North brittany cruise

[ashtead]

Following thread with interest as on our first visit to st malo basin . Staff very helpful and lock at high tide was much easier than expected. Staff helpful and short walk in a real plus . Having always used the sablans marine in past and bounced around listening to the ferry traffic now they have address berthing in basin it seems the obvious choice. Facilities are still basic but then again you don't visit French marinas for the showers. On arrival having locked through was met by staff in small metal skiff who asking for number of nights whizzed off to show us to an empty berth of correct length and helpful locals took lines etc so full of praise for st malo now.

 

[johnalison]

Following thread with interest as on our first visit to st malo basin . Staff very helpful and lock at high tide was much easier than expected. Staff helpful and short walk in a real plus . Having always used the sablans marine in past and bounced around listening to the ferry traffic now they have address berthing in basin it seems the obvious choice. Facilities are still basic but then again you don't visit French marinas for the showers. On arrival having locked through was met by staff in small metal skiff who asking for number of nights whizzed off to show us to an empty berth of correct length and helpful locals took lines etc so full of praise for st malo now.

Although St Malo is a lively place and makes an attractive visit, my grouse with the harbour inside is that almost all the pontoon space that used to be available for visitors when we first went there in 1999 is now occupied by local boats, leaving no option but to raft up in a jumble or lie on the wall, without electrics or water (except in some places). There is a vast area of water in the inner-inner marina which already contains some local boats, and the harbour seems to take little consideration of visitors' needs.

 

[Lucky Duck]

New pontoons were installed last year so there are now visitor's finger berths rather than rafting up on linear pontoons.

Edit - I understand the cost has increased commensurately

 

[ashtead]

Can confirm we are berth on a finger pontoon now. Likewise the small cat we entered with was berthed on a finger but now. At Dinard plus a Dutch yacht . Seems to be plenty of space, currently and can watch the large tri enter the inner basin - even saw spindrift no 2 out sailing as we came into st malo

 

[dslittle]

I just found those handy port guides I mentioned are on this website http://www.guide-du-port.com/

Oh. If only I saw this last year. Superb. Thanks for posting.

 

[WestwardBound]

Treguier does have a waiting pontoon in the event that it is needed. We did not arrive at slack on neaps and it was OK, the stated problem is the tide running diagonally across the pontoons. I have to say that I noticed the locals departing meticulously on slack.

I'd say don't miss Treguier. I thought it was lovely.
Do give St Helier a miss if you need to prioritise. When we visited it was very crowded with unusually grumpy inhabitants and the marina was much less well organised than St Peter Port. We arrived at the end of a hot day so maybe that had something to do with it. A really nice French chap arrived alongside us later so obviously there were enough nice people around. We were straight out of there the next morning as my wife detested the felling of sitting in a parking lot next to a busy road. Probably St Helier would be nicer off season. It was fun to navigate to Jersey though.