Since the beginning of our trip, we have been waiting for a favourable opportunity to try out a special ability of our OVNI: “drying out”, i.e. running the boat aground on solid ground at falling tide in a controlled manner, and thus standing completely on dry land at low tide. The centreboard can be completely folded into the hull of the Nikola so that the boat comes to a standstill on the hull and on the two rudder blades.

Areas with a large tidal difference are suitable (the 7 metres between high and low tide that prevailed in Brittany on this day are really plenty), and the ground should as flat and soft as possible (e.g. sand). The coastal areas that dry out at low tide are marked accordingly on the nautical chart (yellow in the picture). On the Île de Batz (near Roscoff), the entire harbour falls dry.

We carefully manoeuvred the Nikola into the shallow water area shortly after high tide and dropped one anchor at the stern and one at the bow to get us into position (and to stay there when we floated up again later). As the water continued to fall, we gently touched down more or less as planned - fortunately right next to a rock on the bottom, but not on it.

The advantage of this location: dinner in the form of fresh mussels can be scraped out of the sand right next to the boat with a small rake - delicious!

In addition to this special harbour, we also really liked the Île de Batz - with only 400 inhabitants, there is a very relaxed island atmosphere.