We decided we’d head for La Rochelle on 11th July and spend a few nights
there to include Bastille Day, the 14th.
Leaving Les Sables d’Olonne at 0730 meant we would benefit as much as possible from the (weak) tidal streams and should arrive in plenty of time
to get a berth and settle in before cocktail hour. In fact the trip
started really well, with wind on the beam giving us 6 to 7 knots through
the lumpy sea towards our destination.
After an hour or so of that I made the
mistake of estimating our arrival time based on those conditions and, naturally,
within half an hour the little wind that remained was right behind us. We still
had the lumpy sea though, until we were sheltered by the Ile de Re! This rolled us from side to side and made it nigh on impossible to keep the sails
full so, gritting my teeth in frustration, it was down with the mainsail and
on with the motor, using the headsail whenever there was enough wind to keep it
full. Ho hum…
I’d toyed with the idea of heading for La Rochelle’s Vieux
Port but, when it came to it, took the easy option and headed for Port Minimes
which is a pleasant 2km stroll to town. Port Minimes is huge with 4,500 berths including
400 for visitors. Despite this it reputedly has a long waiting list and many of
the “visitors” berths are occupied by boats on that list paying visitor rates!
There was plenty of space for us though and we were soon settled in.
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| Approaching the bridge to Ile de Re. La Rochelle's just beyond it |
We stayed 5 nights in La Rochelle. The town has plenty to offer for tourists including, of course, those infamous towers. We climbed all of them on a discounted ticket - courtesy of the marina - for 6.50 euros each, which I didn’t think was bad.
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| La Rochelle's famous towers... |
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| ...and from the other side. Tour St Nicholas, Tour de la Chaine and Tour de la Lanterne |
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| Tour de la Lanterne from Tour de la Chaine |
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| View from Tour de la Chaine over La Rochelle's Vieux Port |
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| Port Minimes from Tour de la Chaine. Big, isn't it?! |
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| La Rochelle from Tour de la Lanterne |
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| Typical La Rochelle architecture |
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| Bassin de Yachts from Tour St Nicholas |
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| Street art. I rather liked this |
We also visited the nearby Ile de Re. A hop on, hop off bus ticket is just 5 euros each for the day and a lot less hassle than trying to get a berth in the very attractive – and hence very popular – harbour of St Martin de Re, or the insufficiently deep (at neaps) Ars-en-Re (oh how I wanted to mis-type that!).
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| Les Portes-en-Re market, Ile de Re |
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| Typical Les Portes-en-Re street. Not much room for cars! |
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| Les Baleines lighthouse... |
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| ... and the old one it replaced |
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| View from the lighthouse |
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| 257 steps. Count 'em! |
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| Ars-en-Re War Memorial and church which doubles as a navigation mark |
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| Ars-en-Re harbour. Restricted access and only one boat on the long visitor pontoon! |
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| Ars-en-Re street |
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| St Martin de Re. Very poular and might even top Honfleur for appeal |
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| Visitors berths in St Martin de Re |
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| More of St Martin de Re... |
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| ... and more. It's very photogenic! |
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| St Martin de Re from the church bell tower |
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| St Martin de Re donkeys in pyjamas! |
We enjoyed the traditional fireworks celebration of Bastille Day from the marina wall, oblivious to the events of the same day in Nice. What a senseless loss of life on what should have been a happy occasion for everyone.
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| Bastille Day celebrations in La Rochelle... |
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| ... which marks the start of French holiday season. Look at all those yachts! |
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| One for you, Jim and Del! |
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| Who said you couldn't get a piano on a boat? |
On a (much) happier note, we visited Ian and Elaine whilst in La Rochelle, who we’d first met in Les Sables d’Olonne. They offered us tea and patisserie aboard Astrognome, their Westerly Regatta 330, which was most enjoyable! The Regatta is an updated version of our boat, with the same hull and basic layout but a much more modern internal design and fractional rig. It was interesting to see just how different the “same” boat could be!
We were also introduced to Keith by the skipper of Mad Hatter, a Moody 376 that was alongside us for a couple of days. Keith had joined Mad Hatter as crew for their next leg to Portugal. We’d been discussing our plan to let our house out and sail in the summer/rent holiday homes during the winter, and it transpired that Keith has a 4 bedroomed place in Minorca that we may be able to stay in. We’ve not discussed details, but Keith would like the place to be lived in and aired when it would otherwise be empty and we’d, er, like somewhere to live! It won’t be this winter as we’ve got too much to sort out at home, but maybe some time during the next one? We’ll see.
At first light on Saturday 16
th July we left La Rochelle for Saint Gilles-Croix-de Vie; a bit of a mouthful for anyone that, surely? This was a trip of about 55 miles and, once again, was a mixture of sailing and motoring.
For the first time on this trip so far we had to raft alongside another boat on arrival, but that was no real hardship as they were a very pleasant English couple. When they wanted to move the following day, the boat behind them – presumably aware from our conversation that we intended to leave early the next morning – invited us to raft alongside them so that we wouldn’t be the inside boat of a raft when we wanted to leave! Very considerate of them.
Saint Gilles-Croix-de-Ville is a seaside town, pure and simple. It has a large sandy beach and is clearly very popular with those who like that sort of thing. It held no special appeal for us and so we moved on after a couple of nights to Pornichet.
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| Saint Gilles-Croix-de-Vie harbour entrance - inside looking out... |
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| ...and outside looking in |
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| Saint Gilles-Croix-de-Vie horses |
Pornichet is, er, a seaside town, pure and simple. It has a large sandy beach and is clearly very popular with those who like that sort of thing. It holds no special appeal for us and so we’re moving on tomorrow (sounds vaguely familiar that!).
We’re in Pornichet marina as I type but spent last night anchored off the beach which was really quite enjoyable, if not exactly peaceful. Clearly an anchored boat makes a great landmark for anyone paddle boarding, dinghy sailing, water skiing, windsurfing, jet skiing or just generally speed boating about to paddle/sail/motor/ski etc. around and back! All good fun and gave us plenty to watch until the sun eventually went down and peace (sort of – it’s amazing how sound travels across the water) descended.
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| Pornichet from Cyclone's anchorage |
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| Rob trying to hide from the sun. This was nine o'clock at night |
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| ...and finally it went down, restoring a sensible temperature in the process! |
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| The marina from our Pornichet anchorage... |
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| ...and another shot of the sunset. Pretty, huh? |
Tomorrow it’s the Vilaine River, all being well. And the temperature’s due to drop by about 10 degrees centigrade too, thank goodness!
The forecast temperatures here for the last week or so have been well into the 30s and that’s really too much for us. I just don’t know how other people cope. Is it really possible to enjoy laying out in the sun when it’s that hot?
As an aside, I measured a few temperatures around the boat with my new infra red thermometer the other day. Down below, out of the sun, the woodwork measured 33 degrees centigrade. The step into the companionway from the cockpit, painted grey and in the sun, was 67 degrees centigrade! To put that into perspective, the coolant in my engine is only 74 degrees centigrade when the engine's fully warmed up!!
We’ve been doing whatever we can to create shade or hiding down below when we’re not sailing or out strolling. When we are out strolling we dash from shady bit to shady bit! No, the Med would definitely be too hot for us, so it’s the Baltic again next year. I wish I hadn’t sold my chart plotter chart of the Baltic on ebay……
Thanks for reading.
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