shining most of the time, we made plenty of stops, one of them off piste and in the vicinity of Pouancé. Luckily, we stumbled on a nice picnic site (sign-posted) near the local football pitches and enjoyed a pleasant break before heading back to the main road.

The Sat-Nav, in conjunction with the map reader of course, took us safely through the Rennes Rocade and soon we were on the final leg, the N12 towards Morlaix and Roscoff. After another stop or two, arrived at the port just as the Pont Aven as coming in but it took another two hours, indeed it was just shortly before sailing time of 9.15pm (Friday), that we got on board.

Winding down: Closing time approaches in the Pont Aven Bar

Then it was time for some food. With the hour being rather late, we headed for the excellent self service and two excellent chicken dishes (mine a Poutlet Basque),  two desserts  and two bottles of water, and cost us less than thirty euro. Headed for the bar then only to bump into a bunch of former work colleagues returning from an annual golf trip.

This crossing was one of the very smoothest we’ve ever enjoyed on the Pont Aven and she docked in Ringaskiddy bang on the scheduled time of 10.00am (Saturday). After the inevitable delay in unloading, we eagerly hit the Cork roads and soon landed at home. Nice and uneventful trip and that’s the way we like them.

Roches Point, one of the arms of Cork Harbour, a welcome sight.