Ile de Groix - a beautiful day ... and an interesting night !

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 It all started so well. We arrived on a gloriously sunny day. Unusual mooring arrangements in the small and popular harbour. Fore and aft buoys which requires a level of boat handling dexterity. Liz helmed , did a great job and we moored with no fuss. A couple of  boats arrived after us and the antics were great entertainment. But I shouldn't laugh, mooring boats is a great way of making a real £$%& of yourself and we have all done it at some point.
 The arrival of the ferry was concerning. It's a big beast and had very little room to turn , but did so without causing us any hassle. 
It's a pretty place in the sunshine and you can see the tightly packed boats.The old fishing boat looks nice , but caused trouble in the night. At about 02.30 we awoke to hear worrying noises. I came on deck and found that the wind had picked up a lot and the  trawler and a large boat which had rafted against it were in danger of smashing into our boat ! I awoke their crew and there ensued 1 1/2 hours of rejigging lines , adding fenders and generally trying to avoid a disaster. Back to bed at 04.00 to be woken by Liz at 06.00 to say that wind had now really picked up even more and the stern lines were risking damaging the boat. More action and back to bed at 06.30 for an hour , then back up again.... By this stage the whole harbour was waking up to the fact that strong winds were making the whole place at best uncomfortable and at worst dangerous. Mass exodus and we were very glad to have a strong diesel engine which was able to claw us out of the harbour and back into open (if quite rough ) water ! The joys of sailing..

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