Paimpol

When the tide goes out around here it seriously vanishes. The difference, at present, between low tide and high tide is about 11m (see Paimpol harbour entrance above - yes they are the same place!). Consequently even Paimpol, who have an entrance lock rather than just a gate, restrict entry to 2½ hours either side of high tide. There are also a lot of rocks that are just covered by the tide so you have to carefully follow the channel. Once the tide goes out the rocks are easy to see but the sea goes out beyond view from the harbour. We arrived at the start of the channel at about 10:00am and spent the next half hour with Ann checking the pilot books, to identifying the various channel and rock markers, while I steered and checked our route against the chart plotter. Once inside the lock we were moored against the old harbour wall with ‘Penhelyg’.

They have a new Tourist Information Centre, with helpful staff, that were even able to tell us where to get some English paper backs from, to replenish our well-read stock. In the evening we had a pleasant meal, at a local restaurant, with Pete and Liz. We all agreed that the day had been tiring because whilst the journey was short a navigational error could have been expensive. Sadly, the locals were noisy and we could have slept better that night.