Highlights – the overview
The weather windows are starting to become shorter and further apart, so we spend several days in harbors waiting out high winds and rain. But we don’t mind… we’re happy to do projects on board, see the local towns and just enjoy being.
We start at Le Croisic after leaving Vannes and are on a mooring buoy for several days. The current in and out is strong, but the mooring buoys are solid. We go ashore once and walk around the village, buy some delicious croissants, flan, kouign amann and bread, plus stock up on the famous Bretagne Sable and Palet biscuits that we really like. Wim makes us some tasty pancakes, which we fill with veggies for dinner, then Wim has them with fruit preserves for breakfasts.
When the weather is favorable again, we sail off for Île de Yeu. We know there will be a few days of South-West winds and since the only anchorages are on the south side of the island, we go into the marina on the north side.
Since it’s a beautiful warm summer’s day, we have dinner at the cockpit table!
In the morning, it’s pretty windy with some small rain showers. We pay the marina fees (shoulder season: only 24 euro per night) and we walk into the village of Port Joinville and buy some nice shirts and sweaters.
And of course, we go to the bakery and buy some delicious croissants for lunch! There’s also a small outdoor market where we buy some cheese (as if we didn’t already have enough?)
While we wait for the weather to clear, Wim works on the engine and tries to figure out why we’re having a problem with a short circuit in the relay. More on that in the Captain’s Log, if you’re curious.
Our next stop, a few days later, when we have good weather, is Saint Gilles Croix de Vie on the mainland. It’s a tricky harbor entrance, but with good conditions and careful timing, we get in without worry and tie up to the visitor’s pontoon. We work on some projects, Wim installs the new backup inverter that we had sent to the marina here and Sher starts sewing the final cockpit cushion. In between rain showers, we go walking around and stock up at a grocery store not too far away.
Now it’s time to move on and we go with the first light in the morning to catch the tide right. We watch the sun rise when we’re at open sea. Beautiful!
Around 15:30h, we enter St. Martin de Ré.
The cruising guide describes it as one of the most beautiful little ports on the French Atlantic coast. In the summer season this place is packed with yachts and thousands of tourists. With a yacht, you have to wait your turn to get into the tiny inner harbor. One can only stay one night inside during high season. But since it’s October now, there’s almost nobody there, Yay!
In the morning, we take a walk to the outside of the town. We wanted to buy Flan but the bakery in the town center is closed for holidays so we head to another bakery at the outskirts of St. Martin. No Flan! Another bakery. No Flan! Another… closed! There’s a big Lidl supermarket. Let’s try there. No Flan. But the have good-looking Pastel de Nata. Close enough, we think. We buy them and they taste surprisingly good! This must be a sign: it’s time to leave France and head to Spain.
Dreadlock donkeys… Along the way, Sher spots these sweet creatures on the side of the road. Not their best hair day, we think. The donkey breed (obviously of French descent) is called the Bauer du Poitou or Poitevin or Poitou donkey. It is a larger breed that is valued for work in agriculture and characterized by their long ungroomed hair (locks). So cute!
We walk all around the old fortress walls and back to the inner harbor. Behind those doors, Dione IV is afloat. About 4m higher than the water level on this side. This sluice/lock is only open near high tide. Otherwise, the harbor dries out and boats need to wait for the water to come up again to enter or exit.
We are looking at the weather forecasts (always). There are 3 days of beautiful summer weather with a breeze from the East ahead. Hmm. This would be a very good weather window to make a passage south… Actually, we wanted to go to La Rochelle after this and hop along the French coast south until we reach Hendaye on the Spanish border in the South-Eastern corner of the Bay of Biscay.
Hendaye is the last French port in the cruising guide for the French Atlantic Coast. It is at the Spanish border. So many times, we have been browsing through that book and end at the last page: Hendaye. So, that place tickles our imagination. We certainly have to go there. We look at the weather forecasts once more and we look at each other: Let’s do it! Skip these places and sail to Spain! Autumn is coming and the flan is scarce… time to be in Spain! It’s a 180 sea miles passage. That will take about 40 hours. We will have sunny days with a steady 10-15 breeze from the East.
