Ocean40

Ile D’Yeu

From Belle Isle to Isle D’Yeu is a long day sail (and we did sail most of it).

You cross the mouth of the Loire and with it witness the change from solid granite walled, slate tiled buildings to whitewash and clay tile.

A distinctly Mediterranean feel washes over everything. And it’s warm without a night time dew as in the more northerly ports.

There are bicycles everywhere….

We have to rush off from here to meet Zoe in La Rochelle so there’s only a couple of photos to show right now:

Our last night was outstanding as we got together with our neighbouring brit boat and created this meal on board:

olive bread sticks and humus

prawns in batter with dipping sauce

pain fougass

anchovies in spiced olive oil

fresh green salad with mint, tomatoes and challotes, basil and chives

pan fried tuna steak marinated with crushed black pepper and olive oil

washed down with water & a couple of bottles of wine

All in all costing about €7 a head

Eating out on the back of Filibuster and chatting till dark

…..Heaven….

…we will be back, hopefully soon..

(written in a bit of a rush, en route and 10nm out of La Rochelle)

La Grande Migration

I write from Bourgenay (pron Bor-jen-ay by the locals) on 19th August 2019

It’s warm (low20’s ) and with light following winds so we motored the whole 33 miles from Ile De Yeu.

But of the title “La Grande Migration”? This week is the last full week of the holidays. Schools go back on the 1st Sep and many French businesses resume normal operations next Monday.

Many tourist dependent restaurants & shops simply close down on the 31st August.

So, in short, boats that have been on holiday make their way home. With more than a dozen large marinas containing thousands of berths within a few days to the north the northward migration is well under way. To the south there are 1500 in Les Sables D’Olonne (1 day away) and Europe’s largest marina in La Rochelle with over 4500 berths and boats heading for these 2 ports tend to peak toward the end of the week.

And there are a few places that are so “en route” that they become natural watering holes for those on the Grande Migration.

Port Joinville on Ile D’Yeu is one. We’ve just done 4 nights there.

Each morning the marina empties.

And then fills again with transiting boats.

The busiest migratory nights will be around Tuesday & Wednesday. Sometimes the marina is so full, later arrivals are denied access and parked on the fishing boat quays.

We had arrived on the 15th just before 3pm and went straight into an empty pontoon berth. Each day after that the marina filled completely and no pontoon berths were left empty.

Moral: if you want a place during La Grand Migration week, get there early.

Ile de Groix to Port Haliguen

Ile de Groix, part 2

We visited Ile de Groix last year and much already written in part 1 remains current.

In that post I mentioned it was full, always full. But this time, around 2pm on the 5th September we got our timing right and went straight into a vacant pontoon berth. As did 2 following Brit boats and a few others to boot. Brilliant we thought, this is the way to do it. And the marina filled to full. And so did the outside buoys. Ram packed one would say.

The next day any spaces vacated were immediately taped off by the Capitanerie man. A rally of some 15 boats was coming in to the already full port.

And come in they did…. No space again.

In the outer port there were as many as 5 boats attached to mooring buoys and some late visitors were turned away.

High Season? French style.

So, it’s warm, the port is ram packed with visitors. High Season here formally ends on the 15th September.

Perhaps you would expect that port side bars and restaurants would be falling over themselves to attract custom before it all ends.

like this bar: photo taken at the same time as the others.

It’s something I just don’t get with the French. In some places we visit there seems to be a belief that the High Season (normally ending on 30th August) is the only part that tourism reliant shops, bars and restaurants should stay open for and cannot be bothered to work beyond it.

Other bars and restaurants around the port did open but only until 9 o’clock by which time the place was deserted and dark.

I can only contrast that with most UK and Irish ports that have life in them until late (examples like the Chain Locker in Falmouth that would be absolutely buzzing at that time)

Bike-a-groix again

Rant over – ile de groix remains beautiful and we thoroughly enjoyed cycling the Southern part of the island.

