GETTING THERE

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July 7 ARS-EN-RE

GETTING THERE

Well, we left La Rochelle with the usual (for this year) NE 3 – 4. Number 2 foresail & full main, and a lovely tack under the Re bridge. We made good time – in fact, too good since we sailed past our waypoint with a good 90 minutes in hand.  Now the problem was how to ‘park’ the boat – well too deep to anchor.  Made a couple of attempts to heave-to, nether very successful as the number 2 pulled too hard – also a fairly strong incoming tide.  In the event we made a couple of reaches under the mainsail only – and, of course, had lunch.  We then raced for the waypoint – 2 reasons for this (1) to have enough depth when we reached our target marina (LA CREE) and (2) to make sure we got a place, it being on the run-up week to Bastille day, and sunny with it.  

     The approach to Ars can be a bit tricky for the first time.  This was our second but apart from remembering our ‘aground in the channel’ experience, we couldn’t remember too much about it.  Now, for you landlubbers, here’s a digression on GPS navigation that the tars amongst you won’t need. (Look away now – drop back in at the net paragraph). Since there aren’t any nice landmarks on the sea like roundabouts, traffic lights or shops, we work by co-ordinates – latitude and longitude.  Enter the numbers into the GPS and it will tell you when you get there.  Fine.  BUT – as we may have observed before – every bit of water looks a lot like another bit of water, so… the GPS alarm sound around 200 feet away – so we’ll carry on a bit, and we must be there NOW.  ‘How far off are we?’ ‘Oh, it’s behind us now, how far behind?’ ‘Not sure?’ ‘Oh well, we must be somewhere near it…’ Now turn the boat into the wind, take the mainsail down and…  where was that waypoint? Get the idea?

     We took the approach from the assumed-to-be waypoint and soon the depths began to plummet alarmingly.  No, we weren’t exactly where we were meant to be.  Al said ‘We’re going back to La Rochelle’ and I thought ‘Not likely – I want to be in a lovely, quiet marina tonight’ and suggested we had a look at the cockpit plotter to see where the green bits were so we could sail away from them.  Thanks to Al’s quick observation that the deep water had to be some way to Starboard, off we went and up went the depths.  Phew!  Cockpit plotter is ace!  Now we headed for the land on the prescribed course, past what we thought MUST be the green buoy mentioned in the pilot book.  Until we met the next one! (Neither pilot book nor charts are completely up to date through careful cost-benefit assessment.)

 By this time it was clear that we were in the right place, but I still found myself looking for a land based pair of leading marks that I knew (from previous experience) just are not visible and in any case belonged to the next course.  My point is – navigation is not easy, even with GPS, and it’s important not to take anything for granted.  We used to write out a list of key points on a waterproof pad (or bit of paper, depending on conditions) and keep it in the cockpit for quick reference.  Also I now have a strong preference for REEDS loose-leaf almanac – can take out a leaf, put it in a plastic thingy and tuck it into my pocket. While I am on waypoint issues – we had another one on the approach to St Denis d’Oleron where I eventually realized that the waypoint given for the approach is not necessarily going to place us on the leading line.  The approach line itself, as specified in the S Biscay pilot has never made much sense to me!  Again a quick confab with the chart plotter sorted out the problem, showing clearly the shallows that we needed to avoid. After that it was only a question of waiting until we could clear the bar into the harbour (dries at low water springs).

     St Denis itself is a good base from which to see Oleron – I may have mentioned before that it has a really good shower block – warm with plenty hot water and space in the shower cubicles. There’s bike hire nearby (try bargaining), and a daily market in the village.  The nearby campsite has a shop and a couple of modest eateries & takeaways.  Beaches on either side of the marina are swimmable at high tide, but much better beaches are to be had on the opposite side of the island at Les Huttes.

Apologies for the L-O-N-G gap!  We decided to take off for a week or so camping on the Isles of Scilly - a sort of recce for sailing there.  Not sure whether I feel more or less confident of the navigation but there are certainly beautiful anchorages and clear, cold waters.

And - please do sign up to follow the blog if you find our travels in any way interesting.  Comments welcome too - it all encourages me to carry on.