So, these are our last fresh French croissants!
Spain, here we come!
Captain’s Log (T+85,86,… 96) – the complete story
Sept 22 – Le Croisic
A rainy and windy day at our mooring buoy at Le Croisic. The weather forecast for tomorrow says showers and a lot of wind. So, we decide to stay here. The forecast for the day after tomorrow looks good.
Sept 23 – same harbor, new mooring buoy
In the morning, the harbor master comes by with the port service boat. He requests that we move to another mooring buoy because this one is private and the owner needed to take a different mooring buoy since we were on his. So, we start our engine and move. We have to wait a little bit for the other boat to release their mooring lines and the current pushes us against another boat. Shoot! We forgot to fold down our solar panels on the railing and we hit the railing of the other boat with one of our solar panels! Badly damaged! Luckily, there’s no damage to the other boat but our solar panel has some folds and the stainless steel frame is severely bent. Bummer!! What a stupid mistake. This is gonna need some repairs…
After we attach to our new mooring buoy we remove the solar panel from the frame and we test it. Surprisingly, it seems to be working, despite of the folds (which flipped back into place). Well, we might need to replace it because the cells might have been broken. Wim emails the manufacturer (Mito Solar) and the say they can make a new one but since they’re very busy this might take some time. Okay, in the meantime we can try to repair the frame. We reconnect the wiring so that the other panel still produces power.
Anyway, the harbor master tells us that we call them on the VHF and they will taxi us ashore whenever we want. That’s a nice service!
We wait for some rain showers to pass by and after that, it clears.
Later that morning, we call them and a guy picks us up.
We’ll visit the town and do some shopping.
Le Croisic appears to be a lovely town and we buy some delicious Celtic sea salt (from Le Guérande, the salt fields nearby) and La Trinitaine Le Sablé biscuits… Sher’s favorite, and some Palets, which Wim really likes!
We do some provisioning in the little supermarket and buy delicious fresh croissants, Kouign Aman and Flan in the bakery. Yummy!
That night, we bake a delicious bunch of pancakes 🙂
Sept 24 – sailing south
Today, the weather forecast looks nice so we continue sailing south.
We leave Le Croisic at 9, at high tide.
A bite of Kouign Aman along the way!
We have 10 knots of wind from the North-West so we set full sail. Destination Île de Yeu, about 35 sea miles.
During the morning, the wind drops down to almost nothing so, Marvelous Mighty Mitsu has to bring us to Île de Yeu.
We arrive at 17:00h.
And moor in the marina. The anchorages are on the South coast of the island and since a strong South-Westerly wind is forecasted for the coming days, these bays are no option, regretfully.
Since it’s a beautiful warm summer’s day, we have dinner at the cockpit table!
Sept 25 – a visit to Port Joinville
In the morning, it’s pretty windy with some small rain showers. We pay the marina fees (shoulder season: only 24 euro per night) and we walk into the village of Port Joinville and buy some nice shirts and sweaters.
And of course, we go to the bakery and buy some delicious croissants for lunch! There’s also a small outdoor market where we buy some cheese (as if we didn’t already have enough?)
In the afternoon, it’s pouring! So, we stay nice and cozy inside.
Sept 26 – staying snug in the marina
Rain showers and strong winds (6-7 Beaufort) so we stay put…
Sher visits the hairdresser and Wim does some jobs on board. One job is replacing the preheat relay on the engine.
The relay had a short circuit that caused the engine’s fuse to blow. Remember?
We ordered a new relay from the Solé dealer in the Netherlands and it was sent to us to Brest.
Here, it’s installed, working fine and sprayed to match in Marvelous Mighty Mitsu-blue.
Finished!
After that, it’s time to investigate what went wrong with the old relay. Wim opens it up and sees (and smells) that the coil is burnt. Hmm. How could that have happened??
We read the Mitsubishi manual: maximum preheat 6 seconds. We never preheat 6 seconds. Maybe 1 or 2 seconds. Actually, the engine starts perfectly without preheating.
