Ile d’Groix

Ile d’Groix

Ile d’Groix. Let’s put it context for you: About 4 miles long by 1.5 miles wide…

Or try this pair of photos of the same kind of facility (the Capitainerie or Harbourmaster’s Office)

Port Louis 004

Impressive new Capitainerie at Port Louis

Ile d'Groix 012

This one does a similar job on Ile d’Groix

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ile d’Groix. Pop: around 2500 permanent, 1 small marina. Across the water is Lorient: Pop 225000. 5 marinas.

It’s not surprising that Ile d’Groix is a top spot for visiting boats from nearby. And not so nearby.

We pitched up from Port Louis (*****favourite) a long leg of 10 nm with a nice sail.

It’s full. Fuller than full. Not enough capacity, of water, of marina, of electrics.

Ile d'Groix 013

Cap’n – the di-lithium crystals can’t take much more of it

The Rhythm of the port

…goes like this:

  • It’s in 3 bits: the inner locked bit for local boats.
  • The marina. Standard stuff. Always full.
  • The outer harbour– fore and aft buoys.

Did I mention the ferry bit? That takes up a lot of space.

Did I mention it’s always full? Even late June. It’s full and the workings go thus:

  • Turn up anytime: there’s no space in the marina. As I said and all the pilots say, it’s full.
  • If you are very lucky you can raft on one of the hammerheads to a max of 3 deep.
    • Fishing boats will disturb in the early morn
    • But the benefit is you get first dibs on seeing marina berths become empty

Turn up in the afternoon and you might get somewhere to stay in the outer port on the fore and aft buoys. Not so bad as long as you have a dinghy. Nice views. Not so manic.

Except when the ferry does a 180 turn, and uses your boat as a guide.

he gets this close:

Ile d'Groix 022

wait for it, wait for it….

 

Ile d'Groix 033

Ok Scotty, let ’em have it….

The close up photo taken whilst we were on the outer pair of buoys above. eek.

Next morn you watch for boats coming out of the marina so you can get a top spot space in the marina-hammerhead-outerbouy pecking order. And we did.

So that’s the rhythm.

We arrived. Newbies. No space for a 40ft-er inside so troll out to pick up a fore-and-aft.

 

An electrifying moment:

It’s sunny. Warm, about one o’clock. We get out the “clacker”, a special device that allows us to quickly hook onto ring topped buoys. Before clack-and-attach happens a voice rings out

 

‘Martin’

Ssszzzsss!!. We’re 200 miles south of home. No-one knows us here…but someone calls my name, in my direction, not a French Martin call, but an English Martin call. Someone knows us and wants to say hello.

A look around. It’s Stephen Lenister and the Topsail gang (see here). Joy fills our hearts: friends . Friends culturally, linguistically and all those things that herald a good meeting with like minded, enjoyable people.

We go alongside. Hail friends well met. And the scene is set for another nice meal – 8 all told at the Blue Thon up the hill. Warm. Outside. Seafood . Heaven.

 

And So to Ile de Groix.

The Capitainerie, the electrics, the rhythm of the port: it all settles you into life-a-Groix.

An enveloping calm. Life is relaxed here at this slightly out of season time. Not frenetic like the larger islands can be in season.

Port Tudy tries, with the obligatory port side bars, restaurants and marine style shops. But the next layer beyond the port is just calmness.

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Qui madam, j’ai les vetements marine de cette annee. Quel colour voulez vous votre stripes?

Imagine this:

Many years ago: Pierre and Florence, at home on Le Bourg, the largest of the villages on Groix and close to Port Tidy (the port we are in).

Pierre says to Florence. “Florence dear, I’m just off to the shops”. He goes. He doesn’t come back. And all over the island appears to be this evidence of many Pierres doing the same.

Substantial and old, pretty, abandoned building just left.

Ile d'Groix 061 Ile d'Groix 060

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fields seem to have been abandoned to nature.

What happened? Could it have been linked to WWII when this part of the world suffered dreadfully?

I’m pleased to report that many Pierres, or their offspring , are returning and there is clear evidence of renovation.

Groix a bike

The tourist office have a lovely map. It includes the walking routes (up and down narrow tracks), the roads (up and down narrow tracks) and cycle tracks (up and down narrow tracks). So around the island we cycled according to the map. it didn’t make much difference from being on a road to a cycling track…

And you can’t get lost due to the many Groix-esque road signs.

