The Weight

We are hiding several miles up the Blavet River on the west coast of France, avoiding a developing gale in the Bay of Biscay. The tidal range here is 15ft. At low tide, there’s barely enough water to keep Nada, our Malo 46, afloat. However, we have come up the river on the last of the flood tide and found a relatively deep, narrow pool in one of the bends. It’s a beautiful, unspoiled setting, and we are anchored alongside Le Rocher du Diable (the Rock of the Devil). The chart indicates extensive drying mudflats at low tide immediately upstream of us.

We have worked our way up a river like this before to avoid a gale on the west coast of Ireland. On that occasion we motored inland