And so to Port Haliguen

It’s before dawn, dark. You’re asleep, dreaming of women or boats or women and boats. The drunken Frenchy having an argument with the world in the middle of the night is now long gone. Your dream morphs to women and/or boats in Ile D’Yeu as a familiar whirring sound reaching the dreaming brain informs that Kazam, the builders supply ship in Ile D’Yeu is unloading.

Brain replies “you’re not in Ile D’Yeu”. Brain rationalises “must be cos that noise is Kazam unloading, in the dark, before dawn, again”

Dream morphs to women and/or boats and Kazam in Ile de Groix. That’s not right. You wake up: Kazam has a sister ship right here in Port Tudy.

Noisy unloading just 50m away could go on all day. Decision made: – off we go to Haliguen toute suite.

I haven’t said much complimentary about Port Haliguen so far – especially noting the 1km walk to the loos – but for some reason it’s growing on us.

We had a pleasant sail down in a F4 South Easterly: as the track below shows cutting back toward the coast to get into calmer waters, about 3/4 of the route was sailed before the wind died.

The Quiberon peninsula separates the wild Cote Savauge and the sheltered bay to the East.

That night an unforecast F6 blew  up from the west and disappeared in the morning. We cycled across in warm sunshine on Groix – style cycle tracks and took the video below.

And cycling and walking is perhaps the key to our newly found liking of this area. There’s plenty to occupy.

And the marina? Well the above excellent Creperie du Port was worth  the visit.

And the 1km walk to the loos? Will eventually become history as the port is remodeled, distant and unpopular visitors pontoon will go in favour of spaces closer to the facilities.

What’s the weather been like?

Unlike last year at this time the weather has been largely fantastic. No real storms, lots of sunshine make the days warm and a distinct lack of serious rain make them usable.

But the lack of rain has caused an unforeseen problem :- the Villaine River in which Filibuster lives is the supply of fresh water for much of North West France has seen its levels drop.

To the extent that the lock that lets us in will be closed for 9 full days in September and restricted on others.

It’s time to head back out of the sea, a bit early, from a beautifully warm and sunny Piriac sur Mer where I write from

Gullible Guillame and the No Parking Sign

Writing from Port Joinville on Ile D’Yeu, its the 30th August. To mark bank holiday Sunday the weather has put on a typical show: a F5 thundery rainstorm just rattled through.

If there were one of those holiday type signposts here it would say 70 miles South East to La Rochelle, 280 North to Salisbury and 350 North West to Lawrenny.

Avid and not so avid readers will have already seen the sad episode regarding Forgetful Francois and the fate of Pierre the Peugeot.

Port Joinville, Ile D’Yeu is the next stop South from L’Herbaudiere,  One of our favourite places with its very sheltered (=quiet) marina, the fun attitude of the holidaymakers, the great bars for people watching around the the harbourside and so on.

What we didn’t know at the time of Francois is that he has a cousin on Ile D’Yeu. We’ll call him Gullible Guillame for the sake of alliterative allusion.

The harbourside in Port Joinville is a busy place, frequent ferries do what ferries do: namely disgorge then load up with holiday makers. The majority on foot for Ile D’Yeu is a place where cycling is very popular and bikes of all types can be hired around the port.

Around the ferry terminal it can get very busy, with people collecting and delivering holidaymakers. Parking is in short supply.

Guillame arrives in Jerry the Jeep

To drop off holidaymakers. No parking spaces immediately by the ferry terminal, but he sees his mate Antoine who waves him over.

Antoine tells Guilliame – don’t worry – I’ll park my car over there on the no parking zone and you can have my place here. I’m not staying long and there aren’t any no parking signs on your spot so you will be OK

Cars move. Antoine parks on the no parking zone. but then they decide to go off for a beer…or two…..

 

 

Yep, you guessed it.

And some time later. Guillame had not come back, or was too embarrassed to show himself in front of the large crowd of holidaymakers taking photos.