GETTING THERE

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July 7 ARS-EN-RE

GETTING THERE

Well, we left La Rochelle with the usual (for this year) NE 3 – 4. Number 2 foresail & full main, and a lovely tack under the Re bridge. We made good time – in fact, too good since we sailed past our waypoint with a good 90 minutes in hand.  Now the problem was how to ‘park’ the boat – well too deep to anchor.  Made a couple of attempts to heave-to, nether very successful as the number 2 pulled too hard – also a fairly strong incoming tide.  In the event we made a couple of reaches under the mainsail only – and, of course, had lunch.  We then raced for the waypoint – 2 reasons for this (1) to have enough depth when we reached our target marina (LA CREE) and (2) to make sure we got a place, it being on the run-up week to Bastille day, and sunny with it.  

     The approach to Ars can be a bit tricky for the first time.  This was our second but apart from remembering our ‘aground in the channel’ experience, we couldn’t remember too much about it.  Now, for you landlubbers, here’s a digression on GPS navigation that the tars amongst you won’t need. (Look away now – drop back in at the net paragraph). Since there aren’t any nice landmarks on the sea like roundabouts, traffic lights or shops, we work by co-ordinates – latitude and longitude.  Enter the numbers into the GPS and it will tell you when you get there.  Fine.  BUT – as we may have observed before – every bit of water looks a lot like another bit of water, so… the GPS alarm sound around 200 feet away – so we’ll carry on a bit, and we must be there NOW.  ‘How far off are we?’ ‘Oh, it’s behind us now, how far behind?’ ‘Not sure?’ ‘Oh well, we must be somewhere near it…’ Now turn the boat into the wind, take the mainsail down and…  where was that waypoint? Get the idea?

     We took the approach from the assumed-to-be waypoint and soon the depths began to plummet alarmingly.  No, we weren’t exactly where we were meant to be.  Al said ‘We’re going back to La Rochelle’ and I thought ‘Not likely – I want to be in a lovely, quiet marina tonight’ and suggested we had a look at the cockpit plotter to see where the green bits were so we could sail away from them.  Thanks to Al’s quick observation that the deep water had to be some way to Starboard, off we went and up went the depths.  Phew!  Cockpit plotter is ace!  Now we headed for the land on the prescribed course, past what we thought MUST be the green buoy mentioned in the pilot book.  Until we met the next one! (Neither pilot book nor charts are completely up to date through careful cost-benefit assessment.)

 By this time it was clear that we were in the right place, but I still found myself looking for a land based pair of leading marks that I knew (from previous experience) just are not visible and in any case belonged to the next course.  My point is – navigation is not easy, even with GPS, and it’s important not to take anything for granted.  We used to write out a list of key points on a waterproof pad (or bit of paper, depending on conditions) and keep it in the cockpit for quick reference.  Also I now have a strong preference for REEDS loose-leaf almanac – can take out a leaf, put it in a plastic thingy and tuck it into my pocket. While I am on waypoint issues – we had another one on the approach to St Denis d’Oleron where I eventually realized that the waypoint given for the approach is not necessarily going to place us on the leading line.  The approach line itself, as specified in the S Biscay pilot has never made much sense to me!  Again a quick confab with the chart plotter sorted out the problem, showing clearly the shallows that we needed to avoid. After that it was only a question of waiting until we could clear the bar into the harbour (dries at low water springs).

     St Denis itself is a good base from which to see Oleron – I may have mentioned before that it has a really good shower block – warm with plenty hot water and space in the shower cubicles. There’s bike hire nearby (try bargaining), and a daily market in the village.  The nearby campsite has a shop and a couple of modest eateries & takeaways.  Beaches on either side of the marina are swimmable at high tide, but much better beaches are to be had on the opposite side of the island at Les Huttes.

Apologies for the L-O-N-G gap!  We decided to take off for a week or so camping on the Isles of Scilly - a sort of recce for sailing there.  Not sure whether I feel more or less confident of the navigation but there are certainly beautiful anchorages and clear, cold waters.

And - please do sign up to follow the blog if you find our travels in any way interesting.  Comments welcome too - it all encourages me to carry on.

Falling Tide, Rising Tide

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02/07/2013 9:14 PM

Boyardville

Hmm.  Where to start?  Two days ago we left St Denis d’Oleron and made for the North Western end of the island, still possibly going to Spain.  We took the view that we would poke our noses out into the Bay of Biscay and see how we felt about it. 

