{"id":52,"date":"2022-05-03T21:52:14","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T21:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leblanc.pl\/china_blue_en\/?page_id=52"},"modified":"2022-05-04T08:49:14","modified_gmt":"2022-05-04T08:49:14","slug":"chapter-14-belle-ile-le-palais","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/leblanc.pl\/china_blue_en\/index.php\/the-whole-story\/chapter-14-belle-ile-le-palais\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 14 &#8211; Belle Ile, Le Palais"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><u>From Lesconil to Belle Ile &#8211; <em>Le Palais<\/em>, but not for us\u2026<\/u><\/h2>\n<p>The timing we had for entering the harbour of <em>Le Palais<\/em> (\u201c<em>the Palace<\/em>\u201d ) was as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>High water was at 22h00,<\/li>\n<li>Harbour locks opening 2 hours before high water,<\/li>\n<li>Locks operating until 22h00.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These two last infos, we gathered from the harbour and city websites.<br \/>\nWe would have to arrive in <em>Le Palais<\/em> between 20h00 and 21h00.<\/p>\n<p>Our route was quite straightforward: 8 miles south-east to round the <em>Gl\u00e9nans<\/em> archipelago, then alter course, adding a little more east, for the remaining 45 miles to <em>Le Palais<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>As again and again, we couldn\u2019t use our sails: whatever wind there was, was against us.<\/p>\n<p>On a long passage with no definite schedule, you would take your time, tacking and tacking again, making little progress at slow speed, behaving like a patient sailor, waiting for better wind conditions.<br \/>\nWhen, on the contrary, you are bound by tides and harbour locks, you have no other choice than to motor.<\/p>\n<p>Leaving the charming city of <em>Lesconil<\/em> at 10h00, we motored ten and a half hours, before turning west into the harbour.<\/p>\n<p>Approaching <em>Belle Ile<\/em> in the sunset was a nice view. We looked forward to have a walk in the nice (or supposedly so) town of <em>Le Palais<\/em>.<br \/>\nWe radioed the harbour to announce our arrival and ask for a berth.<br \/>\nThey answered we would have to tie up to other boats in the fore-port, since the locks would not open till the next morning!<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_793\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/leblanc.pl\/china_blue\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/belle_ile.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-793\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-793\" src=\"https:\/\/leblanc.pl\/china_blue\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/belle_ile-300x149.jpg\" alt=\"Le Palais, Belle Ile\" width=\"300\" height=\"149\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-793\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Le Palais, Belle Ile<\/p><\/div>\n<p>We were surprised, as that was not what we had understood. Bad information, due to bad synchronisation between the infos on the net and the reality.<br \/>\nWe got even more disappointed when we found out that the boats we were tied to had no access to shore.<\/p>\n<p>So, we could see the lights of the city, but we would stay on board. No bar, no restaurant, no shower, no toilets, no electric power. No way to get any groceries, and we had ran out of beer.<br \/>\nThere was an enormous ferry next to us, very noisy.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_792\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/leblanc.pl\/china_blue\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/ferry_belle_ile.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-792\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-792\" src=\"https:\/\/leblanc.pl\/china_blue\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/ferry_belle_ile-300x149.jpg\" alt=\"Un ferry dans le port\" width=\"300\" height=\"149\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-792\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Un ferry dans le port<\/p><\/div>\n<p>In a way, it would be economic, not having an opportunity to spend money.<br \/>\nBut the next morning, a girl from the harbour office came up in an inflatable rib, and asked us if we had been to the office.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">\u201c<em>What for?<\/em>\u201d, I asked.<br \/>\n&#8211; <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>To pay for your stay<\/em><\/span>\u201d, was the stupid answer.<br \/>\n&#8211; <em>What would I have to pay for? We used no water, no shower, no electricity. We didn\u2019t event occupy a harbour berth!<\/em>\u201d<br \/>\n&#8211; <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Well you were inside the harbour walls. If you didn\u2019t want to pay, you should have anchored outside<\/em><\/span>.\u201d<br \/>\n&#8211; <em>But we came in because the locks should have been opened!<\/em>\u201d<br \/>\n&#8211; <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>What do you think, the lock-keeper would work that late?<\/em><\/span>\u201d<br \/>\n&#8211; <em>OK, I will pay you, how much will that be?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She kind of measured the boat, and came up with 16 euros.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left; padding-left: 40px;\">\u201c<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>But you have to go to the office<\/em><\/span>\u201d, she said.<br \/>\n&#8211; <em>How are we supposed to do that?! We have no tender, we are here like two bums, we couldn\u2019t even have a beer in town! Am I supposed to swim to the office?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a fact, that China Blue looked like an old derelict boat in comparison to the other yachts to which she was tied to.<br \/>\nLooking somewhat exasperated, she eventually told us to&#8230; <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>just leave!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Which we did, waving her good bye as we crossed her dinghy on the way out!<\/p>\n<h3>We were on our way to Pornic, and starting another day\u2026<em> without wind<\/em>.<\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em>(<a href=\"https:\/\/leblanc.pl\/china_blue_en\/index.php\/the-whole-story\/chapter-15-pornic-family-visit\/\">To be continued<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From Lesconil to Belle Ile &#8211; Le Palais, but not for us\u2026 The timing we had for entering the harbour of Le Palais (\u201cthe Palace\u201d ) was as follows: High water was at 22h00, Harbour locks opening 2 hours before &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/leblanc.pl\/china_blue_en\/index.php\/the-whole-story\/chapter-14-belle-ile-le-palais\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":40,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-52","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leblanc.pl\/china_blue_en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/52","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leblanc.pl\/china_blue_en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leblanc.pl\/china_blue_en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leblanc.pl\/china_blue_en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leblanc.pl\/china_blue_en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/leblanc.pl\/china_blue_en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/52\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":191,"href":"https:\/\/leblanc.pl\/china_blue_en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/52\/revisions\/191"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leblanc.pl\/china_blue_en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/40"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leblanc.pl\/china_blue_en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}