Eventually we got a nice weather window to move on from La Rochelle. About twenty miles out we hit the 1000 mile mark, Lat. 45˚ 58.28’N Long 01˚31.43’W which was accompanied by a lovely sunset.

 

 

We had a good crossing, some of which we sailed and some we had to motor sail. We also got a wee routine going for the two nights and both managed to get a few hours’ sleep, but still extremely tiring with just two of us. I must admit, night sailing is not my favourite. The second night was cloudy which gives no definition between the sky and the sea; it’s just pitch black all around. Kinda spooky.

Well, the sail down to La Rochelle was a bit of a mixed bag. One minute we had wind, the next we didn’t, one minute I was sunbathing on deck, the next I had a fleece on. However, we did manage to sail in on the approach under the Ile de Re Bridge. The water here is very shallow and as La Rochelle is built on limestone the water is very murky, not like the azure blue seas I’ve been used to lately. It’s a large working port, not particularly pretty as you come in.

 

         Ile de Re Bridge         The marina is massive so we had no difficulty finding a berth.

We thought we had found a nice quiet spot until at midnight it seemed like we were in the middle of an earthquake. We got up and had a look out only to find that they are building a new breakwater about twenty metres from our pontoon, this obviously has to be done at low water which happened to be midnight that night. There they were moving these humongous boulders around and causing an almighty racket.

Next day we moved a bit further in, this was relatively quiet other than we had the French Scouts and Guides learning to sail on five boats next to us for a week. Mealtimes, and getting ready for bed was a bit of a noisy affair, but other than that it was fine.

 

   There are concrete waves and …                        Beaches with no water

 

La Rochelle is beautiful, The city is so vibrant. There are street artists all along the main walkway, break dancing to performing dogs, all very entertaining and a nice way to pass an evening followed by small refreshment in one of the many harbour side bars just made for people watching.

 

 

We jumped on the bus one day over to ile de Re and hired bikes to see a bit of the island. It’s lovely, especially La Flotte and Saint Martin de Re, both small harbours surrounded by buzzing cafes and restaurants. We did think about taking the boat into Saint Martin de Re but we had heard that it got really busy and so many boats are crammed into the tiny marina that you have to wait till others leave before you can get out. Having seen it, I can see what they mean.

 

 

                                                                         The Donkeys wear PJ’s here

We’re waiting patiently for a two or three day weather window for the crossing to Northern Spain. We need to head out about forty miles into the Bay of Biscay to skirt a firing range. It’s about a 185 mile sail to get there. We should be able to do it in about 36 to 40 hours depending on the weather but we do need a good spell of settled weather to do it in. So far there have been a couple of times when we thought we might get away but the outlook changed. One, initially forecasting force three changed to gusting gale force. So we need to be sure we get it right as the Bay of Biscay can be a “challenging” place to be in bad weather.

 

                                        Health & fitness regime

 

 

In the Vieux Port for an evening

During the day, we take the bikes, “Yellow Velos” which the marina provides free for a couple of hours each day and get out and about a bit. Today they were used for a visit to Decathlon on the outskirts to get cockpit cushions and a mat.

Tomorrow they will be used for a visit to the optician! Gordon has once again lost his glasses over the side of the boat; unfortunately we didn’t manage to get them back, even with the help of an obliging French man who went in to have a look for them, it was high water and just too deep. As these were his prescription sunglasses we got hold of a pair of those clip on things which go over his normal glasses!

Attractive, aren’t they? I might need to walk in front if he’s wearing them; I’ve got my street cred to think about, after all?

Next stop was Sables D’Olonnes , a big place in French sailing, most if not all the big circumnavigation races either leave or finish here.

You arrive up the river and park up and then go to the Capitainerie to be allocated a berth in the marina, all very slick. We berthed up and went for a walk into La Chaum, that’s it in the distance beyond the masts, Sables itself, is on the other bank of the river connected by “Bus de Mer” an electric taxi boat that looks like a greenhouse on water.