    The adventure began in the marina when our exit resembled an episode of the Navy Lark, with poor Snork Maiden cast as the long-suffering HMS Troutbridge.  On the trip from La Rochelle to Oleron, we had a problem with the wind vane steering – the rudder when released should fly out at 90º to the stern, enabling it to be captured and brought back on board.  It didn’t, so we fiddled around a bit with a chap next door who was a kind engineer with an easily accessible dinghy (I had just tied ours down, as if for an Atlantic crossing).  We slacked the offending nut and bolt & thought all would be good.  Ray (from our ‘home’ club of Starcross) was a chatty sort and yipped away as we made ready to leave.  This is not an excuse, but in my haste to cast off and make a speedy exit, neither of us – Al nor me – thought it necessary to have a good look around to see who or what was coming in.  St. Denis is a small marina with quite restricted space and one boat going out at the same time as five boats coming in was quite a spectacular display.  Al says I stayed cool and it was a miracle that we didn’t actually hit anything. Should have been running the GoPro.

We got past the last lighthouse at the end of the island, took a look at the wind speed and decided that it was too light to get us to the Spanish coast before the dreaded Westerly set in.  Then we switched off the engine, rolled around a bit and had lunch.  Looking at the chart there seemed to be a promising anchorage on the South side of Re.  As we approached we could see the shallow anchorage on the chart plotter, but apart from a single navigational mark on one side of the bay, it was flat, featureless and deserted.  Nervous about finding the right spot, we decided to head for La Rochelle – again.  A pretty good sail with the Genoa and full main, wind on the quarter.  Winds were light, no more than 10-12 knots, and we made a quiet entry alongside a Bavaria 42 in Minimes Marina.   

Sailing toward La Rochelle Minimes

A quiet night followed by another adjustment on the wind vane and a morning of sunshine and no wind.  We just had time to motor the 12 Miles over to Boyardville, back on Ile d'Oleron.  That took us past Fort Boyard – still grinding out the series.  A dark-hulled launch keeps gawkers away, while contestants abseil down a wire, drop into the water, get into a boat and back to the fort to shouts of encouragement from the rest. 

Friendly channel marker

Boyardville has a narrow channel, and a tidal gate on the marina.  We made it in about half-an-hour after high water, with depth to spare.   Boyardville is mainly a day resort – quite down-market in its way - but surrounded by pine forest, sand dunes and marais – drained marshes.  We rented bikes this afternoon and explored all three environments.  Lots of birds, butterflies and mid-summer flowers; haymaking on the narrow field strips between the marshes. 

On the beach at Boyardville

On the beach at Boyardville

Weather has swung back to winter – rain and squalls!  There’s a SW forecast for tonight, and our boat neighbour is heading out at 4 am towards Yeu.  The wind will swing to the NW sometime tomorrow afternoon, so it’s not a straightforward trip.  We briefly considered doing the same, before deciding to head for an episode of the Navy Lark, a risotto supper, a cosy bunk and maybe a damp return to La Rochelle tomorrow afternoon at high water.  A night at the movies looks quite attractive at the moment, and we still have to test whether the wind-vane adjustment worked.  Then – who knows?  Winds look set NE again, so Northern Spain still beckons.  Time is getting short but maybe 2-3 days sailing in search of a tapas is really what we need!

TIPS & TRICKS - recently scanning yachting mags, here's one we like:  in a thunderstorm, get people and animals away from the mast, above & below decks, especially if mast is deck stepped - maybe in the cockpit next to the bulkhead would be a good place AND put all portable electronics in the oven - it might just protect your handheld GPS, EPIRB, mobile phones from damage.  Not sure about the compass - but if you have room...  

Marais rushes

Haymaking

Marais landscape

Sunset in Boyardville

Falling Tide, Rising Tide

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02/07/2013 9:14 PM

Boyardville

Hmm.  Where to start?  Two days ago we left St Denis d’Oleron and made for the North Western end of the island, still possibly going to Spain.  We took the view that we would poke our noses out into the Bay of Biscay and see how we felt about it. 

