Exploring Rochefort

Yesterday went round the rope walk and a bit of the town.  Today visited the replica of the 1779 frigate L'Hermione that is being built here, saw a bit more of the town and visited Tonnay-Charente, the next town up the river, by bike. The frigate is quite a sight, it has been built as near as possible to the original as current maritime regulations allow.

Of the two towns I think Tonnay-Charente is the more appealing as Rochefort was built as a military town on a very rigid grid.  Both towns show signs of past prosperity from water born trade of which there is almost no sign now except the occaisional freighter going up to Rochefort.
The countryside is the best bit, although it is very flat it is a joy to watch it go buy from the boat or look at from the bank.
We had hoped to go shopping at the chandlers and a hardware store today as well as do some grocery shopping but in the end everything but the supermarket was shut as it is a bank holiday, but we did get a good quality water container at a great price and some delicious crevettes.
Tomorrow we are going to sail back to the ile de Re, but we have a lot to get done to get ready to go through the canals so we are thinking of coming back here for a week or so at some point.

In the Charente

We left La Rochelle on the 9th August and had a night in Rivedoux.  The following morning we were intending on sailing North towards L'ile d'Yeu; however, the wind died and the tide turned against us and so we ended up on the tiny island of L'ile d'Aix near the entrance to the Charente.  We had 2 pleasant days on a mooring off the island and walked on the island and then decided that we would visit Rochefort, so here we are.

View of interior to main fortification on ile d'Aix after entering through the dock gates

The sail from l'Ile d'Aix to Rochefort was great, high speed reach to the entrance to the river after which we reduced sail and gently meandered on the flood up to the waiting pontoon where we moored until the lock opened.

Fishing huts on the Charente

Mussel and oyster beds on ile d'Aix by the moorings, they cant be seen when the tide is in

Old and new bridges on the Charente near Rochefort

Latest from La Rochelle

We are still in La Rochelle (or to be exact the Minimes marina on the
outskirts). The wind has finally dropped off and the swell should be
going down; however, yet again the potential weather window looks to be
closing (our last weather window turned into a Force 8 gale which is why
we are still here) so we have decided to give up on crossing Biscay this
year as apart from anything else it is doubtful that we would be able to
spend much time in the Spanish Rias which is the main thing we wanted to do.
The weather has been so bad that there has a lot of visitors in the
marina so the WiFi connection has not been very good (it seems to
degenerate about the time most teenagers wake up ....) which has meant
we have not got many photos up yet.

The revised plan is to cruise the Vendee and Brittany for a few weeks
and then head back to the Gironde and cross to the Mediterranean via the
French canals. Hopefully the canals will be quieter in September and
October so it will be an easier passage. It should take us about 2
weeks to do the canals, but there are some nice places to visit on the
way so we will probably potter along. However, before we go we have to
sort out licences and things so we will need to get busy.

On Sunday we had a day out in La Rochelle which we really enjoyed,
especially as we found more delicious sorbets to eat. We were glad not
to have moored in the harbour as it was very noisy and busy all around
with the huge number of visitors. There are lovely colonnades to walk
down in the old town and the architecture is very pleasing, nothing
grandiose just easy on the eye.

Today we caught up with laundry, shopping, etc. Tomorrow we will be off
after I have gone up the mast to change the bulb in the mast head light
and the halyard for the mainsail.

Yesterdays excitement was a motor boat getting it wrong in the strong
winds and catching part of our rig in its anchor. This evening we
turned the boat round on the pontoon and discovered that at some point
this afternoon while we were away a boat had hit the bow hard enough to
take a deep chunk out of the hardwood there. Given the standard of
manoeuvring we have seen the risk of damage is real if you have been
given a berth next to the fuel dock, but as this is the 4th time this
year we have been damaged by another boat it can happen anywhere.

Being next to the fuel dock is, however, a good place to view others
behaviour. Most boats are not there very long, but a few 50 plus footers
have also come in and they not only use up all of the dock but they are
there for ages; the worst offender was an arrogant Englishman on a big
American flagged boat who appeared to object to the staff asking him to
move to make room for others to refuel at the same time and made clearly
audiable disparaging remarks as they left (we have found the staff to be
uniformly pleasant, competent and helpful).

Hiding in a marina

After a night in Ars-en-Re, which we found to be expensive and disappointing, we are currently hiding in Minimes marina near La Rochelle whilst a nasty low pressure system goes through.  Our anchor light failed the other night after a few days of not much wind or sun and we discovered the hard way that we had made a mistake in not replacing the bulb in the masthead all round white with LED bulb as it flattened the battery.  Fortunately Minimes has more chandlers than I have ever seen before in a marina (mind you it has berths for 3000 boats) so we were able to get a charger (we had left ours behind as it was big, heavy and we had solar panels and a wind generator).
We are also back on WiFi after an age using a GSM phone as a modem so are hoping to find time to upload some pictures and, if I can get it working, the video of dolphins.
The only serious problem at the moment is that I have aggravated an old injury behind a shoulder blade and it gives me grief if I cycle or move heavy weights around.

Mango around the ille de Re

Mango anchored of Rivedoux Plage Sud, ille de Re

Mango in La Flotte harbour

Still pottering

The weather just keeps getting warmer, It is 9pm and there is a warm
breeze blowing from the land. This morning we oiled one of the side
decks, redid the control lines on the wind vane steering and then went
swimming around the boat. After that it was lunch and then ashore to
buy some food for our evening meal and have an ice cream, or in my case
a sorbet - delicious.
The BBC says it will rain tomorrow, but that will just clean the boat
:-) We are hoping that a possible weather window will materialise at the
weekend as at present it is a bit unsettled in the Bay of Biscay with
thunder squalls and variable winds.

Pottering around Ille de Re

We have spent the last few days pottering and will probably do another
week of pottering waiting for a good time for both us and the weather to
head across Biscay to Spain.
We initially spent a couple of nights anchored off the Rivedoux Plage
Sud where we managed to get the Bromptons ashore and back to the boat
without them getting wet in the light surf that appeared after we had
decided to take them ashore. We used the Bromptons to cycle round the
East end of the island and got as far west as St Martin de Re, which we
found a bit too touristy for our liking (and the boats very crammed in
to the harbour). The island is pretty flat but
with some lovely woodland and lots of good cycle paths which are
separate to the roads. Our friends Ian and Sarah who live in France
arrived to visit and so we arranged to go into La Flotte for a couple of
nights in order that they could get to the boat without getting wet and
it gave us a chance to reprovision, refuel and do a few jobs on the boat
sheltered from the chop caused by the sea breeze.
We found that we really like La Flotte: the harbour master was very
helpful, there was a generally relaxed atmosphere and the shop people
were very friendly, fantastic market every morning and supermarket
within easy reach. We also took the opportunity to view the anchorage
at low water and reckoned that if the wind is in the south (it has been
in the North so far) it would make a great place to dry out to do
maintenance as the bottom is firm sandy mud (judging from the people
wandering over it for Fruit de Mer) and if you go to to the east side
there did not appear to be any rocks sticking up.
Wandering around paid dividends: I found a chandlers near the landing
place we were using at Rivedoux Plage who were able to sell me the bits
I needed to wire in the 12v kettle and we found a cheap source of fuel
for our alcohol stove. We also decided to invest in a small 12v cooler
to keep cheese, meat, fish, etc. better.
In the last 2 days the summer has returned with temperatures in the mid
20s and cloudless skies. The days start with very little wind but a
seabreeze from the NW has filled in every afternoon at some point.