From Pornic to… Saint Gilles Croix de Vie, La Rochelle, and Soubise – All together !
These are the last 3 legs of our voyage.
Why put them all together on the same web page?
Maybe, because nothing much has happened during these three passages.
Maybe, because I was lazy and didn’t record any interesting detail on our log book.
Maybe, because the realisation of this website is nearing its end, I’m getting tired, and look forward to throw it on line.
Probably, for all of the above reasons!
Time was getting short, because we had decided to arrive at our final destination on the Friday, at noon, and we were Wednesday. Why Friday? Because my wife Gina was not working and could come to welcome us, drive us home, etc., and a couple of good local sailing friends would also be there, waiting to celebrate our arrival. And the restaurant was booked for 13h00!
There were two and a half days left.
Leaving Pornic
We left Pornic at 10h00 on Wednesday, after having said goodbye to Rachida. We had enough wind to hoist our sails and hoped that the rest of the day would remain the same.
Of course it didn’t, and after 2 hours, we resigned to motor.
There were 42 miles to Saint Gilles Croix de Vie, and we were moored there 8 hours later.
The berths there were narrow, perpendicular to pontoons that are quite close to each other, and packed with boats, leaving little space to manoeuvre. Tucking China Blue into her berth gave me a certain source of pride, I was getting to become an expert at steering her in close corners, and even got a compliment from the marina guy who helped us moor (Wow!).
Coming out the next day was another story, it had to be done backwards and China Blue isn’t good at it. Or I’m not, at least. Wind was not helping either, and a similar situation as the one we had had in Bangor, Northern Ireland, would have occurred, if we didn’t have the quick helping hand of another sailor who was passing by. Unfortunately this time, we didn’t see him again…
So much for our stopover in Saint Gilles Croix de Vie.
The next leg would take us to La Rochelle, a big marina where I had already been several times in the past, another 51 miles further south.
It was Thursday morning; I was counting on the prevailing north-westerlies to assure a good downwind passage, but they were not very well established. We alternated sails and motor.
Only when nearing the approach channel to La Rochelle, did we get a decent wind. We could at last honour our junk sails.
We even sailed an extra couple of miles south, just for the fun… And to show the harbour of La Rochelle that a junk rigged schooner was about to arrive!
The large marina “Les Minimes” was busy preparing the annual boat show “Le Grand Pavois” . They warned us that they were not opened for visitors, but nevertheless had a few berths available. In fact, we were not the only ones to have to use them!
Then it was Friday, the 17th of September.
The very last day of a voyage that started on the 31rst of July, 49 days before.
We headed south for what would be our permanent port of call, the little harbour of Soubise, a village situated 5 miles up the river Charente.
My local sailing friends had largely briefed me about the right time to engage into the river. In order to have enough water depth and the tide current with us, we had to be there 2 hours after low tide. We had 20 miles to run, so left La Rochelle at 09h00.
On the river Charente
The weather was beautiful, with just a puff of wind. Not enough to stop our motor, but enough to justify hoisting the front sail.
I wanted China Blue to show her colours!
We motor-sailed up the river, as if on parade. The water was brown but as calm as a lake, and with the engine softly idling, we were doing 7 knots with the current.
Parading up the river!
Saying we had a warm welcome would not do justice to the joy that burst at the moment we tied up along the floating berth.
Spirits were high. I was flying!
Then…
Then it was a deserved double-rhum at an outside table near the river, followed by a nice meal, appropriate wine, laughing with good people, happiness, and a kind, gentle surprise:
Though I had planned for a last night on board China Blue, on the dry, my beloved wife had secretly booked for us a nice hotel in the nearby city of Rochefort.
That’s my Gina!
Hauling China Blue out of the Charente
At 16h00, we hauled China Blue out of the river, and settled her on her dry berth. The next day, we came back to clean her up, collect all our stuff, and prepare her for 7 months on the dry.
Our home is almost 5 hours away from the boatyard.
We have decided that I would come back to do some work on her, maintenance, upgrading, modifications… Time permitting, budget allowing…
And then it was over!
Thank you so very much for sharing this amazing story of yours.
I really enjoyed every single word, picture and video.
So kind of you Hans-Erik!
I’m very happy if you have enjoyed our story.
Thanks again for these very nice comments!
Patrick
Bravo, palpitante et passionnante aventure!! Quelle détermination et quel courage avec ou sans bières !!! Bravo à tous les aventuriers.
Merci Yassine,
L’aventure n’est pas tributaire du nombre de bières ni de la distance des mers traversées.
Le courage, encore moins. L’aventure peut se trouver tout près, dans la nature ou dans la ville, et le courage n’en sera pas moindre. La vie est une aventure, mère de tout un tas d’autres aventures!
A bientôt, pour d’autres… aventures!
Patrick
Lovely to read about all the places we have also frequented. We only had one night in St Gilles, but a couple of years in La Rochelle and St Denis. We did go into Minimes but we were lucky to get a berth in the town, great place to spend some time!
I have berthed in the old harbour several times on another boat, when I was taking sailing courses. Nice city, very enjoyable along the old quays. Only drawback was having to walk around the whole harbour just to go to the toilets!