Ile d'Groix 037

typical roadside, trackside, pathside signage found all over

And as befits this friendly quiet island you get taken around a place devoid of traffic, devoid of modern signage, devoid of hectic activity that the ride is an absolute pleasure.

And full of interesting old buildings, narrow streets, hollyhocks.

And the smells. Of wild flowers, honeysuckle, broom, blackcurrant, of nature. Everywhere. In fields that are no longer productive.

And even the wildlife are friendly;

 

And to conclude

Apologies if Groix is a ramble. So much to say for such a tiny place. I just hope I’ve encapsulated some of the ambience of the place.

We’ve been to most of the Islands lying off the West Coast of France, but Ile d’Groix ranks high in the list. Different again from all the others. Not over exuberant…not over developed (yet), friendly, laid back.

And yes, we will return.

chart

Ile Groix 004

Ferry coming in. Tops’l going out

 

So Houat

So,Houat

A play on words, as we will see later.

It’s 730am. 21st June. A Sunday. We’ve been chilling out at LRB for 3 nights and it’s time to go.

Ping! Martin awakes with a bright idea. Get away quick and we might make the 0800 lock and out to the sea…..

….some time later we approach the lock for 0900 opening. Happy in our little time lapse universe that no one gets up so early on a Sunday in France because it’s closed. And fully expecting the lock keeper to be happy to see us, having nothing else to do so early.

Now, you can get some things a bit wrong. And some things a lot wrong. And we got this call so unbelievably wrong you wouldn’t believe it.

Sometime in the 3 days since we left Arzal a bunch of boats about 140 strong crept into Arzal. Had a party and now wanted to go home. All of them. To catch the tide, which was falling.

Now Arzal lock is a big lock, it takes 20 or so boats, less if some of them are real big. Hmmm 140 boats divide by 20 = 7 locks. That’s all of Sunday just for the rally.

We tried to get in to the 0900 and failed. Waiting for the 10 o’clock lock it’s apparent that a few more boats have woken up. It’s mayhem. Boats go left, go right, go forward, go backward. Occasionally they crunch. See photo.

LRB-Houat 005

Left a bit, right a bit, crunch. Boat 2nd from right desperately trying to avoid being run over by large boat reversing into him. He failed: crunch. Boat to his left desperately trying to fend off. He failed as well: crunch. Small boat to the 2nd from left is the rossers. They don’t know about the feeding the ducks episode.

Filibuster stakes her claim – we’re not going to be missing another. Near the front of the queue and defending our position we get into a very, very crowded lock.

I’ve written about the fun of the Arzal lock before, so no need to repeat that.

And BTW the rally wasn’t a booze up – it’s held in aid of disabled people to give them some experience of boating. It calleds the Pen Bron Rally. More here (in French).

Hoedic

We chug off down river and out to sea. We’re heading for Houat (pron more like Hwat and not like goat). The wind pipes up and the sun comes out and we’re sailing proper. Heading to Hoedic because that’s where the wind takes us on our route.

And in fact so close in to Hoedic our point of tack was virtually in the harbour, our could have been had it not been for discretion beating valour.

LRB-Hoat chart

Hoedic (duckling) is a one horse island that we have a soft spot for. It’s bigger brother, Houat, was our destination.

LRB-Houat 007

Hoedic. One horse island: the horse left.

Houat

We sailed on. We entered the harbour, we mused about the tri-bollock floating mooring system. We moored. Went ashore, had a drink and left the next morning for Port Louis where I write from.

LRB - Houat 011

St Gildas Harbour, Houat. Off season. High season will be an absolute bun fight.

It appears that everyone who raves about Houat are not talking about the harbour, but the huge sheltered beach to the SW of the island that we shall return to one day.

Jasper Carrott

What? How do we get from Houat to Carrott. Jaspers’ Joke delivered whilst in Salisbury on the 14th June runs thus:

Three girls in their twenties decided to go out and decided to go to the Hotel Ocean because the waiters were good looking and had nice bums.

Twenty years later they meet up and decide decided to go to the Hotel Ocean because the wine was good.

A further twenty years, now in their 60’s, later they meet up and decide decided to go to the Hotel Ocean because the food was good.

Twenty more years pass and now in their 80’s they meet again and pondered where to go. They decided to go to the Hotel Ocean because they hadn’t been there before.

And what has that got to do with sailing I hear you ask?

Well, in our delight to be out sailing proper with good speed and a nice angle of heel, we had forgotten about the laws of gravity and it’s effects on improperly stowed boats contents:

LRB-Houat 008

after effects of a well heeled party

Nothing broken. Lesson learnt. The sail up to Port Louis the following days  was even more exciting: 8.3kn at the entrance to Lorient Harbour. Fun.

