Lezardrieux

At 6 am the anchor alarm went off. Odd. I have calculated the minimum depth to be 5m. So we were both up reviewing the calculations. Both of us had done our Yachtmaster certificate a couple of years ago; we were very familiar with all the calculations; what was going on? As we watched the depth, slow increase, it suddenly lost another metre and we were down to 3.1m.

Liquid Asset's instrumentation includes a plot of the depth over time. Studying this we could see what had happened. As the tide tuned at high water, the trace blipped; it suddenly became deeper. Clearly the bottom was shelving  and as the boat swung on the anchor we were either into deeper of shallower water. We were fine, but it does make you question your own abilities.

Next issue. Up comes the anchor and we have a lobster pot with lines. The hazard of course in the location we had chose to anchor. Local fishermen could see what was happening (after all they were the culprits), and came to help us recover the situation. This was not a crab pot in fact but a very large lobster pot - obviously by its state, not used.

Once clear we headed for Lezardieux. A very leisurely trip up river, all with wooded banks and craggy rocks. Lots and lots of boats moored. We eventually arrived at the marina, which we didn't fancy, but there were mooring buoys and a long empty pontoon. The pontoon won. Having tied up the boat we blew up the rib, strapped on the motor and off we went to the shore. We were welcomed by a local - so good so far for our first sortie onto French soil. The harbour office was shut, but the bar/restaurant was open and doing a good trade. So we had lunch. Beer, poisson fumee, cassoulet provencale. Delicious. Only let down by a rather surly bar mail. But nevertheless a great start.

We headed for town. It was shut, but held a promise for the following day.

On the way back to the boat in the rib, we took a detour up river to the road bridge. It was very hight, but Liquid Asset would not go under it (maybe a low tide, and with everyone standing on one side).

Back to LA for Ozark Mountain Daredevils and a an impromptu snooze. Dinner was the annual kedgeree (not a bad one), lots of chat, and off to bed for a peaceful night. Another good day.