Adventure The Breton Way

With the 2020 OSTAR cancelled due to COVID-19, Mervyn and Penny Wheatley opt to sail to the Brittany coast for a French summer afloat

- Mervyn Wheatley

Most years I race long-distance, and in 2020 I had expected to compete in the OSTAR aboard our Bowman 40 Arethusa of Yealm. But with the transatlantic race postponed due to COVID-19 we had to change our plans. My wife, Penny, prefers cruising to racing, and likes to enjoy at least a couple of nights at each stop.

As Penny notes, ‘I can’t see the point of crashing to windward. I’d sooner we change the plan and have a good sail in comfort. I think Mervyn has generally adapted well to this ethos when we are cruising!’

With no commitments for August and September, we decided to sail to the north coast of Spain and the Rias. However, that plan was thwarted by COVID-19 restrictions, so we opted to cruise to the north and south coast of Brittany for seven weeks instead.

Thankfully, Arethusa was only out of the water for a couple of months over the winter. We relaunched her in February 2020 before the first lockdown restrictions were imposed. We were lucky as, from March, many boats were stuck in marinas or yards with their owners unable to access them.

It had been our intention to start by sailing from our home port at Newton Ferrers on the River Yealm in South Devon to Roscoff to stock up on wines but, by the time we set off on 8 August, the wind was southeasterly, so we opted instead for a good sail to L’Aber Wrac’h, arriving in the river in the early morning in clear, sunny conditions.

SUMMER SOLITUDE