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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. 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”
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
It’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.
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.
Panorama looking away from the marina along the west bank. The coast path wends it way right into town in a delightful 15minute stroll
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.
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!.
And 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)
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 🙂
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
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.
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.
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.
As far as I can tell, in days yonder, there was nothing here except the HQ of SSST. A secret order of silent French Nuns.
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
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
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:
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
click photo for video
St Martin later that day
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.
La Rochelle to Rochefort:- fascinating
Part1 – getting out in a hurry
Scruffy’s boat
Our next door neighbour, who we shall call Monsieur Scruffy on account of the state of himself and boat, was a genial guy with large frame and beard. Comfortable with being a Mr Scruffy he tells us he is off due to forthcoming lack of water.
Now I’m always wary of boat crews “with all the right gear”. Conversely Scruffy’s well used appearance tells me he knew a thing or two and if he thought he was running out of water then it’s worth checking out.
Filibuster tells me that there is a comfy 1.4m under the keel: my calculations tell me tide had 1.6m to fall. Scruffy was right, time to move on.
A crash brekky and off we go, headed, as is Scruffy, to Rochefort. Ancient one time strategic port of the French Navy..
The tides were on springs (when the levels reach their highest and fall to their lowest). And in particular these were big springs.In fact the second largest of the year: high tide of 6.6m and a low tide of 0.6m above datum.
Why does this matter? Well on the approaches to La Rochelle there are areas where the charted depth is just 0.5m below datum. Add the low tide level of 0.6m gives us only 1.1m of water at low tide.
We left at 1038 with, in theory, 1.9m of water above datum + minimum charted depth of 0.5m = 2.4m. Comfortably above the 2m Filibusters requires.
But it was windy, we dithered getting the boat ready, the tide went out further and by the time we reached the shallow bits it was 1105 and the tide had fallen a further 0.4m
Do the maths: 2.4m – 0.4m = 2.0m Bang on our draught.
Richeleu port mark on the way out: Man fishing. High tide mark 6m above him
The gods looked favourably on us: we didn’t bottom out but it was close….buttock clenchingly close…..especially when the depthometer read 0.00m under keel….
Moral of the story: heed Scruffy.
And the rest of the journey was a delight.
Heed Scruffy, study your charts carefully, don’t wander off the fairway. This shot taken from Fouras on 14th August of a not so lucky skipper
Part 2 – Fort Boyard
This part of the world included strategic ports (including La Rochelle)and Naval Installations (Rochefort) and as such required significant and hugely expensive defences to stop those pesky Brits invading.
Said pesky Brits were at the same time building significant and hugely expensive defences to stop those pesky Frenchies doing the same.
All in all a bit of an arms race and all around the coast of France are to be found massive forts (citadelles) designed to blast to pieces any invading ships.
South of La Rochelle, in a bay protected by Ile D’Oleron to the West is Fort Boyard. Started in 1804 and finished in 1859 (yess 55 years!) it was designed to protect the waters between Ile Doleron to the West and Il D’Aix to the east.
Fort Boyard, Ile D’Oleron shores 1 mile away
These 2 islands, barely 3miles apart have significant defences of their own, but canon capability of the day meant that the centre of the straight was out of range and therefore a weakness.
Cue Fort Boyard. Built at enormous cost (including building the small town of Boyardville) it took 55 years to complete. Essentially it is an island fort with nearly all of its guns facing into the straights between the islands.
taking a good look at Boyard
It was never fully commissioned. In the intervening years naval gunnery range and accuracy improved so much that its initial raison d’etre became obsolete.
Recently it has been used by TV crews from over 20 nations to films the TV game quiz Crystal Maze.
Part 3 up the Charente River to Rochefort
If you like your rivers to look like white coffee, then the Charente is for you – undoubtedly the muddiest river I’ve ever come across.
river – flowing IN !
But if you like pootling up river and admiring the bankside flaura, fauna and things of interest then you won’t like the Charente.
With absolut
e minimal sail we were sluiced up on the incoming tide at up to 7.4kn. But sail we did for all but a couple of hundred metres when the wind wouldn’t allow it.