And if you get the chance see Jasper on his current tour, jump at it. 3 hours of top notch entertainment from people who know how to entertain.

 

a l’eau a l’eau

Bonjour mes amis.

Sailing season 2015 gets underway 🙂

Airbnb – what they didn’t say

Whilst the boat was out of the water we stayed at an Airbnb place for 4 nights. Situated right in the port side of Vannes it was ideally located and much better than a hotel. More details here.

Except for one thing: the steps. Located on the 3rd floor it was 65 steps up! And the mezzanine bed-floor was as steep as a ladder….

And so onto boaty things

Launched yesterday after 3 days full time faffing, cleaning, pressure washing, fitting, fixing and fiddling we are now chilling out at La Roche Bernard.

sail 15 005

wife and mistress. Both demanding.

And even more serious matters

I broke the law yesterday. Unwittingly. So I bring to your attention the following notification about feeding the ducks: it’s illegal here.

sail 15 006

Now there are are some questions that need answering. And in the absence of any obvious sign of the anti duck feeding fuzz to help with clarification here we go:

  • Why €38? and not the easier to handle €40. Did the pro duck lobby get the fine reduced?
  • But why set the fine at that level at all, Would €38 stop you from illegally feeding the ducks. Would €20 have the same effect?
  • Charlie Drake, pictured centre, takes the wrap. Why did his mate Francis exit stage left so fast? Was it to avoid being done for receiving the illegal bread?

So many questions, so few answers, it’s driving me quackers.

And with that it’s adieu until I find something more worthy of writing about.

The costs and benefits of keeping a boat in France

Do I hear you yawn? If you don’t have a boat, don’t intend to get one and aren’t interested in the cost analysis of UK vs France then skip this part. But not all of it.

You might want to check out the post I made last year when contemplating leaving Filibuster in foreign climes. It’s here, under Relief at Last.

Arzal vs UK

To summarize, last year we found ourselves too far South, in the warm pleasant envroins around St Martin / La Rochelle. Getting Filibuster back to Wales would have been a  2 week slog with the dreadful Bristol Channel at the end.

We found a place at Arzal and I reckoned it would not only extend our holiday in the warm pleasant environs but might also save a few squids as well – in fact estimated at around one thousand squids.

Did it work out?

Well actually, yes, quite a big YES in Fact.

My estimate for a repeat of the 2013 season but taking the boat back to the UK came to just under £4,600. This includes annual mooring & storage cost, delivery trip to and for France and associated travel costs, cost of berths during the holiday and diesel to get the boat around when it couldn’t be sailed.

Our actual costs for 2014 look like coming in at a tad under £3,300. This figure includes the same items as UK and also costs of ferries to and fro.

And in this year, we spent all of our nights cruising in France (a total of 7 weeks), whereas the UK version has 2 weeks of delivery nights (which can be fun as well)

So, plus ou moins, we saved £1300 on the year. Certainly worth doing.

 

Other benefits

  • Kitting out and prepping the boat in April and May were a delight – warm weather.
  • No dead flies in the hood
  • Boat was dry as a bone – no condensation inside at all
  • Marina berth compared to swinging mooring at Lawrenny
  • Lots of professional services (sail making, life raft service that seem to be less expensive than the UK)
  • Free holidays in France
  • Lots of French wine at much lower prices than UK/ And Malt Whisky at 50% of UK prices

 

Not interested in owning your own boat?

Well I admit it, you’ve got to be a bit loopy to campaign a 40ft sailing boat. To  the reduced costs at Arzal you need to add insurance (£500), annual repairs and maintenance (£500-£1000) and the lost opportunity cost of the money sunk into the boat itself (….let’s not even think about that…).

 

For the less loopy there are other ways to get your sailing fix. We came across one towards the end of our stay in France:

Tops’l Sailing Club 

In Piriac sur Mer and again at La Roche Bernard we came across a British boat (Dufour 385) owned by the Tops’l Sailing Club. Notionally based near Portsmouth.

The club is a really interesting proposition: they own 3 boats: Dufour 385, Southerly 110 and a Halberg Rassey 36.

Members are shareholders and shares entitle you to money off their already very reasonable “charter” rates. Interestingly the value of shares can actually increase and they are redeemable.

 

Worked Example for a shareholding of £10,000

You can check out the details on the costs page of the Tops’l web site

Let’s assume you have £10,000 to invest and as a couple you want to sail for 4 weeks in a year.

