La Cote de Jade

Sunday 10th June… We had to berth twice today! Firstly on the awkward fuel pontoon at Pornic, which went considerably well and we were relieved to get in and reverse out without any major issues. Total cost of filling up almost 300 Euros! Ouch again! Over here in France you can only fill up with white diesel and so it costs a lot more than at home. 

Our second berth of the day was across the bay in L’Herbaudiere on the Ile de Noirmoutier. It’s kind of a very large spit of land sticking out into the Bay de Bourgneuf. 
This is the place that we intended to stop at the other day when we changed our minds and went to Pornic instead. Crossing the bay started really calm with no wind and we had to motorsail, but nearing L’Herbaudiere the swell and wind picked up. It wasn’t bad but we didn’t really expect it, and it’s a bit of a tricky harbour entrance with shallows either side. All went without a hitch and we landed Thesee in the only empty space we could see nearish to the visitors pontoon. 

The harbour is kind of half marina, half fishing fleet. Dean went to see the Capitainerie and they said we were OK to stay where we were, so we went for a walkabout. Well we were in for a lovely surprise, what a great place. It looks and feels rather Spanish strangely enough. Loads of bars and restaurants along the quay and even Dean’s favourite – The Boulangerie – so he bought the usual… deux croissants, deux pain de chocolate, and un baguette. We had an ice cream and sat on a bench watching the world go by in the sunshine. We wished we had come here for a few days instead of going to Pornic. We will probably only stay for one night now because there are strong northerly winds forecast for Tuesday and this harbour entrance just so happens to face north, shame really.

Unfortunately the camera is having a serious headache and so there’s not many photos of this lovely little seaside resort. 

Linda's Grand Marnier flavour, and Dean's Mango 

Thesee tonight

Looking away from the boat

and now the proper visitors pontoon (not many spaces)

and the harbour entrance

Monday 11th June… Today we swapped ice-creams for wellingtons boots. What a difference a day makes…. a very wet day today. So we were going to depart at 9.30am but when we got up we realised that it was low water and there wouldn’t have been a great deal of tide in the exit channel, so we waited until 11am to make sure, and in fact there was 3 metres which is about as shallow as we like to go. 

It was pretty calm for about two hours as we rounded the headland and then steered 180 degrees towards the Ile de Yeu. Then the wind started picking up to about 15 knots and the rain came and totally drenched us. It was an uncomfortable sail for the last two hours with the boat heeling a fair bit and trying to dodge the fishermen’s lobster pots. Saffy seems to be taking it all in her stride. (Dean's comments: We started off with about 9 or 10 knots of wind and the boat was flying on a close reach, 8.5 to nearly nine knots through the water. When the wind picked up I reefed the genoa easily on the roller furler and then let out the main and put the first reef in. At this time we had over 15 knots of wind and were still doing 7.5 knots through a 1 meter breaking sea. There were at least another 4 to 5 boats going the same direction and we caught these easily)

Arrival at Port Joinville, Ile de Yeu was at 3pm. It’s a very popular marina and we were so lucky to get the last vacant finger berth. Dean reversed in without a second thought and perfomed a text book landing. There were no proper cleats to lasso on the pontoon but the boat was sitting pretty and so Dean stepped off and tied the lines to the circular loops. Typical, no-one watching when it goes perfectly. (The trouble is, you never know where you are going to be berthed until the last minute. I tend to put out 4 fenders each side and one extra for Linda on the bow and me at the helm. All lines are ready but not made off. As we came into the marina today, which we had already googled so we know roughly where to go but not which berth we could use. A bloke, possibly the harbor master waved us to a berth then disappeared. The finger berths in France are a lot shorter than Thesee. I made the decision quickly (plus many more) to back in as the storm forecast is from the north so backing in keeps us bow to the wind. Easy enough you might think but poor Linda then has to raise the 4 port fenders, move my fender to the stern and prepare her lines forward. Piece of cake!. Well peanut butter cookie anyway) 

The rain was still chucking it down so Dean went for an early shower and Linda made Peanut Butter cookies. Later on in a brief dry half hour we managed to get Saffy out for walkies. We are expecting some winds to come through in the next 48 hours so we’re happy to be tucked up in this sheltered marina. 

