When we arrived in Pornic the sun was shining but it was blowing a right hooley, the marina was not one of the easiest to get into either as there was limited depth and we require a minimum of 2m. As we were pondering our best option a head popped up form one of the boats already moored up, and told us the best place to go, it was James the English chap we had met on Houat. It was not ideal for the conditions but it was all that was available. Once moored up we paid our dues and chilled out for the rest of the afternoon.
Unfortunately most of the time we were in Pornic the weather was not great and so we did not do any coastal walks, instead we walked for a couple of miles to the chandlers to purchase some items for the boat, one of which was some rope and a buoy so that Kevin could make an anchor trip line, (its something that helps you pull the anchor up if it gets stuck), because the buoy could be mistaken by other sailors as a mooring buoy Kevin got me to use my artistic talents to draw a skull and cross bones on it.
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| Anchor Bouy |
There did not seem to be any let up in the bad weather, and the forecast for the next few days was not promising, we were starting to get worried that we would not make La Rochelle in time to meet my daughter Claire there on the 15th June. We therefore decided to make a run for it on the 8th June and head for Ille D Yeau another small island about 26 miles further south, we ended up having to sail 39 miles as the wind was not in the right direction for us to sail straight out of the bay without tacking several times (also know as beating, another description would be “getting very wet and not moving very far forward). The wind was blowing at 4 to 5 knots which is 20 to 25 knots and the wave height was 2 to 3 meters, but the sun was out so it could have been worse.
We arrived in Ille d Yeau at about 20:00, Kevin suggested we eat out to which I eagerly agreed, (thank goodness I really didn’t feel like cooking), we found a quaint restaurant that served the local dish of fresh Tuna straight from the fishing boats. We had agreed not to stay a couple of days on Ill d Yeau as originally planned, but to head south again the following day which was the 9th June to Le Sables D’Olonne, which is the home of the Vendee Globe yacht race.
The weather forecast was for rain from 9 am onwards on that day we decided to start our journey to Le sables early, so was up at 6 and set sail at 06:45hrs. We managed to keep ahead of the rain although you could see the dark clouds all around us, and so we were very thankful for that. When we arrived at the point where we needed to turn and sail towards the marina entrance to Le Sables the rain had still not materialised, the wind was in the right direction and so we decided to keep on heading south to La Rochelle. On our way to La Rochelle we used our cruising chute sail for the first time during our travels, only for a couple of hours but it made a big difference to our progress.
As we approached la Rochelle you could see the large bridge which we needed to sail under, it looked very impressive, we needed to make sure we went under the right arch to ensure the mast could get underneath it. The chart showed that there was a red and green buoy marking our way which Kevin had asked me to look out for but try as I may I could not see them until we were almost upon them. The arch also had red & green markers painted on to each of the pillars either side of the arch you should use for south going vessels. With the right arch identified we sailed easily under the bridge.
Entering the marina to La Rochelle was like “Paddys Market”, I thought Pornichet was bad, but this was even worse there were boats everywhere all making their way in at the same time, it was like being on the dodgems.
La Rochelle is a beautiful old town with narrow streets and plenty of different types of restaurants offering a wide variety of choice and we agreed that we had made the right choice in coming here a few days earlier than planned. Whilst here we are trying to get as many jobs done as we can that need to be done before we head for Spain, as well as lots of chilling out time. Kevin’s daughter Rachel and the grand children Summer & Taylor “Skyped” use in the evening, it was great to see them all. I then “Skyped” my daughter Claire, her husband Steve and son Isaac but the connection was so bad we had to give up. Skype is a great tool when you are travelling, but can be frustrating if you have a poor internet connection.
Today which is the 12th June we headed off to get a fender board which we will need when mooring up against harbour walls which is quite common in Spain. The nearest place to get what we needed was about 7 Kilometres away, we had originally planned to go on the bikes, but decided to walk instead. On hindsight we may have been better sticking to our original plan as the board was really heavy and it was one hell of a long way back to the boat carrying it. At times we must have looked like a couple of characters out of the film “The Plank” , especially when a women passed us on her bicycle, if Kevin had turned round at the right time he would have knocked her clean off her bike. Whilst on the way back to the boat we also called in at the supermarket to pick up some Camping Gaz which Kevin managed to fit into the rucksack, must say was glad he was carrying it and not me.
Once back at the boat Kevin got straight into working mode and started to give the washboards a second coat of varnish, as the varnish was proving difficult to get on Kevin decided to thin it down a little with some white spirit and emptied some into a clean yogurt pot, giving me strict instructions not to tip it down the sink. After a little while Kevin came back in and asked if I had tipped it down the sink to which I replied no, it so happens that white spirit melts yogurt pots and so it went down the sink without any help from me what so ever.
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| Always another job to do |
Total distance travelled to date: 572 nautical miles
Present location: https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=46.142021,-1.167812&hl=en&sll=46.116443,-1.202316&sspn=0.094482,0.264187&mra=mift&mrsp=0&sz=13&t=m&z=13
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