Plymouth to Brest

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Paddydog`1

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Last season sailed from Salcombe to St Peter Port. Good advice received here on going South of island and buying an AIS. This season want to sail to South Brittany. We are based in Plymouth. Firstly is it worth going west to Falmouth for a better slant. What about going to the Scillies for an even better slant and an even better cruise? In any case should we try to plan to go direct to say Brest and try to time our entry through the Chenal du Four or is it better to aim for L'Aberwrach first to ensure timing is right for Chenal. We are hoping to head off in April/May. Time is not a factor (I'm retired)
 
In my humble experience, having made that trip multiple times, there is little that is definitive between the options - other than what the weather offers - to choose.

From Plymouth, some westing must be made - either down along Cornwall, or along the North Breton coast - so use the weather slant that is offered when you wish to go..... Plymouth/Fowey/Falmouth/Newlyn, then across... or Plymouth/Roscoff-Blescon/L'Abervrac'h/Gulet de Brest.

I'm conscious ( yes! ) that the NW Breton coast is a hard lee shore when the weather changes and viz. drops swiftly, and it is a worrying area when one is tired and perhaps queasy. I like to arrange things so that I have an all-weather haven close by my preferred landfall - typically Ile de Batz - then go coast-hopping down around the corner after a restorative 'cafe creme, cognac 'n croissants' .

Others like the adrenalin rush of trying to find Libenter or Platresses N in 40-knot fog and horizontal rain, while praying that the Helle Rock and its companions isn't trying to find them.... :D
 
Ditto to what OldBilbo said.

When we did that trip, we went direct from Plymouth, and timed it to arrive at the top of the Chenal du Four as the tides turns and starts flowing south. Boat speed 6kts, ground speed 10kts at some points.

Do lookout for pairs of trawlers seine fishing north of the Chenal du Four. At night they display wierd and wonderful combinations of nav lights that don't match anything you can find in the almanac. Or at least the nearest match we could find was for a hovercraft, which at 4am is very confusing for tired and grumpy crew members.
 
New easy bolt hole

There is a brand new marina in Roscoff:):)

Only opened late summer.. 97 miles as opposed to 127 to Camaret via the Chanell du Four .. or 137 via the outside of Ouisant..

Then only 25 miles to l'Aberwrach and a simple pop through the Channell when the weather is pleasant..

All tide access so no need to worry about that extra 20 miles at the end of the day when you are approaching the most nasty part of the trip..

Sorry I don't have the link..
 
I've done the trip many times and tried the Falmouth option once and the L'Aberwach option once but both added a lot of extra time to the trip to little benefit. I've settled into either Plymouth to Chenal du Four aiming to arrive 3 hours before the tide turns in our favour (to allow a margin of error) or to do both tidal gates to get through Raz de Sein to Benodot or onwards as first port of call.

Both Falmouth and LAberwrach are nice places to stop but we found no particular need to do so, and that our real holiday started south of the Raz. Timing to do both gates at once was trickier in our 24 footer but when we moved up to a 30 footer the greater average speed won out and we usually found we had to wait a bit at the start of the Chenal du Four and at the Raz.

Always a cracking trip whether dead calm or boisterous and the coastline is fantastic. Fog north of the Chanel du Four has been the only real hassle once or twice - much worse before we got a GPS. Now we know exactly where we are when we are scared of being run down.
 
Camelia said:
There is. I do hope they have finished the contruction! I was not impressed nor was the local press when we were there last summer.
Click to expand...

But it was half price ;)
Also be aware that there is no fuel.
The not so local supermarket fuel pumps were out of action due to vandalism so I had to cycle to Saint-Pol-de-Léon. Good job it was only to top up my emergency reserve.
 
Paddydog`1 said:
Last season sailed from Salcombe to St Peter Port. Good advice received here on going South of island and buying an AIS. This season want to sail to South Brittany. We are based in Plymouth. Firstly is it worth going west to Falmouth for a better slant. What about going to the Scillies for an even better slant and an even better cruise? In any case should we try to plan to go direct to say Brest and try to time our entry through the Chenal du Four or is it better to aim for L'Aberwrach first to ensure timing is right for Chenal. We are hoping to head off in April/May. Time is not a factor (I'm retired)
Click to expand...

Personally, I'd pick a departure point that gave me a good angle for the Chenal du Four. If the wind's other than SW that may be Plymouth itself, but is more likely to involve working West on the UK coast. There are anchorages east of the Lizard (and the Helford of course) which would avoid a detour into Falmouth just for a night stop. I find that a landfall further East on the Brittany coast slows things up as the wind angle tends to be worse, the tides stronger and the all weather/H24 bolt holes fewer. However, it all depends on the forecast as departure approaches so don't rule anything out and plan the options. Have a good trip and might see you there!

Edit: Forgot to say that we normally aim straight for Le Four. Crossing from UK (largely an across tide trip) it's possible to gauge arrival accurately, especially if you allow a couple of hours in hand.
 
Last edited:
like the idea of making westing on English side and the going straight for Chenal weather depending of course. Thanks all for your contributions
 
We have used Ushant as a stopover on the way south from Scillies.Got a bit bouncy at high water even though there was little wind (in the western bay).
If we had persevered, it would probably have calmed as the ebb took hold.As it was, we were rolling uncomfortably, so we set sail again in the dark, outside route to Camaret, difficult pot laden approaches in the dark.Unlit mark too, might be Roches Douvres from memory.
Had I at that time, known the trick of rigging a bridle through the mooring and changing the aspect of our moored vesssel viz-a-viz the swell, by more or less mooring sideways, I could probably have stayed the night there!
Have a great cruise!
 
Plymouth Roscoff is about 180 and about 100 Nm
You have to go at least to Falmouth to get N of the Chenal du Four in the hope of being able to make 180 and that's about 120 Nm to Carmaret.
Pretty much six of one and half a dozen of the other, but I think it's easier to make West down our side of the channel.
The bottom line is can you make 180, it would be great if it were blowing an easterly :D
 
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