Along the banks are many sheds on stilts built for the purpose of catching whatever is swimming around at high tide.
The river winds, this way, then that way, then the other in an enormous loop… past the still fully operational transporter bidge
….with many leading marks to help navigate the twists and turns :
leading lines D-D.
And finally to Rochefort itself, where the first impressive sights, out of many impressive sights, is the Hermione – fully restored ship of the line that will go to sea later this year
More to come from Rochefort in due course – it’s an absolute delight full of history, good food, fine markets and great ambience.
Hermione. Naughty Sailors sent up in the rigging
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
A postcard from St Martin
It’s the 5th of September. The kids are back at school (well not my kids, who are respectively in Norwich, Spain and Ghana as I write), the weather is about to turn from one of the best summers to wet and windy. Autumn is coming.
And of course the postcard turns up, late.
your postcard: caption, please.
With a wry smile I bought this in St Martin, the most chi of the chi chi islands, that somehow has made the “trouser donkey” its chosen method of extracting even more tourist euros from tourists desperate to buy a rememinder. The stamp got hijacked for a condolences card and the post card is still with me for another year.
Caption Please
I had fully intended to embellish the postcard with an approporaite caption. After all, what rich material: donkey with trousers & big ears, local lass, possibly related, showing off to camera, caught in a field of hollyhocks. Rich material indeed methinks.
But it was never written. Perhaps you can do better? Reply to this post as a comment and a Bottle of bubbly for the best caption.
But back to St Martin, Ile de Re….
I was going to tell you about the wonderful ambience, cycling all around the island, shopping in the fresh fresh food & spice market, drinking big drinks, hiring a cat and on and on. But as I sit in my study in Broad Chalke it seems best to make this post into a photo postcard and leave you with a few pics.
-
- harbourside, boats, restaurants
-
- big beer
-
- more harbourside
-
- the only soley Tin Tin shop in the world
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- James & Zoe on the rampart wall by the marina
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- Zoe and Martin on a cat
Wish You were here
Wish I was there, wish you were there with us.
Filibuster is now resting for the winter. From November 18th to february 20th the Arzal Barrage is closed for repairs so only up river is a possibility during that time.
We might go across to collect the many things left on board, to stock up with French wine which is so much cheaper than in the UK. Let me know if you would like to join us. The boat has central heating and average temperatures since we left seem to be 4 or 5 degrees warmer than Salisbury and almost as much again than Pembrokeshire.
I’ll leave you with this final panorama – taken the day we left for the UK (28th August).
Arzal Marina, just after sunrise on the 28th August
And that really is it. No more posts or postcards for this season. Adieu, au revoir. Bye, until the next time 🙂
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Fin du saison / Father Ted
Ok -so what’s Father Ted go to do with it?
Well it appears he is alive and well making cheese:
Well worth getting – he’s doing a good job of it….
End of Season?
You wouldn’t believe it – or maybe you would. In the UK the August bank holiday traditionally marks the end of the summer season. I can tell you that here, after Sunday 25th the difference is phenomenal….
We are enjoying our last night at La Roche Bernard. As I write this at 2310 it’s a dry heat 24 degrees.
same view as before, but at night…a bit of new neighbours boat is in the way…
Boats movements have dropped markedly, there are spaces that wait to be filled for hours (but they do get filled in hours, rather than minutes as per day before). The harbour master busies himself with moving boats that will over winter here away from the visitors pontoons in the hope he will get move guests. He didn’t care so much yesterday.
The local restaurants welcome you, I mean really welcome you: want your custom…they know if you move on they might not fill the table. Last night it was the opposite: they knew they would fill every table and didn’t care too much about your money.
So that’s it then?
Well pretty much so . We are 4nm away from the winter mooring and will be there by the time you read this. There’s a couple of posts that I would like to finish (St Martin, Pornic to be specific) and you might get those after we get back to the UK because they are great places and need some justice doing to them)
So for 2013-14
The boat is in Arzal-Camoul for the foreseeable future. We might visit alongside arrangements to take it out for annual underwater maintenance. It could be a base if you fancy a holiday? – let me know.
