Robin
regular
Reged: 30/05/2001
Posts: 5467
Loc: Poole UK
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Having recently posted about our recent lifeboat tow away from Le Raz De Sein on the NW corner of France, Pointe De Bretagne, I found this video of it in a playful mood.
We have rounded here twice every year for 21 years now and done so in about every combination of weather, wind direction,at slack water or with full tide running, under sail or power, in daylight, at night, in fog and so on. We have seen it calm when we expected it rough, and rough when we expected it calm. There is a French saying that says something like no one passes without fear or sorrow...
It is an awesome place.
Watch video here
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 Sermons from my pulpit are with tongue firmly in cheek and come with no warranty!
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Chris_E
regular
Reged: 13/11/2003
Posts: 4702
Loc: Lymington
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If you look carefully, you'll see me in Rival Spirit with full sails in the background
Thank god that each time I've been through the Raz it has been in a more benevolent mood
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It ain't necessarily so.
Botton Village
Citizens Advice Bureau
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Robin
regular
Reged: 30/05/2001
Posts: 5467
Loc: Poole UK
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Damn, I had you down as being in the fishing boat amongst the rocks!
We lost a sprayhood on our old Westerly 33 to one solitary wave after we had passed through northbound, motoring in a flat calm but with a 3m swell. It broke over the deck, over the half inflated Avon, ripped the hood along its bottom stitched seam, poured down the mainhatch and down SWMBO's neck. Fortunately she had just put my camera away for me as I had finished photographing the swell breaking on the light and told her we were out and on our way... No sense of humour either my SWMBO.
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Sermons from my pulpit are with tongue firmly in cheek and come with no warranty!
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Twister_Ken
regular
Reged: 31/05/2001
Posts: 15072
Loc: k, stock & barrel.
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Not a good day for drying your washing if you're a lighthouse keeper.
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If, at first, you don't succeed...
...don't try sky diving.
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bilbobaggins
regular
Reged: 12/02/2005
Posts: 7414
Loc: The Shire
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Is that the lighthouse keeper singing, or the sirens on the rocks....? 
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smokey5756
regular
Reged: 17/08/2006
Posts: 114
Loc: WEYMOUTH
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Did the Raz both ways this Summer for the first time. Took the advice in Reeds and did it at neaps. No problem.
Attempting the Touligent ( hope the spelling is right) passage round to Camaret was perhaps the most hairy moment of the trip back from Loctudy. It was blowing South West 6 to 7 and the swell was significant but the boat coped admirably.
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When I grow up I am going to become a meterologist. It is the only profession I know that pays you £50,000 a year for consistently getting it wrong.
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janeK
regular
Reged: 11/09/2003
Posts: 445
Loc: SW - GB
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Hope those houses on the coast line had double glazing, brilliant video, thanks for sharing.
Past through the Raz a few years back on the way to La Rochelle, we drifted in flat calm seas, brilliant hot sunshine and Paul Weller from the speakers - incredible.
Of course keeping a lookout at all times but it was like a mill pond!!!!
janeK
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"You do not ask a tame seagull why it needs to disappear from time to time toward the open sea. It goes, that's all."
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Robin
regular
Reged: 30/05/2001
Posts: 5467
Loc: Poole UK
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It isn't always possible of course to make the passage at the ideal time and on neaps but it is quite passable with care at other times. Unless you use Audierne or the outer Audierne anchorage at St Evette the nearest harbours north are nearly 20mls away and south over 40mls away, so precise timing isn't easy. St Evette is not sheltered in southerly winds and Audierne itself is a shallow harbour only accessible near HW (for us about +/- 1hr) so whilst they can be useful we usually head straight up/down from Camaret to/from Glenan area.
Even on big springs it is possible to pass the Raz in full flow if you set a track between the two marked yucky areas south and avoid the other one as best you can to the north, by staying over to the west a bit before heading off to Camaret northbound. Wind and tide together is OK, wind against tide is not good unless the wind is light. Tide against swell isn't good either if the swell is big as it can sometimes be here. Our sprayhood incident was with a 3-4m swell, spring tide and no wind, but the rogue wave was some way north of the Raz itself and we had already passed through and altered course to go to Morgat.
Local boats even go through against the tide using a back eddy that runs very close in to the light, not a stress free route but it is shown in the French Pilotes Cotiers pilot book.
Then there is the Pass Du Trouizard (sp?) through the rocks, only for flat calm slackwater but used by local fishing boats seemingly in rough conditions.
I would guess your rough ride in the Toulinget was created by the swell over the relatively shallow bottom in the Toulinget approaches and with waves then piled on top from the strong SW winds?
Interesting place, like the French saying, no one passes without fear or sorrow!
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Sermons from my pulpit are with tongue firmly in cheek and come with no warranty!
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innesker
regular
Reged: 16/02/2006
Posts: 71
Loc: Sussex
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Ok, so scratch becoming a lighthouse keeper from the list of retirement alternatives!
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Roberto
regular
Reged: 20/07/2001
Posts: 1176
Loc: miquélic - Lorient
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passe du trouziard
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR0dzjZ_EDw&eurl=http://ushant.unblog.fr/2008/08/
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