So, hmm… Let’s think back. When we changed the fuel filter, we had an air bleeding issue (Remember?). We started the engine many times trying to bleed the fuel. Every time, we preheated. The manual says: if the engine doesn’t start, wait 30 seconds before trying trying again. Everything has to cool down. We didn’t, that time. Perhaps, that overheated the preheat relay. And that got worse over time…?
It’s just guessing… For now, it works fine and Wim thinks he can repair the old relay by rewinding the spool. So, we’ll have a spare one.
In the afternoon, Wim tries to bend and straighten the solar panel frame. Well, it’s more or less a rectangular shape again but it’s difficult to straighten out the last bends. Actually, that needs a solid workbench. Let’s see if that can be done later…
Sept 27 – another stormy day, staying put
A stormy day. We have 30-35 knots of wind from the west with gusts well over 40 knots. But we’re pretty sheltered here. We picked the perfect place in this marina, with the wind right at our bow.
In the afternoon, Wim takes a walk to have look at the sea. The maritime weather forecast says: 4-6m waves and a swell of 4m. That’s an impressive sight!
The ferry leaves port. She’s rolling heavily and sometimes they steer up against the waves to prevent her from rolling too much. Taking a big wave with a spray all over the ship.
Sept 28 – continuing on to Port La Vie
The conditions change quickly! This morning, we have only 10-15 knots of wind from the north. The sea has calmed down last night and the sun is shining. So, after a visit to the Boulanger for croissants right from the oven, a baguette and a Flan, we leave Port Joinville at 0930h.
We set sail to the mainland, to Saint Gilles Croix de Vie. An 18 sea miles crossing in wonderful conditions: a nice breeze, sunny and a gentle, long swell on our stern. We express to each other how happy we feel and what a wonderful life we have! We don’t want to take a minute of this for granted! 🙂
The entrance of Saint Gilles is a bit exciting. There are serious warnings in the pilot because the port is open to the South-West and there’s a strong current from the river. The entrance can be very dangerous when there’s wind against current or swell.
Well, we’ve timed our arrival so that we have wind and current in the same direction so that should be no problem. Still, there’s a 1.5m swell from the North-west and that’s a reason for a worry…
We see the swell breaking on the beaches and on the rocks aside of us when we enter but the entrance itself is pretty calm. The wind has decreased to 5 knots and we have a gentle swell on our stern when we sail along the breakwater. No problem!
We enter the river with 1 knot of current on our stern and we moor at the visitor’s pontoon.
The weather is lovely and we have lunch outside at the cockpit table!
In the marina office, a package is waiting for us. 2 weeks ago, we have arranged a new inverter to be sent here. The marina was so kind to receive and keep it for us.
This is our spare inverter. We had a spare inverter but that was an old one and it broke down. So, we’re going to replace it.
Sept 29 – a few days in Port La Vie
We are going to be here a few days. The weather forecasts don’t look good: strong winds again and lots of rain.
Replace the spare inverter.
This inverter is powered by the bow thruster battery (24v, 7.2kWh). We don’t use it normally. It’s here for 2 (-emergency-) reasons:
- If our main inverter (or main battery bank) should break down, this one can take over while (or until) repairs are carried out. It has less power (1600W) than the main (3000W) but it can supply power for 1 cooking zone of the induction cooker, can power the coffee maker (critical equipment!), the small boilers, etc. With some workarounds, we can charge the bow thruster battery with solar, wind or engine if things are going to take long.
- The real emergency purpose is powering the emergency pump. See here.
Sept 30 – provisioning and projects
A windy and rainy day. In the morning, we visit some marine stores but we don’t buy anything. After that we do some provisioning at the huge supermarket (Super U). It’s only a 10 minutes walk.
In the afternoon, we mark and cut fabric for the last cockpit cushion. Since the weather is bad we find a way to do that inside.
Oct 1 – bookkeeping and sewing
It has been raining all night and all morning. Wim does some bookkeeping and Sher starts sewing the cushion.