And Jerry the Jeep had disappeared by the following morning.

 

 

Holed up in Pornic

We’re in Pornic. (more about Pornic)

It’s late. Sunday the 23rd August 2015

1950 UTC (the time zone the boat’s nav works on). 2050 BST. 2150 FST.

It’s dark.

A storm is brewing.

We’ve known it was coming for a few days.

The forecast had it peaking at F9 or F8.

Right now the wind is mid teens in knots. Roughly on the bow. That’s OK. The bow points to a huge wall about 70m away. To our left is the entrance to the marina, a substantial pontoon is between us the outside.

 

A nice view in nicer times almost a year ago is here:

Same spot

But tonight it’s not so nice.

Filibuster, contra to normal pontoon positioning now has 7 lines ashore. We’re expecting trouble.

This sort of trouble:

 

Orange is bad. Any wind speed beginning with 3 is not good. Things beginning with 4 are really bad.The forecast last night had something I’d never seen on this coast : beginning with a 5…..a different symbol appears because they’ve run out of toothbrushes.

Wind speed at 50kn+ is a Force 10. Officially not a Gale, nor a Strong Gale, but true sail ripping Storm.

So we’re holed up in Pornic. As I write the wind shrieks and howls around, the mooring lines creak and groan. it’s not nice out there. It’s not that nice in here either.

And it’s raining. Big time. Actually the sort of time where we feel smug that our full cockpit cover designed for Ireland and now working 100% in France, makes a lot of sense.

The storm.

It peaked a bit later than expected – stretching through a unpleasant Sunday night into a downright nasty Monday morning.

A recording of windspeed shows the accuracy of the forecast.Over this 10 minute period the wind speed was mainly in the 30kn range, often above 40kn and on 5 occasions 50kn or more.

The wind had come around to the beam – side on.  the boat was heeled over against the pontoon and fenders with a nominal diameter of 30cm were squashed to 5cm thick.

 

The previously pleasant view became not so pleasant;

No one came in.

No one went out.

The storm blew all day.

 

 

A good day at the office?

If you have one, I’m sure it’s a nice dry place. But wouldn’t you be rather out and about in the fresh air on a Monday? Yes of course you would, who wouldn’t.

Now consider these pics of the waves breaking at the other end of the marina. There’s a test coming:

Did you spot the guys not having a good Monday? Click on the first pic: they are by the silver van and about to get what’s coming.

The weather didn’t improve much on Tuesday so we got on with all those exciting jobs that you do when stuck in port, like cleaning the cooker, cleaning the heads, writing blogs and so on 🙁

And finally – it looks like tomorrow there is a “window of opportunity” to push on to Ile D’Yeu. It’s not going to be that nice, but if we don’t take it then the next one isn’t until Friday, 2 more days hence.

PS (29 Aug)

We tried the window of opportunity. The wind blew It shut: a nice sail rapidly became a rough sail with 20+kn on the beam and rising. Boat speed 7-8kn with 2 reefs.

Exciting, but….

Prudence was heard saying “one accident and this could be dangerous” so we headed straight into L’Herbaudiere for 2 days (it rained most of the time) and we then motored all the way to Ile D’Yeu in zero wind ….you can’t win sometimes….

The holes in the sky above La Rochelle

 

Rain

There are holes in the sky

where the rain gets in

They’re ever so small

That’s why the rain is thin

(Spike Milligan)

 

Remember this photo of a part of Les Minimes Marina from 5th August last year? Entitled “We’re in there somewhere” Well we were and we are. In about the same place.

Now the interesting thing about the photo is that it really did look like the heavens were about to open. They didn’t. At least not on us.

But this year, on August the 8th, we were not so lucky. The forecasts all had it bang on: – rain with thunderstorms and torrential frogs, complete with cats, dogs, stair rods and any other superlative you care to mention that would indicate you ought to be under cover in a marina that afternoon.

It rained:

 

Viewed from the rear towards the slip and capitainere

 

And then it rained some more…..

