Its been an interesting weekend (part 1)

Friday saw the 60th birthday of two friends, Marie-Edith and Chantal, who are also members of the Association pour le Grand Léjon. 

So they had their birthday celebration onboard. 

The sky was clear but the wind was out of the north-east, and fairly strong, which (as was explained to us) provokes a considerable swell at the south end of the bay of St Brieuc, with the tidal current running in the opposite direction and no shelter provided by the islands further up the west side of the bay. 

Suffice it to say, not many people retained their breakfast on the morning sail...

We put into St Quay which is well protected from the wind to let stomachs settle (but a long walk to the loo!).
Undoubtedly, riding at anchor in an east-facing bay would have spoilt most people's lunch.
And that, here in France, would never do.

Marie-Edith and Chantal provided us with a superb lunch, culminating in cake and Champagne.

They even managed to get the candles to light!

Hervé and Hélène sang the song Hervé had written in honour of their birthday, while the rest of us chilled out...

had a siesta...

or just chatted.

Finally we headed home, after some interesting maneuvering to pull the nose of the boat out against the wind to avoid hitting a large catamaran parked in front of us (see this in the first picture).

Pete is taking the motor from the annexe back on board, once we had got out of the harbour.

We had a delightful sail back, as the wind and waves had subsided considerably. No need for a motor, but not stomach-churning.

 Here Hervé is doing his ancient mariner impersonation - just lacks an albatross!

Till we eventually got back to Legué as the light was starting to go.
Absolutely knackering this sailing lark - sit around all day, eat a huge lunch, watch the scenery, hoist a few sails and end up exhausted, with a sunburned nose!