And now the Travelogue

Since Boyardville we dodged into La Rochelle for a night. It’s only a short hop but a good sail with a couple of overboard practices on the way. Although we try to stay attached to the boat there’s always a possibility of falling in! We have lifejackets with built-in loops to attach a ‘tether’ – a tough strap that attaches to strong points on the boat, including plastic-covered wires that run up and down the deck on both sides so that you can go from the cockpit to the bow without detaching yourself. Sometimes this seems like a dreadful encumbrance especially in good weather, but we try to do this all the time at sea. Overboard routines usually used for hat retrieval, boathook overboard etc. We chuck in a fender tied to a bucket – stays afloat but doesn’t drift too far – then bring the boat back to (hopefully) retrieve it. We haven’t lost one yet!
La Rochelle quiet now the European dinghy championships are over – car parks full of camper vans and teenagers. Last time we left La R they were all coming back into harbour after the morning’s racing. Motors give way to sail so we were stuck in port until a huge fleet of them had come in.

From La Rochelle we set out to go North, eventually for home – or at least Totnes. Having waited for the Northwest wind to drop we found ourselves with very little wind at all – not enough to sail by so on went the motor and off we chugged. The sea was quite lumpy – waves and swell with the bow pushing through, and the forecast of more weather to come. We decided to put in at Les Sables d’Olonne. We have passed this resort several times since keeping Snork Maiden in France. The pilot book describes it as ‘sophisticated’ and we’ve seen photos that make it look like it’s full of 1970’s apartment blocks. Nothing could really be further from the truth. It still has a lot of fishing port charm, narrow streets with 2-star hotels, a fabulous beach and a great photographic exhibition and film at the town hall from the making of the French documentary ‘OCEANS’. (Jacques Perin & Jaques Cluzaud).
The weather kicked up as promised with strong wind, surf and sunshine. We had a picnic lunch on the harbour wall watching yachts rolling and bucking in and out on breaking waves and congratulating ourselves on our decision to stay and explore the charms of Les Sables for a couple of days. Next day we rented a couple of bikes (Gitane, avoid) and went out to the nearby forest – smell of hot pine, like the South of France.
On Monday 30th we set out again, headed for Port Joinville, Ile de Yeu. We’ve been to Yeu before, and liked it very much – especially the beaches on the Atlantic coast. Great rocks, ancient castle up on headland, little sandy bike tracks (fell off, horrid bruise on left calf), bikes pretty good & cheap. Spent a couple of days late afternoon swimming and snorkelling. Mornings mainly boat house-keeping, listening to weather forecasts, staring at charts – where does the time go? Weather is a big part of it. We have NAVTEX – this brings the UK met office right into the boat with a forecast displayed on a screen. VHF brings local weather in French – most of the time, but technical problems and just forgetfulness seem to keep it off the air from time to time so we listen in vain for ‘Securite, securite….’ We can also pick up extensive forecasts from the Internet, but that’s also a big consumer of time…. Vendee region has great public access Wifi for 1€ per day. Other places have rip-off rates – cafes usually good and fast.