August 2023 Expedition Update—Île de Houat

2023 QBE sailing expeditions—Ile de Houat

We departed Pornichet on Monday, spent a day exploring the Ile de Houat, and now head to Lorient, where we’ll take part in the 2023 «Festival Interceltique» on Wednesday (9 August). French television inform us they intend to shoot video of our grand entrance (our boats are, after all, replicas of a 19th-century Breton pilot cutter), and we’ve been invited to march in the parade. Mairéad, one of our Irish crew members, brought along her “fiddle.”

In the past, we’ve had other participants bring their instruments, including Breton bagpipes. We make quite a spectacle when one of our teens stands up and pipes us into port. Everybody crowds around to get a good look and snap pics.

August 2022 Expedition Update—The Lorient Inter-Celtic Festival

Here we are today at the Inter-Celtic Festival in Lorient with Charles Bertrand, a former QBE crew member who now plays with the National Marine Corps Breton Bagpipe Band. When he was a teenager, Charles brought his bagpipes along on an expedition and routinely piped us into port. It always created a stir when people jockeyed for a good vantage point from which to watch and listen.

There are several Celtic “Nations,” including Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, Galicia (in Spain), and Asturias (also in Spain). All share indigenous cultures that descended from an ancient proto-Celtic progenitor, all are represented at the festival, and all have a thing about bagpipes!

You never know what you’ll discover on a QBE sailing expedition.