    The adventure began in the marina when our exit resembled an episode of the Navy Lark, with poor Snork Maiden cast as the long-suffering HMS Troutbridge.  On the trip from La Rochelle to Oleron, we had a problem with the wind vane steering – the rudder when released should fly out at 90º to the stern, enabling it to be captured and brought back on board.  It didn’t, so we fiddled around a bit with a chap next door who was a kind engineer with an easily accessible dinghy (I had just tied ours down, as if for an Atlantic crossing).  We slacked the offending nut and bolt & thought all would be good.  Ray (from our ‘home’ club of Starcross) was a chatty sort and yipped away as we made ready to leave.  This is not an excuse, but in my haste to cast off and make a speedy exit, neither of us – Al nor me – thought it necessary to have a good look around to see who or what was coming in.  St. Denis is a small marina with quite restricted space and one boat going out at the same time as five boats coming in was quite a spectacular display.  Al says I stayed cool and it was a miracle that we didn’t actually hit anything. Should have been running the GoPro.

We got past the last lighthouse at the end of the island, took a look at the wind speed and decided that it was too light to get us to the Spanish coast before the dreaded Westerly set in.  Then we switched off the engine, rolled around a bit and had lunch.  Looking at the chart there seemed to be a promising anchorage on the South side of Re.  As we approached we could see the shallow anchorage on the chart plotter, but apart from a single navigational mark on one side of the bay, it was flat, featureless and deserted.  Nervous about finding the right spot, we decided to head for La Rochelle – again.  A pretty good sail with the Genoa and full main, wind on the quarter.  Winds were light, no more than 10-12 knots, and we made a quiet entry alongside a Bavaria 42 in Minimes Marina.   

Sailing toward La Rochelle Minimes

A quiet night followed by another adjustment on the wind vane and a morning of sunshine and no wind.  We just had time to motor the 12 Miles over to Boyardville, back on Ile d'Oleron.  That took us past Fort Boyard – still grinding out the series.  A dark-hulled launch keeps gawkers away, while contestants abseil down a wire, drop into the water, get into a boat and back to the fort to shouts of encouragement from the rest. 

Friendly channel marker

Boyardville has a narrow channel, and a tidal gate on the marina.  We made it in about half-an-hour after high water, with depth to spare.   Boyardville is mainly a day resort – quite down-market in its way - but surrounded by pine forest, sand dunes and marais – drained marshes.  We rented bikes this afternoon and explored all three environments.  Lots of birds, butterflies and mid-summer flowers; haymaking on the narrow field strips between the marshes. 

On the beach at Boyardville

On the beach at Boyardville

Weather has swung back to winter – rain and squalls!  There’s a SW forecast for tonight, and our boat neighbour is heading out at 4 am towards Yeu.  The wind will swing to the NW sometime tomorrow afternoon, so it’s not a straightforward trip.  We briefly considered doing the same, before deciding to head for an episode of the Navy Lark, a risotto supper, a cosy bunk and maybe a damp return to La Rochelle tomorrow afternoon at high water.  A night at the movies looks quite attractive at the moment, and we still have to test whether the wind-vane adjustment worked.  Then – who knows?  Winds look set NE again, so Northern Spain still beckons.  Time is getting short but maybe 2-3 days sailing in search of a tapas is really what we need!

TIPS & TRICKS - recently scanning yachting mags, here's one we like:  in a thunderstorm, get people and animals away from the mast, above & below decks, especially if mast is deck stepped - maybe in the cockpit next to the bulkhead would be a good place AND put all portable electronics in the oven - it might just protect your handheld GPS, EPIRB, mobile phones from damage.  Not sure about the compass - but if you have room...  

Marais rushes

Haymaking

Marais landscape

Sunset in Boyardville

Watching & Waiting

Saturday 29 June 2013

Ile d'Oleron, France

It’s a curious irony that there is much more blogging when preparing for the voyage than during the voyage itself!  Clearly this reflects the time that keeping the boat in a cruising state takes up – also the time spent together actually having a holiday.

To bring you up to date: we arrived in Ile d’Oleron (just South of Ile de Re – a stone’s throw from La Rochelle) on Thursday, intending to make for Spain the following day, but deterred by weather reports of rough seas and a generally grey and cold outlook.  Yes – we try our best to be fair weather sailors!  This is not just because we are softies – it’s also because it’s good to get our hands in and our systems tested before setting out on a longer voyage.  We still have winds at a decent strength of between 5 and 15 knots, and a favourable direction – N to NE.  Every day we study all the useful weather reports we can get (about 5 thanks to the I’net) and review our plans.  Currently we will leave tomorrow on the tide at mid-day.

