Definitely an edge-of-ocean feel to the bay (apart from the noisy people). The moorings are well spaced and there's no noticeable flow of tide in the bay. The boats just move gently on a very slight swell which we can hear breaking on the beach at the head of the bay. Looking the other way we can see a little rocky island in the middle of the bay, then rocks fringing the entrance and beyond that the Atlantic, looking about South-West.
Hired bikes and covered about half of the island in warm sunshine and hardly any wind. Checked the other bay at Le Stiff - not nearly as good as there is noise from the ferries and supply boats, one of which was unloading itself. Don't think about huge cranes lifting full size containers at Felixstowe Dock - the ship's own crane lifts out items about the size of a fork lift pallet stacked 1.5 m high and a fork lift truck takes them away.
Continues round to the lighthouse at Le Stiff. Visited the apiculture exhibition and were made very welcome by fully dressed beekeepers who seemed to be delivering some sort of course. Ouessant is the only place in Europe (they say) which is free of varroa and also free of EFB, AFB etc. They said it is a paradise for beekeeping as there are many wild flowers - also the decline of sheep rearing has allowed more heather and other heathland flowers. It has also allowed a lot of bracken, but they did not mention that. They say the season is very late here. They also seem to do a lot of queen rearing and ship out the queens. Had a taste and bought 2 pots. Quite expensive, light colour and flower taste.
The N end of the island has a huge radar tower which is used to monitor the traffic in the TSS 5 miles offshore. It was built after the Amoco Cadiz disaster and is operated by remote control. Anyway you can see this thing from just about everywhere on the island - it seems a bit like something out of a science fiction novel monitoring our every move "Note for record: the visitors on buoy 8 have entered zone 3B - Punishable Violation - riding bikes on a footpath"
Visited various headlands on the W of the island. Saw choughs, several, quite near, and waved heath which we saw last year in the Scillies. Had a very brief swim at the beach at the head of our bay. Water cold but the beach itself a sun-trap so soon warmed up again. Left the bikes at the shop as the man had gone home.
The pilot books suggest you should arrive fully fuelled, watered and victualled because of the limitations of the island. Not really necessary. There is a Spar (expensive) a 7 a 7 (remember to say it "sept a sept") and a 8 a 8 (did you say "huit a huit"?) which strangely opens from 08:30 to 20:30 and has a lunch break. Both with reasonable prices. So there is no problem in buying all the usual food stuff, including Seaweed Beer
This evening everyone seems to be quiet. Still high pressure with no wind and several places on the island which we have not yet visited, so may stay tomorrow too.
