Piriac sur Mer and the Frogboats
So we find ourselves in Piriac sur Mer, our final saltwater stop before going up into the Villaine River.
And forthcoming fin du saison.
Victoire vs Les Frogboats
Piriac has what I call “a hard stop”. A flapgate that rises automatically to preserve a comfortable level of water inside the marina, whilst outside there can be an uncomfortable level of sand.
And so it’s imperative to get your arrival timing right: in our case no later than about 1 hour before the gate goes up.
And in the case of a few others the same, causing a bit of a rush.
Scanning the horizon for competition for the last berth (not that there is likely to be a last berth problem) reveals 2 French boats coming in: let’s call them Frogboat1 and Frogboat2.
Frogboat2 coming from the North looks like it’s ahead of the fleet. Frogboat1 coming from the West looks evenly matched. Filibuster from the South West raises the engine speed a bit to get in front.
Not enough: Frogboat1 does the same and cuts across our bows 50m ahead. Zut, Merde. but he has to change course by 90 degrees to avoid rocky rocks, comes up parallel then, crossing ahead of us, heads back north to go round a mark.
An opportunity arises: Filibuster’s nav system shows clear water to the south of the mark. We make the call, take the short cut and round up ahead of Frogboat1. He’s toast.
Meanwhile Frogboat2, close to the entrance, ahead, inexplicably dithers. He looks all ready to go in but has virtually stopped.
We pass on the home straight and takes line honours. Hooray to the Britboat: Frogboats 0 Filibuster 2
All played out at the cracking speed of about 6kn (7mph) and there were loads of places left, although I’m sure I detected a hiss from Mrs Frogboat1 as they passed us in the port.
And of course we are not racing at all are we?
And so on to Piriac sur Mer
But first a little fun with “Spot the Difference”
The obvious first:
- The hood is down
- Martin’s clothes are different
- He’s changed from red to white wine
- The very observant will note a new pair of Ray Bans
- And the very, very observant will note Martin on the left is sporting a sun tan (oh – you didn’t spot it did you?)
The photos are taken on 3rd September and 25th April this year: it’s not our first visit to Piriac: at Easter we stole a super sail out of the Villaine in super sunny, warm weather.
And again in May when we stayed in a hotel here whilst the boat was out of the water being prepped for the season.
And so on to Piriac sur Mer
It’s an old, small fishing village with buildings of granite and slate bedecked with flowers and ivy. Almost back to Brittany.It’s pretty in the way the solid granite buildings are.
Superbly preserved, it’s a real magnet – in high season can be overrun with visitors, but as I write on 4th September 2014 all is quiet, though not yet as deserted as we found it out of season in May.
Excellent fresh pasta in the 3 days a week market.
The fishing fleet, as with so many smaller ports has been reduced to just those serving the local shops, market and restaurants and the harbour now given over to pleasure boats large and small.
Piriac marked our furthest South stopover in 2012. These days its our first/last port of call.
See more pics below. We like it.