Cookie time

Welly walkies

 Along the harbourside

How's this for a helming position

One other thing to report on… We won’t be joining the rally to accompany Sir Robin Knox Johnson to Les Sables D’Olonne because disappointingly the Cruising Association rep who is arranging it all has continually failed to respond to our emails and phone calls, even though we sent a booking form in straight away when she advertised it. We’re not really that bothered, but just annoyed that they invite you then completely ignore you. 

Tuesday 12th June…  Well if the wind did blow hard during the night we didn’t really notice it. Today was bike day, and in fact some of it you could describe as scrambling, well maybe. The island is only a couple of mile across and once you pass half way the south is kind of deserted, with only a few tarmac roads here and there, the rest is just dirt tracks. That’s fine but with all the rain yesterday there was a lot of big puddles to negotiate. It was quite exciting and at least we weren’t walking through the puddles getting our boots wet. And luckily Saffy has taken up map reading so we won't be getting lost. Le Vieux-chateau was where we were heading for, it’s quite a spectacular sight. Wikipedia says "Hergé was inspired by the Vieux-château in the design of The Adventures of Tintin comic The Black Island".

Saffy says turn right here

Selfie at Le Vieux-chateau

Saff the Map, her new name

What a place this must have been 

Talk about a moat

Secret passages??

We stopped and ate our packed lunch then carried on eastwards along the coast for a short while then headed back north through the quiet and windy village roads. We had wanted to visit Fort de Pierre Levée but it was closed until the end of the month.

Three hours was all we were out for and the afternoon turned out really warm and sunny. In the marina the boats kept on coming in, it was real busy with lots of rafting up going on. The boat next to us moved and we got a new German neighbour with a boat called ‘Hanan’. It’s a beast of a thing and Linda had to fend it off whilst Dean secured lines for the Skipper, who was single handed! 

There are lots of British boats here and so we’ve had quite a number of people to talk to. 

Wednesday 13th June…  A cracking bike ride today along the north coast and across to Le Croix Bay on the south coast. Beautiful homes, all white-washed with blue shutters situated in lovely forest woodland. It was only 10.30am when we sat and ate our sandwiches on the sandy shore at Le Croix, a fabulous setting. We actually only wanted to come here to view the anchorage, but we couldn't resist spending some time on the beach. On the way back we went through the village of St Saviours. I guess the second town on the island, but it had a large church so we poked our noses in through the doors. 

The marina this morning... Thesee's in there somewhere

Rock pools on the north coast

Approaching Le Croix

House with a boat in the front garden

Views across the beach

Beach sun-dog

St Saviours

A peek inside.... 

it was very white with a beautiful multi-coloured stain glass window at the end

By midday we were back onboard and the boat had turned into Salon Thésée. Dean did a great job of dying Linda’s hair and then when the supermarket finally opened after its 3 hour lunch break we did a little shopping. When we returned, the roles reversed and Linda cut Dean’s hair. We’ve been practising this for about 18 months now in preparation for life aboard. 


It was such a hot sunny day, we just sat outside in the cockpit drinking rosé and watching the yachts coming and going. This is definitely a busy marina, that’s probably because it’s such a good deal. For Thesee it costs a mere 25 Euros per night. We were kind of expecting this island to be quite upmarket, but we hadn't really experienced any of that. Today however, we found the posh parts and our thoughts have been proved correct. If you ever come to visit Ile de Yeu take a bike ride south!

Evening relaxation

Unfortunately the selfie of ourselves came out blurry.... too much rosé i expect??