Oct 2 – onward to Ile de Ré
The weather forecasts are looking good so we move on. It’s time to move south as autumn comes and the weather windows are getting scarce and shorter.
We leave the marina at 07:30, at first daylight. Again, we have to be careful considering the swell against the current. But, because we’re only 2 hours after high tide, the current is only 1.5 knots and when we’re between the breakwaters the swell appears very gentle. No problem.
We watch the sun rise when we’re at open sea. Beautiful!
There’s a light breeze from the North-East so that’s at our stern. We set sail but our speed is only a few knots. That’s not enough. We are heading for St. Martin at Ile de Ré and the entrance to the port dries out so we have to be there at approximately high tide. It’s 40 sea miles so we have to maintain 4-5 knots of speed. We start the engine again and motor sail along Les Sables d’Olonne coast.
In the afternoon, there’s no wind at all so Marvelous Mighty Mitsu has to bring us to the island. Once we are in the lee of the island the swell (from the west) dies out completely and we glide through a sea like a mirror. What a lovely day. It’s warm and we sit in the cockpit in shorts and t-shirts.
Around 15:30h, we enter St. Martin de Ré.
The cruising guide describes it as one of the most beautiful little ports on the French Atlantic coast. In the summer season this place is packed with yachts and thousands of tourists. With a yacht, you have to wait your turn to get in. There are waiting buoys and many yachts anchor in the shallow bay to wait for their turn to enter. One can only stay one night inside during high season. But since it’s October now, there’s almost nobody there, Yay!
We carefully enter through the big fortress walls and through the lock.
When we pass the lock, the harbormaster it waiting for us and points us to the visitors pontoon and our space.
Wim has been here in August, 2 years ago. The little port was completely filled with yachts. No water could be seen! Now, it is quiet and peaceful. We take a walk in the lovely town and buy some little things.
Oct 3 – a walk into town
In the morning, we take a walk to the outside of the town. We wanted to buy Flan but the bakery in the town center is closed for holidays so we head to another bakery at the outskirts of St. Martin. No Flan! Another bakery. No Flan! Another… closed! There’s a big Lidl supermarket. Let’s try there. No Flan. But they have good-looking Pastel de Nata. Close enough, we think. We buy them and they taste surprisingly good! This must be a sign: it’s time to leave France and head to Spain…
Dreadlock donkeys… Along the way, Sher spots these sweet creatures. Not the best hair day, we think. The donkey breed (obviously of French descent) is called the Bauer du Poitou or Poitevin or Poitou donkey. It is a larger breed that is valued for work in agriculture and characterized by their long ungroomed hair (locks). So cute!
We wander around the dried-out port with all it’s fortress walls.
Behind those doors, Dione IV is afloat. About 4m higher than the water level on this side.
We are looking at the weather forecasts (always). There are 3 days of beautiful summer weather with a breeze from the East ahead. Hmm. This would be a very good weather window to make a passage south… Actually, we wanted to go to La Rochelle after this and hop along the French coast south. La Rochelle, The Gironde river, the Arcachon delta, Cap Breton, Bayonne, Saint Jean de Luz, then Hendaye. Hendaye is the last French port in the pilot book. It is at the Spanish border. So many times, we have been browsing through that book and end at the last page: Hendaye. So, that place tickles our imagination. We certainly have to go there. We look at the weather forecasts once more and we look at each other: Let’s do it! Skip these places and sail to Spain! Autumn is coming and the flan is scarce… time to be in Spain! It’s a 180 sea miles passage. That will take about 40 hours. We will have sunny days with a steady 10-15 breeze from the East. That is a half reach sail setting. And because the direction of the wind is offshore, there will be no big waves or swell (the gulf of Biscay is notorious for these). So, this is an opportunity we might not have again. We decide to leave as soon as the lock opens this afternoon. That will be around 15:00h. We’ll sail through the night, through the next day, through another night, and Saturday by noon we’ll be in Hendaye… last stop in France!
So, these are our last fresh French croissants!
Spain, here we come!
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