                    Sables Marina                                            Water Bus

We are only 35 miles or so further South but the heat is building, this as alleviated somewhat by the airy external “facilities” that I am demonstrating below

Sables itself is a lot bigger than La Chaum and we personally preferred La Chaum that’s not to say it isn’t pretty, it is as you can see from the following photos we took (No not me! ….… the place)

The electric sea bus -Sables on left , La Chaum on right.

Sables town marina, walkway and commercial port with new fishing boats being built.

The locals here have a novel use for those heavy furniture removal aids!

Rumour has it Brian Cairns (a friend of ours) owns a pair and can be seen scooting around “The West Ferry”, Dundee of an evening.

Aaaw that nice……………..where’s my antihistamine?

Central square Sables

Canny see green cheese that girl ………………now using girlie loos

My Granny said you would get piles .

I really need to get off the toilet humour now! And post this before Louise comes back

Massively long and beautiful beach and

Some wee alleys to explore

Day trip over, armed with details about the Bastille Day fireworks we headed back to get ferry across to La Chaum , in background.

I knew they were famous for brandy. 

Back for dinner, though

don’t think Lou should be having any !

That night went to see Bastille Day celebrations; I suppose it’s a bit like saying

“Happy Bar L Day” or similar ……..all went off with a bang

And so to bed , earlyish start, tomorrow.

 

Before leaving Ile d’ Yeu I managed to convince Louise to “stay out late” given her normal bed time of 10:00. We went to see a Rockabilly band. They were very good and as it happened looked like a trio made up of Nick Knowles, Mathew Kelly, and the “Pav” the rigger (on bass) who renewed our rigging in Ardrosssan.

              “Irish” Bar               &        Louise doing her nosey

                       Pav the rigger

 

The day before we left Pornic, as Gordon said it was Market Day. What a good market, but let me tell you, you wouldn’t need to be watching what you were eating going there. As you might guess we didn’t come away empty handed, especially after a visit to the fish market, serenaded by your archetypical Frenchman in a Beret.

As Anne-Marie and Mick are heading north, it looks like we won’t be meeting up with them in Portugal, this year anyway. We had a farewell drink on Fleur of Pendle . We are sad to see them go, but are sure we will meet up again, even if it is in Largs.

We headed out the next morning for Ile d’Yeu, which is about thirty five miles, it could have been shorter but the shorter passage was rock strewn so we gave it a miss, adding an hour to the overall trip. We had to motor sail the first half but then had a lovely sail for the last three or four hours. I must say, Camira is doing us proud so far, so much so that we absolutely creamed a 37ft yacht that we passed. Not sure what kind it was but the big Belgian guy sailing it didn’t look too happy, but we found out later it was made of steel so can’t crow too much. Incidentally, he is moored up next to us and has invited me for rum, presumably to quiz me on my sailing tactics. The marina is choc-a-bloc and continuing to fill up. Honestly, you should see this; unfortunately the picture doesn’t do it justice. They just keep pilling them in and if you are on the inside, tough luck, you just need to wait till it empties a bit before you can get out. We are in the middle there somewhere.

We hired bikes yesterday to see the island. I promise, I will never complain about a spin bike again, these things were like sit up and beg butcher’s bikes, thankfully, the island is relatively flat, and so the three gears just about got you there.

The island is lovely; all the houses are more or less the same style, and are very pretty. We cycled round and across the whole island, about 22 miles.

This is an old semaphore station

I would never get away with it if I didn’t mention it, Gordon went on a bit farther, probably another five or six miles as he wanted to go and see the citadel  de Pierre –Levee,where Marechal Petain was imprisoned for collaborating with the Germans.

Today we decided to go to the beach. Looks lovely doesn’t it?

Well, we got settled after watching a very strange looking man doing some sort of rain dance and incantation down by the sea. Thankfully he didn’t have very strong powers as the weather was lovely, more than could be said for the beach. Yes, it was gorgeous to look at, but flies, OMG! There were millions of sand flies. Every time, someone walked by, although not often (as it was deserted), it disturbed them and they all seemed to fly about for a few minutes then settle back in the sand or on me! Well, that was enough , so much for my day relaxing on what looked like a beautiful beach.

