The 2006 Journey Begins.
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From La Rochelle via St Dennis and Royan to Arcachon. Thats the first stage of the
2006 plan.
It had proved quite difficult to leave La Rochelle; for one thing it had been our
home for 6 months so the harbour rot was deep rooted, and secondly, Dufour had only
completed fitting the additional alternator the day before and so it was largely
untested.
Read on to see how we achieved it.
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Saint Dennis D' Oleron (22nd April, 13 miles from La Rochelle)
We decided our first trip would be a 10 mile passage to the Ile D' Oleron.
Morgan, the Heavenly Twins catamaran had a similar passage planned
and so did Mirabell II, the Westerly Corsair, that's if the recent
gear box troubles were sorted.
The passage to St Dennis. Jill and David on Morgan had
been rafted along side us overnight and they set off at 1100 motoring out into a
beautiful blue sky and light winds, we followed 15 mins later.
In the bay the wind was a mere whisper showing 2 to 3 knots on the gauge but sailing
into it lifted the wind to nearly 4 knots, err wow! At times we managed 0.8
knots and soon found ourselves racing (huh?) a Bavaria 42 and Beneteau 40 something.
It was slow, really slow but we, err yes, slowly overtook them. These Dufour 40's,
common as muck they might be but slick as heck.
We took 4 hours to sail the 13 miles and all of it was brilliant. We tied up behind
Morgan and opted for the "buy 2 get one free" deal for the
princely sum of 36 Euros for the 3 nights.
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Oleron had re-awakened for business since our stop here last October and all of
the shops, cafes and bars were busy. Naturally we avoided them all and went for
a cycle on the network of super cycle-ways. Boyardville was only 25 Km away and
so a good coffee stop before we retuned home through the forest with all of its
trees having gained splendid bright new green leaves.
Its a beautiful island and a real retirement possibility.
Whilst we were cycling Mirabell II arrived, her gear box flushed and
now brim full of new Volvo oil at 25 Euros per litre. Richard and Elaine were
also well pleased to be free of La Rochelle.
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Royan (25th April, 52 miles from St Dennis)
We all planned early starts to Royan, the start time being a function of how late
one dared to leave St Dennis before the tide dried the entrance. Another complication
was the need to take the flood tide 20 miles up the Gironde river to Royan.
Trying to go against it is pretty much impossible and also the forecasted on-shore
winds could whip up treacherous seas.
The passage to Royan. By 0600 we were all at sea, Mirabell II
clearly in the lead due to a 30 min head start, but the lead was short lived. The
gearbox gasped a final gasp and ceased to drive the propeller. They decided to return
to LR and plan anew.
Morgan and ourselves battled through the bouncy sea at the N of Oleron
and then turned S to run before the wind for 30 miles. Forgetting the fog,
as we have, it was a wonderful return to off-shore sailing. By 0900 the sun
shone and it was warm enough to shed a few layers and bask like lizards in spring
sunshine. Mid morning we were circled by a tired looking pigeon but he didn't have
the confidence to land, unlike the goldcrest who tested perches of nylon, fibre
glass, stainless steel and finally terylene rope before accepting it as a resting
place for next 5 minutes. Its nice to be useful.
As we approached the Gironde estuary the wind rose to a good F4, so turning East
across it meant we stormed into the estuary along the initial series of buoys. Then
all of a sudden, ahead was solid white water and 2m breaking seas, both of
us had worried looks on our faces. Fortunately the chart showed we steered South
of this mess into safe water, but 400m off to our port side the breakers continued
to tumble over one another. With this lot behind us a we sailed in calm waters
along the coast for a further 10 miles to Royan.
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Royan is a lot like Eastbourne, although I believe it is in fact twinned with Gosport.
Most of Royan was destroyed during WW2, so the majority of the town is very modern,
including a spectacular concrete church which, sadly, is suffering rotting of the
steel reinforcing within the concrete. But I guess for the next 20 years it will
continue to look quite stunning.
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There are lots of good beaches and open promenades with views across the Gironde
estuary and out to sea. Great market, although not sure about the guy
who tried to sell us a very cute live Vietnamese pot bellied pig, the vendor was
insistent but Janet explained in her best French that we were on a sailing
holiday. Sea and beach angling, seems very popular here as does surfing, one
of the bays had at least 50 surfers enjoying the big waves. In one bay we
saw lots of flotsam including whole trees washed up above the tide line, obvious
evidence of how big the westerly waves must be in the Winter. Like it
says in the pilot book not a place to approach in a strong westerly. Tonight
we are going to eat out in one of the many beach cafes, judging by the choice it
will be a hard decision as to which one.
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Not a sight you expect to see in every town but just as we were cycling past the
zoo we looked over the wall to see this.
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Arcachon (30th April, 70 miles from Royan)
From Royan 2 options are available for yachts heading South. First is to head
direct to the ports near the French/Spanish border, some 160 miles away, or secondly
to head for the intermediate port of Arcachon which is about 70 miles. Complicating
both is a French missile testing range extending 50 miles off shore and starting
30 South of Royan and going almost to the Spanish border. Its big but I guess
missiles need space to be tested. We chose the latter option as the firing
range is not used on Sundays so allowing us to sail down the coast. Of course Arcachon
has its own problems, it is dangerous to enter in strong-ish on shore winds and
can only be entered in daylight due to the complication of the buoys. So, Arcachon
it is, the easy option, only 70 miles.
The passage to Arcachon. We left Royan at 0600, about an hour after
Morgan, and an hour before local HW. With this start time we
had to push tide to leave the Gironde estuary but at least the southern route was
simpler and less hazardous than the one we entered by two days ago, and the timing
was to allow us 12 hours to get to Arcachon and so take the last of the flood tide
into the estuary.
Janet took us out of the flood lit marina and out into the gloomy morning light
of the estuary. Up went the sails, and would you believe it, the wind was a perfect
F3 and its direction meant we could just make the course. Even with good boat speeds
it was over 2 hours before we rounded the Point du Grave and turned South along
the sandy shores of the Medoc peninsular NW of Bordeaux.
For the next 50 miles the wind repeatedly rose and fell meaning we had to motor
sometimes to maintain our average speed but it was always behind us so ideal for
entering Arcachon.
We were surprised by the complete confusion of waves beyond the Arcachon buoyed
channel and so stayed dead centre along the 5 mile entrance channels. And
another puzzle was a small sandy island which turned out to be 5 miles away and
Europe's highest sand dune at 350 ft asl.
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Once inside and away from the breaking waves of the entrance channel we picked up
one of the 500 vacant mooring buoy and settled in. Our evening meal, a splendid
curry, had been prepared in Royan as we knew we would be too late to start
cooking. Morgan arrived an hour later, just as the tide was turning.
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Arcachon is an upmarket holiday town, stylish and very expensive with a very good
market. The marina was closed the day we arrived, as the fishermen were
protesting about the high fuel prices so we picked up a buoy off the harbour.
Fuel by the way was 1.25 a litre. The following day we were asked to pay 51E
per night for a berth in the marina, and they still wanted 1.5 E for a shower
token as well, not surprisingly, we chose to stay only one night.
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We had a great cycle ride to the Pyla sand dune we had seen during our sail here,
and had a very challenging walk to the top where the views were superb.
Ascending it was real pilgrims progress; 2 steps forwards, one step back. After
descending the dune we spent ages emptying our shoes.
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