Thanks for reading – if there is any aspect of our travels that you would like to know more about just let me know
Martin
La Roche Bernard
23:33 26/8/13
Relief, at last…..
What sort of relief is that, I hear you ask?
And before your mind wanders off into it’s innermost interesting compartment that minds can sometime wander off into, let me tell you that the relief that I’m feeling, in particular today, is that a plan has come together and has been made real.
Now those of you that, like me, like to plan, execute and deliver said plan will know that there is indeed some kind of satisfaction that, unlike mere mortals who can’t, delivering on the plan is a superior feeling.
The plan that became essential was finding a home for the boat for the winter. It has been delivered.
Slot S108, Port Arzal-Camouel is now our home. It’s perfect: edge of marina, alongside wooded valleys reminiscent of the Upper Cleddau in Pembrokeshire that you may be familiar with.
(we are bottom right on the last pontoon, east side, halfway up.)
It’s a bit like the relief of moving home and being in your own place again.
And the sums work out well: to keep the boat in this marina doesn’t just cost less than our previous system of West Wales, it costs a heck of a lot less: from end of season to end of season about £2100 including away stops. The Lawrenny/East Llanion/paid stops solution of last year would come to around £3600. Take out say £500 for to-ing and fro-ing Franceward and you’ve got £1000 additional fun money to spend on something other than boat parking.
Like maybe another holiday on a boat?
Not to mention the extra month not travelling to and fro Lawrenny. Or the benefit of chilling out in the sun rather than slogging up the channel (English & Bristol) I’ll let you know next year if I’m still keen on the solution.
La Roche Bernard
Up river is La Roche Bernard (LRB) – 4miles away. Unbelievably beautiful historic town with great bars and restaurants, unbelievably not overrun, La Rochelle-esque. And beyond that some really interesting places yet to be visited.
view from back of Filibuster of a) one of Bernie’s rocks and b) and old tub of a boat that’s prettier than mine.
Un Blag, ou un moment d’humour: 2 years ago we visited LRB: in desperate need of of a haircut we both went to a local coiffure.
(a further digression: LRB has an interesting assortment of shops, including the essential glass blower, wood turner and a complete set of boulangerie, charcuterie, possionere as well as a good bunch of restaurants, all of which exude normal French town rather than tourist destination)
But back to cutting hair, which should you ever try to do in France, beware:
My cut is simple: no 8 on top and no 4 on the side. Easy, you would have thought, what could possibly go wrong? Metrication my friend, that’s what went wrong. . Mon coiffeuresse translated my request to 8mm on top and 4mm on the side….
…Liberating….I didn’t need another cut for 2 months……
And you will be pleased to know the coiffuresse is still in business….and I need a haircut. Am I brave enough?
The final scrumtier
Solitary sort of thing, sailing. You spend all of your time avoiding things: other boats, quays, marks, running out of water, running out of beer and so on.
But sometimes, in just a few places, sailing folk congregate in vast numbers and close proximity. Usually en route from A to B and where A and B are at different levels. I’m talking about a lock, AKA boat scrum. AKA stress.
Vannes is one. St Martin another. Our final scrum this year is the Arzal Barrage. A huge marina and the flat navigable Villaine river on one side, tidal estuary on the other. Migrating yachts, including Filibuster head up river to the open lock (to find it is already full) and hang around for the next session 2 hours later.
Then it’s everyone in, like the arc – 2 by 2 attached with outer boat loosely tied to the lock wall. Every 2 hours the road bridge opens and boats move forward to fill the now vacant space under and allow more in at the back. When it’s really full (see photos) the lock gates open.
And like some enormous boat catapult, pwtang, boats get out as fast as they can, before any inferior idiot sailor does some damage, out to be free and in clear water and safe.
Back to being solitary until the next time you moor up, which is either 5 minutes or 30 minutes depending on your destination.
For us we chose the peace and quiet of a sunset cruise up river to La Roche Bernard.
Sadly, this marks the end of salty sea dog sailing. We’re now muddy river rats and Filibuster will stay in the river until next summer 🙁