We thought we would be going to Les Sables d’Olonne tomorrow to meet up with a friend of ours, big Alec, assuming we could get out of the marina that is, but, unfortunately, what was originally going to be a force 3 has developed into a 5 -6. So it looks like we might not catch him before he heads back to Ireland this weekend.

 

(The editor is actually doing this bit of the blog for a change)

We were heading for Pornic next to meet up with Mick & Anne-Marie, who you will remember from previous blogs. In order to get into Pornic you have to get there around high water so either early morning start or latish arrival.

We left at 0500 and did a quick three and a bit hour sail.

When we arrived Brian the YM examiner was there to take our lines, no pressure ….. He said I was taught by an old pro-that’s no way to talk about the Balmer! We met his wife, Liz and then they headed off back north.

Mick and Anne Marie were on the next pontoon and invited us around that night for drinks (sound familiar?) It was good to see them again, since we had completed a lot of the early part of this trip sailing together, and were looking forward to it.

We were hungry and knackered so Louise cooked up a quick omelette for breakfast and off for a quick kip, before exploring ashore.

Pornic has turned out to be one of my favourite places, it has a mediaeval feel mixed with the South of France, and a cracking beach just minutes from the Marina. We have decided to stay a few days before heading off to Ile de Yeu and then Sables D’Olonne where we hope to meet up with big Alec of Northern Ireland fame, who was part of the wooden top crew, i.e. me & him on Kevin’s “Krystal” a couple of years back.

I hope I haven’t included too many pictures , we have taken quite a few !

We are off to the restaurant below tonight as Louise has hankered after Moules et Frites since coming to France

and then meeting up with Anne-Marie and Mick to celebrate her birthday, although we are probably all suffering from the last 2 night’s celebrations of meeting up again on Camira & Fleur!

We went to the local beach for a lazy day the next day. 

and then the next day a walk into the neighbouring village Sainte Marie and back via the other side of Pornic, about 9 miles in total.

It’s no wonder I wanted to visit the “Cave au Vin “on the way back.

Since we reached France I wanted to be able to get the fabled wine out of a hose pipe et Voila!

It is now Saturday and the worsening weather has kept us here, but I can think of worse places to wait out a blow, just so we are not totally peeing you off with pictures of sunshine here’s one of today spent inside the boat catching up on the blog and reading because its blowing a hoolie.

Looks like we will still be here tomorrow, but we think it is market day so we will dander along there to see what that’s happening, I hope Louise doesn’t end up buying a cow to wash, she’s been practicing her French again !

After a fairly restless night due to an amazing thunder and lightning storm, we set off in the morning for Pornichet in the sunshine with the forecast for a force 4 gusting 5. Well, that was a bit of a bum steer. It was a 5 gusting 6, that combined with the swell of the Bay of Biscay and probably the remnants of last night’s storm it was my scariest day yet.

A nice sail before it kicked off !

We arrived at the marina which let me tell you is a wee tight entrance in the conditions, got in and had a look for a berth, the only one available was one where we were getting blown off. So in comes Gordon on the helm at a rate of knots and I manage to get myself onto the pontoon when a couple of men off the German boat in front of us come to help me secure the lines. Well! The next thing I see is this man hanging from our guard rails at the bow of the boat in water up to his waist. There I am, screaming to Gordon telling him to keep the bow out otherwise the man is in danger of getting crushed between the boat and the pontoon, the other man, his friend seemingly, is shouting to me that he will be fine, he obviously wasn’t looking at his mates face. The best bit of it was, all I could think of was he looked like Dennis the Menace hanging there with his red and black striped top on. Anyway, along comes the guy from the marine in a wee fishing boat thing and is trying to tell us to go to another berth, then he spots the man hanging from the bow and pulls him into his boat, his wife meanwhile was on the other boat taking photos of it, I have asked her to send them to me, if she does, I will post them. Talk about a pantomime! We were doing just fine on our own, but I suppose people are just being helpful. The German man (not the one hanging from the bow) was telling us later that this is what they call a summer storm(can’t remember the German for it), we told him it’s what we call “blowin a hoolie.” lines doubled up for the continuing onslaught.