Number of shares = £10,000/£2.58 = 3,876

Cost Per person per day = £49 x 2 =£98 x 28 days= £2,744

Less discount at £13 per 100 shares owned: = 38 * £13 = £494 (equates to a 5% yield)

Gives a total cost of £2744 – £494 = £2,250 for 28 days on board. Incroyable.

Plus your share of engine hours/berthing. Min 3 persons abord.

I have left this post open in case any of the folk from Tops’l wish to add a comment.

 

(And by way of comparison, a 7 night Sunsail Med charter in mid 2015 costs around £2,800 plus options for just 7 nights!)

 

Heck, what’s not to like about such a proposition. We spent quite a bit of time and a couple of dinners with the folk aboard the club’s Dufour 38 and can only heartily recommend what we discovered.

 

We’re still loopy enough to want to continue campaigning Filubuster on our own, but one day we might not be so and Tops’l is certainly something we would look at.

 

 

 

 

Join an exclusive mooring sharing club – FREE!

Whichever way you look at it, sailing can be a pricey business.

 

The kind folk at Arzal have come up with a clever solution that’s absolutely free! Let’s call it the Eco-Skint contract.

The key features of Eco-Skint are:

  • You simply park your boat at their place
  • Don’t pay them any money

– and in return get an exclusive pontoon berth alongside other like minded boats.

 

What could be better?

 

Arzal 015

Arzal’s exclusive Eco-Skint pontoon

 

….And that folks, really is the last word for the season.. See you next year.

 

Martin

 

 

Fun in St Martin

I’d forgotten about this ….

 

First: read this post from last year, all about the fun of lots of boats leaving the small harbour at St Marten en Re

 

Then watch the timelapse video:

 

 

Taken by James using Laurie’s Go Pro camera over a period of about 90 minutes.

 

Try to spot James (red cap), Michele, Zoe (grey cardy), Martin (stripey shirt) and Filibuster (reverses out then back in again at about 12 seconds in).

See photo below: the camera was mounted on the white boat crane to the left, beyond which is the entrance/exit. Filibuster is 2nd from right on the nearest row. Not going anywhere quick. And we didn’t: stayed there for a whole week

St Martin 001

Caption Competition 2014

Well that’s all folks. Well almost.

We’re back in Arzal. Remeber these words from the first post: “Perishingly hot at 28 degrees in the day and not a lot of air around. The water temperature is the same! Yuk. The evening temperature as I write at 930pm is 24. Double yuk. The water is still 28…triple yuk…”

Not much has changed except it’s a bit warmer in the day (30+) and a bit cooler in the evening (20+)

Last post?

I had just one more post in the pipeline,discussing the costs and merits of keeping a boat in France.

That’s going to be rather a dry affair and by great fortune some material for a bit of fun came our way on our last day out of Arzal. .

 

Caption Competition 2014

Same rules as before: any decent and printable captions welcome. And the best wins the Bottle of Bubbly.

For 2014 we have a choice:

1) along side us in La Roche Bernard, a craft of uncompromising genius, made, almost totally from aluminium. Housing man, wife and dog.

LRB 002

caption please

side on:LRB 003

 

2) Us boaters are often considered to be mere users of unstable floating caravans. This looks like a better solution, photographed up river at Foleux, it a has a certain “Je ne sais quoi”. I don’t know what it is either.

IMG_0754

Quoi? caption please

 

Over to you…..

Piriac sur Mer and the Frogboats

So we find ourselves in Piriac sur Mer, our final saltwater stop before going up into the Villaine River.

And forthcoming fin du saison.

Victoire vs Les Frogboats

Piriac has what I call “a hard stop”. A flapgate that rises automatically to preserve a comfortable level of water inside the marina, whilst outside there can be an uncomfortable level of sand.

No one's going anywhere

No one’s going anywhere. Note and observe 3 red lights.

And so it’s imperative to get your arrival timing right: in our case no later than about 1 hour before the gate goes up.

And in the case of a few others the same, causing a bit of a rush.

Scanning the horizon for competition for the last berth (not that there is likely to be a last berth problem) reveals 2 French boats coming in: let’s call them Frogboat1 and Frogboat2.

Frogboat2 coming from the North looks like it’s ahead of the fleet. Frogboat1 coming from the West looks evenly matched. Filibuster from the South West raises the engine speed a bit to get in front.

