6 Aug, morning. We awoke when we were good and ready. Nice to have a good night sleep and not to have to wake up for a watch or to deal with some sail change or problem. We made some hot chocolate, and just lounged collecting wits and planning for the day. The plan was to go into the marina in Brest to clear-in.
There was a large Coast Guard Cutter anchored in the middle of the bay. Sometime around a noon a patrol boat came calling. La Douane, French Customs officers wanted to come aboard. I had the yellow Q flag up so they knew we just arrived. They climbed aboard and were very nice. They went through my paperwork first, then wanted to inspect the boat. They seemed to be looking for drugs or anything out of order. They didn’t delve too deeply, but took a close look at the log. Marlein, apart from speaking excellent French, had done a nice job of organizing the log, and here it paid off. They seemed pleased and could see where our position hardly changed when we were hove-to, or had to change course based on high winds, plus barometer, water temp, etc. I think they felt for us, and commented the storm was bad and not common. Not uncommon either, but they appreciated what we went through. They cleared us in and departed. We no longer had to go into Brest! Great service, and friendly for Customs officers.
After that we had a nice lunch, lounging on the foredeck, with a great view of this classic port, with mole, fort by Vauban, and pillboxes on the point. Then we put the dinghy together for the trip in to shore. We walked around a bit and finally found wifi at Cafe Stephen, where we stayed for dinner, to celebrate our successful trip!
