THREE traditional French working boats and a larger welcoming party of Cornish vessels made for a spectacular sight in Mount's Bay on Monday morning.
The Penlee lifeboat and Cornish luggers, The Ripple and the Happy Wanderer were among those who ushered the Le Corbeau des Mers, Le Marche Avec and La Coronasia into Newlyn harbour where a crowd of onlookers added their greetings to the Breton flotilla.
Despite being slightly late in reaching the port and the imminent arrival of Princess Anne at Penwith College, Penzance mayor Jan Ruhrmund found time to welcome each captain individually to Newlyn.
The boats were recreating the journey made by French refugees escaping the occupying Nazis in the Second World War.
The crossing to Newlyn from the Isle de Sein, marks the 70th anniversary of the first voyage. The Corbeau des Mers, now the property of the Resistance Museum of Brittany, is the sole surviving vessel from the original journey, when she carried 27 people over to the sanctuary of west Cornwall.
Hosting the party were members of the Penzance-Concarneau Twinning Association and Penzance Town Council, who together organised a reception for the Bretons at the Pirates' Rugby Club on Monday evening.
On Tuesday they sailed to Penzance harbour where they were joined by several other modern French yachts and a mayor's reception was held in the Bath Inn yesterday before the flotilla sails on to Mylor and finally Fowey.
article copyright THE CORNISHMAN