Not enough: Frogboat1 does the same and cuts across our bows 50m ahead. Zut, Merde. but he has to change course by 90 degrees to avoid rocky rocks, comes up parallel then, crossing ahead of us, heads back north to go round a mark.

An opportunity arises: Filibuster’s nav system shows clear water to the south of the mark. We make the call, take the short cut and round up ahead of Frogboat1. He’s toast.

Meanwhile Frogboat2, close to the entrance, ahead, inexplicably dithers. He looks all ready to go in but has virtually stopped.

We pass on the home straight and takes line honours. Hooray to the Britboat: Frogboats 0 Filibuster 2

All played out at the cracking speed of about 6kn (7mph) and there were loads of places left, although I’m sure I detected a hiss from Mrs Frogboat1 as they passed us in the port.

And of course we are not racing at all are we?

And so on to Piriac sur Mer

But first a little fun with “Spot the Difference”

differences

Two photos taken in the same berth in Piriac sur Mer

The obvious first:

  • The hood is down
  • Martin’s clothes are different
  • He’s changed from red to white wine
  • The very observant will note a new pair of Ray Bans
  • And the very, very observant will note Martin on the left is sporting a sun tan (oh – you didn’t spot it did you?)

The photos are taken on 3rd September and 25th April this year: it’s not our first visit to Piriac: at Easter we stole a super sail out of the Villaine in super sunny, warm weather.

And again in May when we stayed in a hotel here whilst the boat was out of the water being prepped for the season.

And so on to Piriac sur Mer

IMG_7747It’s an old, small fishing village with buildings of granite and slate bedecked with flowers and ivy. Almost back to Brittany.It’s pretty in the way the solid granite buildings are.

Superbly preserved, it’s a real magnet – in high season can be overrun with visitors, but as I write on 4th September 2014 all is quiet, though not yet as deserted as we found it out of season in May.

Excellent fresh pasta in the 3 days a week market.

The fishing fleet, as with so many smaller ports has been reduced to just those serving the local shops, market and restaurants and the harbour now given over to pleasure boats large and small.

Piriac marked our furthest South stopover in 2012. These days its our first/last port of call.

See more pics below. We like it.

 

Piriac, May 14. Not in season.
Piriac, May 14. Not in season.
Piriac, May 14. Not in season.
Piriac, May 14. Not in season.
Piriac, May 14. Not a toruist in sight
Piriac, May 14. Not a toruist in sight
Piriac, beach, May 14, deserted
Piriac, beach, May 14, deserted
?
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typical Piriac back alley
typical Piriac back alley
Harbourside and Church
Harbourside and Church
Nice little beach
Nice little beach
More splendind old buildings
More splendind old buildings

Pornic, stylish

Here we are in Pornic. A stylish place if ever there was one.

The houses and grounds along of the estuary to the old port reek of having had a lot of money applied to them over a long period of time. If you remember the film “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” with Michael Caine and Steve Martin then it’s that sort of ambience.

panoramic view of the west bank of Pornic

Panorama looking away from the marina along the west bank. The coast path wends it way right into town in a delightful 15minute stroll

 

pano

panorama looking out from the drying harbour. The marina wall can just be made out in the distance

And its the 1st September and pleasantly warm and sunny as our new instrument confirms.WP_20140901_007

 

And it’s the first day of Michele’s retirement. More on that later but first a word or two about the bottom and how close it gets to the surface.

2m or more required

In Filibuster it’s never less than 2m. Or so you would have thought. Negative draught is not recommended in the manual.

We tested it on the way out of La Rochelle – that was a bit scary. The following week we left a furrow in the mud on the way out of Rochefort – and that was at high tide!.

Bourgenay track 27 aug 14And of course when you are on a boat as long as we have been this time round (5 weeks now) you are bound to come across days when the place you want to go to, the time you arrive and the tide are at odds with the 2m or more rule.

Like Bourgenay on the 27th August : the chart shows 0.7m minimum but the channel is supposedly 1m- added to lowest tide of 1.2m should be OK. but with swell running and an unfortunate arrival time discretion delayed arrival in favour of some pootling. (See chart)arrival chart

Like Pornic.  Arriving much earlier than expected due to very favourable sailing conditions. We approached….very slowly…we stirred some sand, we retreated and did some more pootling. In fact quite a bit as this chart shows….

Don’t get the idea we make a habit of testing the bottom, but there is always something delicious about getting into port or up river on a rising tide 🙂

View from rear of boat

Shot taken by Michele from the rear of boat whilst in Pornic

Retirement Party

So here we are on the 1st September in Pornic.

chink, clink, slurp

chink, clink, slurp

 

 

The season has finished and Michele has retired.