 

The next day was overcast and the remnants of previous day so went for walk around Pornichet.Lots of varying architecture as you can see. Had a 3 course “formula “(fixed price) for lunch to get out of rain. Stuffed!!

 

On arrival we really liked it, we were told we could only have one night in our berth and the next day we would need to move as the same blinking race that had gone into Crouesty was now coming in here! That was fine, however, we got moved to the furthest away berth, it was a bugger to get into and we had every Tom Dick and Harry rafting against us, and it was only us, firstly another Moody 31 came against us, they moved and a French boat came in their place. There were other boats all along the pontoon but they all chose us. Must be my good looks or something. Anyway, the racers didn’t stay and as it happens we could probably have stayed where we were. Annoying!

We are staying here till Sunday, as it’s the 50^th anniversary of the Transat with the Pen Duicks of Eric Taberley, five or six of the Pen Duicks are coming in here tomorrow and there is meant to be all sorts of entertainment going on so we will hang around to see what happens.

It has been very hot and sunny, probably warmer than I thought it would be here which meant we had to sort out a sun awning sooner than we expected. We had Saturn Sails at home give us a quote for a simple A frame type that comes from the boom over the cockpit. They quoted £350 which we thought was a bit hefty. The chandlers here have a very similar one which was coming in about 200 – 285 Euros depending on the size. We were on the verge of buying one and had come back to the boat to measure up when we decided to get out a tarpaulin which Gordon had brought with him thinking it would come in handy if we were wintering the boat somewhere and might offer a bit of protection. Well, would you believe it, it’s more or less the perfect size and after a wee trip to the chandlers to buy a couple of meters of shock cord and some bungee clips which cost us a whole 7 Euros, we have a great sun awning. It might not be quite as refined as the one in the chandlers, but it does the exact same job. Result! Might even go and buy some of this great wine we have found at 1.50 Euros a bottle. Why can’t we get these sort of prices at home? On second thoughts, that might not be a good idea, I would only drink more. Anyway, Cheers!

Well the Pen Duicks arrived. Loads of boats went out into Quiberon Bay to meet them, then sailed into Trinite.

I must admit, my favourite of the boats was Pen Duick VI, absolutely nothing to do with the Skipper of that one.

 

The photo was only taken for Dave and Iain…….Mmm, well maybe not only them. Anyway, it was a good day and we went along to the concert at night,

it was a Cuban band playing and all the locals were dancing in the street. Needless to say, the Brits just watched. (Editor’s note …not correct I had a bit of a shimmy, George Benson eat your heart out)

 

Next stop was Port du Crouesty which was ok, nothing special. We only had one night there as some race was on the following day and we would have had to move berths so we just decided to back track to Trinite-Sur-Mer, one of the most famous sailing places for ocean going sailing and where some of France’s best sailors come from.

 

Port Hooligan as we called it on the Quiberon Peninsula was our next stop. (Proper spelling is Haliguen).

Our visitor’s berth in Port Hooligan and some so called “Arty Pics” from G.

We hired bikes while we were here and cycled up and down either side of the Peninsula. What a gorgeous area and it has some of the most beautiful beaches. Our plan was to go to the other end of the peninsula and go for lunch. Lunch never materialised as we had run out of cash and couldn’t get any out of the machine, the whole area had some electrical problem so bank ATM’s couldn’t give out cash and restaurants etc. couldn’t accept cards as their systems were also down. We had a total of twelve euros on us which we had to use sparingly along the way to get water, it was scorching and I had already been out that morning for a four mile run so was already dehydrated. None the less, we had a lovely day. (Editor’s note and I had two beers)

Port St Mary

Magellan at work

Provisions!

Chris and Roland came to us that night for a couple of drinks before dinner before having to return to their boat as they had some people coming for drinks after dinner. They look like such a quiet couple as well. Just goes to show you, looks can be deceiving. LOL.

I hope we meet up with them again.