The Friday morning market in Concarneau is wonderful in the sunshine as only French markets can be…

…and we round it off with a late breakfast outside, listening to a decent busker …

We slip the lines around mid-day and push out of the harbour and into the afternoon sunshine…and a wind dead on the nose. With a bit more in it we could have tacked out and round the headland, but we want to be in Audierne before darkness arrives. The pilot warns about approaches after dark and a very narrow and silting river. We don’t fancy a night on a sandbank in the river, so use some diesel to push on.

A huge number of fishing boats (we count 18 at one point) are returning and don’t seem to want to make many concessions to collision avoidance regs as they rush to get their catch to market.

Once round the headland, the wind frees and we have a wonderful early evening sail on the longest day. A small pod of dolphins breaks the surface …

…and soon they are playing in our bow wave and criss-crossing around under the boat. We watch mesmerised and delighted until they either tire of our company or decide to find their fish supper elsewhere.

We are still buzzing as we close the coast andsome fantastic sandy beaches…

We approach the river entrance and have all eight eyes peeled as we make our way up to the little town of Audierne. We expected to find it heaving with Friday night sailors out for the weekend, but instead it is quiet and peaceful, with just the occasional splash as the terns dive bomb into shoals of tiny fish which seem to be panicking very close to the surface.

Tomorrow we plan to pass once more through the Raz du Seine and the Chenal du Four, but the earliest we can leave is around mid-day again and there is a ‘grande marche’ in Audierne tomorrow morning. For now, we are content to sip our rum as the sun goes down on a wonderful little harbour…