To celebrate we broke a golden rule and had a drink before the sun was over the yard arm. At least in this time zone, but as long as you believe its over the yard arm in some time zone somewhere then that’s Ok
Life is tough.

 

 

 

 

Some time later.Pornic 020

 

And a bit later zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

and even later we found out that every restaurant around the port had closed down except the one where the local fishermen were making a really professional job of getting obliterated celebrating the end of season. I say professional since they had been at it for over 24 hours.

 

NEW member of Crew

– this is Michele anthropomorphising again

CHINKY-BOO – yes that is its real name – made by the eponymous Chinky Boo Corporation of China is an ice maker and it produces 9 hollow ice cubes every 8 to 9 minutes.

It has been marvelous and also allowed us to have G & Ts with ice for the first time ever on board.

This leads onto the other piece of equipment purchased this year – a proper device to keep white wine cool into which we put Chinkyboo’s ice cubes (ed: as well as the bottle of wine ). Result happiness !!!!!!!!!!!

Bourgenay (Dullsville)

Step forward anyone who remembers the cult drama “The Prisoner”. The one from the late 60s, so step back anyone younger than about 50.Bourgenay (1)

For those younger than 50 let me set the scene:  The series follows a British former secret agent who is abducted and held prisoner in a mysterious but pretty coastal village resort where his captors try to find out why he abruptly resigned from his job (Wikipedia)

I think he just wanted to go sailing (Martin).

The Prisoner doesn’t have a name but instead is called No 6. Why they should name him after a particularly small and rough cigarette available at the time is still a mystery.

Also a mystery is why hold him in a nice coastal village when a smelly prison would do?

And how, even with the aid of large 6ft diameter self aware and self propelled white balloons, they could stop him escaping?

As noted above, this was the late 60s, an era well known for fanciful imagery and one can only assume the producers were “on something”.

So, Martin, I hear you ask: what has this got to do with Bourgenay? A mysterious but pretty coastal village resort.

Probably nothing.But indulge me and read on as you’ve got this far.

Bourgenay is an odd place.

IMG_1134As far as I can tell, in days yonder, there was nothing here except the HQ of SSST. A secret order of silent French Nuns.

Bourgenay 002

HQ SSST

Holed up in their castle and not interfering much, Bourgenay was a very quiet place.

Well it would be wouldn’t it, with the only residents living a quite solitary quiet life.

 

 

And then some developer had the great idea to create a modern version of the very same holiday resort that was the unintended home to the Prisoner.

The Planning application was a doddle: no objections – not even from the resident nuns (well they couldn’t really object much, being quiet and solitary, could they?)

And so, all around them a whole new resort, golf complex, port and marina sprang up where before there was nothing. Except the silent nuns who as far as can be be found out are still there, doing their thing.

A Perfect place for prisoners

WP_20140806_007

perfect apartments

It’s perfect: residents arrive, are processed, spend their money in one of several anonymous bars/restaurants and are subsequently allowed to leave all the poorer and none the wiser having enjoyed an “ooh that’s nice” sort of holiday..

 

more perfect apartments

 

WP_20140806_005

an absolutely perfect lighthouse

But Bourgenay is dull

It’s all there, it all works. But it lacks any of the charm that the two nearest ports on our route have (Les Sables D’Olonne and St Martin de Re).

I can’t think why we stopped on the way back except that, just possibly, it was free to stay.

 

And I leave you with this observation about the almost perfect marina:

stranger

We escaped and Les Sables D’Olonne is where this post comes from. A full 6.6nm from Bourgenay but a world away (and also free to stay 🙂 )

An architect and an airline pilot on a boat with a camera on a stick

What do you do?

You’ve got an architect (James), an airline pilot (Laurie) and a new toy: Go Pro 3 HD wifi camera.

Simples: tie it on to the boat hook and fruit around taking pictures and making videos

GOPR0140

click photo for video

GOPR0304

St Martin later that day

DCIM101GOPRODCIM101GOPRODCIM101GOPRO

Filibuster as you’ve never seen her before:

 

Both videos taken en-route between La Rochelle and St Martin de Re on a sunny and windless day.

For those interested the Go Pro 3 camera is a little larger than a match box and can take full HD video (1080p at 60fps).

Dead easy to use, followed by hours of fun faffing around try to edit, reduce bit rate and get onto the internet.