The weather picture is dictated by a high pressure system that has been hanging out in the Atlantic for almost a week now, and looks like staying until Tuesday, our intended arrival in Spain.

The trip over from La Rochelle was quite frisky with a fresh Westerly breeze, meaning a close haul.  We had calculated on a bit less wind, so had put on the number 2 working jib.  When we got out there it was clear that we would sail much better with the number 3 and a reef in the main.  The first-time-this-season sail change took us half an hour, but was worthwhile and we made good progress to St Denis.  The church spire and starboard pole line-up more-or-less happened, and we were able to go alongside a larger boat quite gracefully.  A rally was in and we had an evening of party music… 

The marina here is friendly and the new shower block is fabulous – heated, enough room in the shower stalls, water at the right temperature and your clean clothes don’t get wet.  Heaven, especially on a cool day.

I have to confess that yesterday the spell of Oleron really had us, and a sort of miasma of laziness kept us in our cosy cabin most of the day!  We managed to escape it for a while in the afternoon and went for a short walk, then dragged ourselves out again in the evening to eat at the Royal Moule – great fish soup and moules consistently the best here.  I do feel sorry for them, though.  I feel like the Carpenter – that casts Al as the Walrus.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173170

Now, more planning, organization, putting waypoints into navigation instruments and stocking up on fresh fruit, vegetables & bread. The Bay of Biscay looks big on our chart – until we look at the rest of the Atlantic – at which point it starts to look quite small.

Al is at the market, renewing supplies - crab sandwiches for lunch - we are merciless on the invertebrates.  

COMING SOON: Spain (I'mshalla), HINTS & TIPS, FAVOURITE THINGS

Watching & Waiting

Saturday 29 June 2013

Ile d'Oleron, France

It’s a curious irony that there is much more blogging when preparing for the voyage than during the voyage itself!  Clearly this reflects the time that keeping the boat in a cruising state takes up – also the time spent together actually having a holiday.

To bring you up to date: we arrived in Ile d’Oleron (just South of Ile de Re – a stone’s throw from La Rochelle) on Thursday, intending to make for Spain the following day, but deterred by weather reports of rough seas and a generally grey and cold outlook.  Yes – we try our best to be fair weather sailors!  This is not just because we are softies – it’s also because it’s good to get our hands in and our systems tested before setting out on a longer voyage.  We still have winds at a decent strength of between 5 and 15 knots, and a favourable direction – N to NE.  Every day we study all the useful weather reports we can get (about 5 thanks to the I’net) and review our plans.  Currently we will leave tomorrow on the tide at mid-day.

The weather picture is dictated by a high pressure system that has been hanging out in the Atlantic for almost a week now, and looks like staying until Tuesday, our intended arrival in Spain.

The trip over from La Rochelle was quite frisky with a fresh Westerly breeze, meaning a close haul.  We had calculated on a bit less wind, so had put on the number 2 working jib.  When we got out there it was clear that we would sail much better with the number 3 and a reef in the main.  The first-time-this-season sail change took us half an hour, but was worthwhile and we made good progress to St Denis.  The church spire and starboard pole line-up more-or-less happened, and we were able to go alongside a larger boat quite gracefully.  A rally was in and we had an evening of party music… 

The marina here is friendly and the new shower block is fabulous – heated, enough room in the shower stalls, water at the right temperature and your clean clothes don’t get wet.  Heaven, especially on a cool day.

I have to confess that yesterday the spell of Oleron really had us, and a sort of miasma of laziness kept us in our cosy cabin most of the day!  We managed to escape it for a while in the afternoon and went for a short walk, then dragged ourselves out again in the evening to eat at the Royal Moule – great fish soup and moules consistently the best here.  I do feel sorry for them, though.  I feel like the Carpenter – that casts Al as the Walrus.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173170

Now, more planning, organization, putting waypoints into navigation instruments and stocking up on fresh fruit, vegetables & bread. The Bay of Biscay looks big on our chart – until we look at the rest of the Atlantic – at which point it starts to look quite small.

Al is at the market, renewing supplies - crab sandwiches for lunch - we are merciless on the invertebrates.  

COMING SOON: Spain (I'mshalla), HINTS & TIPS, FAVOURITE THINGS