Thursday 14th June…  Off on our journey again this morning with an 8.30am departure before the tide got too low. It was not such a good day for us really, it started off when we left the marina and the swell outside the harbour was unpleasant. The boat was rocking and rolling and we had trouble getting the mainsail up. It keeps getting stuck on the lazy bag lines when Dean tries to hoist it up the mast, and with the swell the boom was swaying about somewhat making it extra troublesome. After several attempts at raising it we did succeed. The sailing was slow going at first until we passed the end of the island and then wind filled in. 

We were doing ok and at times we reached 7 knots but the sailing wasn’t much fun with the swell coming across Thesee’s rear corner. By 2pm we were approaching Les Sables d’Olonne and still the swell did not let up, right until we entered the harbour channel. Our objective was to go in the marina on the town quay as you would call it, but we soon realised there were no spaces big enough for Thesee. We had to take plan B and go to the other marina – Port Olona – which was just a little further on. You have to stop off at the Capitainerie and book in to get a berth allocation, but the wind was blowing us off and we had to make three landing attempts. Dean went to check in and pay up and we were allocated a berth on the next pontoon. Thankfully to end a quite stressful day Dean backed in to the berth perfectly. 

So we're here at Les Sables d'Olonne which is where the Golden Globe round the World race starts from in a couple of weeks time. Tomorrow we have arranged to meet up with Mathieu, he is one of the agents who sold Thesee to us back in 2014.

Catamarans lined up in Port Olona this rainy evening

View across the marina to the Feeling Factory we think

Friday 15th June…  A grey sky to start the day but the sun soon started to shine. For all you Thesee Followers out there, you will know that apart from Thesee’s Blog, we also have a Thesee website and today we were able to add a new face to the Visitors page….  Mathieu from AYC Yacht Brokers. As I said yesterday Mathieu was one of the agents who sold Thesee to us in La Rochelle back in 2014, and so being back in the area we invited him to come and see the boat (and us) four years on. We were delighted to welcome him aboard once again, sitting outside in the cockpit exchanging stories about all sorts of boaty stuff, plus business in general. Of course we had to tell him how happy we are with Thesee! AYC made buying a boat in France really straightforward and easy, we would highly recommend.

Here's the web address to get to Thesee's website.... 

www.sites.google.com/view/adventuresofthesee/home

Dean and Mathieu on board the lovely Thésée

Mathieu and Linda with a nice background view

Mathieu left us about 1pm and so we took a walk around the marina perimeter and on into the main quayside area. We are pleasantly surprised by Les Sables d’Olonne I have to say. All the restaurants along the quay looked very appealing. We walked further than expected and ended up on the beach front. The beach here is absolutely gorgeous and goes on for miles. Although it was sunny it was also very windy, and there was plenty of windsurfing action going on in the bay along with small sailing dinghys and swimmers. 

Did someone really name their boat 'Brexit'??

  

Tour Arundel

 Now we really feel like we're abroad

Priory

Sur la plage

The absolutely gorgeous carousel dated 1900

This is the best one i've ever seen, there's even an inner upstairs for toddlers

It was so nice we sat in a bar and ordered a Peach Melba and a Banana Boat Ice Cream. Then it was time to head back so we took the little water taxi across the boat channel and then strolled the rest of the way back to Thesee. Dean decided to mess about with his lazy bag lines and we now have a new arrangement which we will try out next time we sail. 

 They're not both his

The water taxi

.....we WILL make these lazy bag lines do the job

We might stay here for a few more days as we are now trying to work out when we will make the crossing to Spain. Everyone we have spoken to have advised us not to go further south down the French coast than La Rochelle because the seas are lumpy with the swell rolling into the corner of Biscay where France meets Spain, so it looks like we will go from La Rochelle to Santander when the time is right. We are watching the weather with the possibility of making the trip next weekend. 

This is the last blog entry from Cote de Jade. The next blog entry will be called 'Countdown to Spain'.