 

 

View from inside the cockpit cover which, being alert to the forecasts we had put up just beforehand so we could sit up on deck and be smug……

 

And then the sun came out 🙂

 

PS Between this and the last post we’ve been in Ile D’Yeu (as fantastic as ever), Les Sables D’Olonne and Bourgenary. More on these as time permits

La Rochelle Pt 3 – not all coming home?

Missing pt2 ? watch this space for so much to say about beautiful La Rochelle.  (and plenty more for Ile de Re yet to come)

Pt3 is  a quickie, more an observation on one thing that is especially nice here: the climate.

It’s getting on for 9pm.Note the new nautical clock:

We’ve got about an hour of direct sunlight left.

 

We’ve just eaten Noix St Jaques up in the cockpit..mmm

I’m savouring a nice glass of Saumur White (French of course) you can see it there bottom right….

slurp…

Note polo shirt: it’s warm, I would guess low to mid twenties…

We’ve missed the last boat to Wales….

It’s the 13th August. The nearest equivalent to crow flying works out at 450 miles to base. that’s a long long haul when 60 miles a day is hard work and needing a rest day in every 2: not what we want really…

So we’ve decided to not bring the boat back to Wales…..Hang around here a bit longer…sail around here a bit longer ….stay in the sun a bit longer and enjoy the warm as long as poss…

But we are heading North

So that’s it for facing South. We’re heading North tomorrow (14th Aug), eventually to Arzal-Camouel where we might leave Filibuster. About 3 or 4 days away depending on what we find (Ile d’Yeu being one place we’d like to find again – anchor up, swim in 20deg C water etc….)

And then we just need to get back to home in England and car in Wales…

 

Le Belle Isle – Pt 2

What do most people do on holiday?

• eat too much
• drink too much
• eye up the local talent
• hire a scooter

Well it seems that on Le Belle Isle all of the above. It’s stuffed full of bars and eateries that are just right for people watching.

And when you get bored of that then why not hark back to your youth and do something you haven’t done for years?

Yes – hire a scooter. OK I have to admit to never having ridden a scooter in my life, being an ex member of the loud, proud and oily British Motorcycle Owners Club.

Belle Isle is about 17km long and 3km wide: too much to walk but grease the palm of the local hire place (right on the quay) with about fifty squids and you have a trusty Honda 110cc scooter for the day.

The last time I rode a motorcycle was in 1984 – a different epoch. Perhaps my reactions were faster in those days but wobbling along with trusty wife on trusty steed was a whole new experience. 30mph has never seemed so scary….

…at one stage we even reached 50mph! But trusty wife on the back of trusty steed bottled out at this pace and requested something a bit slower. We settled on island buzzing at around 40mph…..

We buzzed to the South – the tiny beach at Locmaria overlooked by ancient manor house:

 

 

 

We buzzed to the West: Le Phare Goulpar: one of France’s premier league lighthouses

 

We roared to the north – don’t park your boat here:

 

 

 

But here is supposedly safe – not far away at Ster Wenn on the NW cost. Apparently exposed to a NW swell, which was indeed running that day and the boats at anchor looked very uncomfortable.

 

 

 

Via Sara Bernhardt’s castle:

 

(she got so tee’d of with hangers-on visiting her that she had a new place built for them, the roof of which happened to be a great place to take this photo)

 

 

 

 

And our last stop was beautiful Sauzon:

We would really like to get back to Sauzon: although just a few miles away from Le Palaise the pace of life was just so completely relaxed it could have been a different planet.

So there you have Le belle Isle

In less than a few words. it can be summed up as frenetic. It never stops, it’s noisy, it’s fun, the port is busy 24 hours a day, people buzz around on scooters and all sorts on small hire cars. It’s that kind of active holiday place.

Having completed this post after visiting Ile D’Yeu and chi chi St Martin on Ile de Re it’s worth waiting for the completed posts from those places as they are all very different kinds of islands.