Between straits and tides
Once on board, we get a warm welcome from our two skippers and from Jean, our storyteller for today, who is none other than the chairman of the Cap Sizun Maritime Museum. René, as a pure-bred Breton, knows the area like the back of his hand, knows every treacherous passage and every rock on which ships have been wrecked in the past. On the starboard beam there’s the Ile aux vaches (Isle of cows). “The Estrid reef”, Jean tells us. “A cargo ship on its home passage from Spain broke up there in 1933, shedding tons of oranges that ended up in the inhabitants’ wheelbarrows.” We’re being rocked by a gathering swell as we sail up Cap Sizun, keeping a weather eye along the wild coast all the way up to the majestic Pointe du Raz. On board, the excitement is becoming palpable. Agnès warns us “We are now entering the raz (tidal race) in the Iroise Sea where the Atlantic meets the Channel”. Suddenly the sea seems to boil, seething. It’s pretty impressive!
