The oceans are so beautiful and blue that it’s always a shock to see debris littered in it. This one counts as a sailing hazard too as we narrowly missed a large floating fridge (brown box by the rope). A timely reminder of the importance of always keeping watch.
Fridge anyone?
Felix was quite oblivious as he had decided he wanted a recorder lesson 😱🎼. All I can say is thank goodness the CD was musically bearable!
I can play the recorder…..
A great down wind sail and Russell even managed to balance the sails to ‘goose wing’ as we cruised along nicely in the evening breeze.
Our journey to Spain included a 235 nautical mile passage from St. Denis-d’Oléron to Gijon in Spain (just over half way along the northern coastline). We left at 8am and sailed right through the night arriving the next day at 10pm, practically 40 hours. We did the crossing with Oyster Moon, another family boat we met in La Rochelle. The boys had made instant friends with Charlie and Jess, and merrily learnt how to use the vhf radio so they could chat to each other on the journey. They even wrote boat quizzes, which were great fun and must have amused any fisherman listening in!
With a good NE breeze behind us we even got the gennaker (a cross between a genoa and a spinnaker sail) out. Russell had spent the previous week building a bowsprit for it to attach too from a discarded windsurf mast from the sailing school. Cutting it into three he inserted them in each other and drilled and spliced ropes for it painstakingly. Unfortunately we went from this…..to this. 😫
Flying beautifully
Broken pole, oops
Always good to have a hacksaw!
Luckily we were soon joined by a pod of dolphins which kept us company jumping around the boat and playing in the bow wave. Photos never do it justice, but they were amazing, and rather large! We saw dolphins at various times during the passage.
With a long journey there are plenty of hours to fill. Russell made bread and the boys did Lego. I’ve never seen bread kneaded on a deck before! A new recipe, Biscay bread!
Russell and I did shifts, and my night ones were 7pm-midnight and 4am to 7am which at least meant I got sunset and sunrise.
They were both stunning and with a waxing moon the stars were amazing. This was my first solo watch sailing at night, and whilst admiring the Milky Way and stars galore it’s a bit of a shock when the moon sets, and then it really is sailing into pitch darkness. I’m proud to state that we managed 8kts under my watch (great wind), so we covered some distance and made great time. However it was a welcome sight to finally see land and raise our Spanish curtesy flag. We were all tired and slept soundly once safely moored in the marina.
Hugo raises the Spanish flag
Exhausted Russell and Picos de Europa mountains
Oyster Moon safely made it too, arriving at 2am. We invited Charlie and Jess aboard for breakfast at ours leaving their exhausted parents to sleep. The children were delighted to see each other again after the trip.
The daily ask all week of “is Anika coming today” was blissfully answered when Kate, David and Anika arrived on a flight to La Rochelle. Huge thanks guys for making the trip for a weekend, it was amazing to see you all. The boys were over the moon to have visitors and oodles of fun, shrieks and beach fun☀️🏖 followed.
Felix insisted on showing Anika his new rowing skills. What could possibly go wrong with a 5-year old rowing a 4-year old?!!! Thankfully nothing, sensible Hugo was around.
And off we go….
Big. Grins from Anika!
It was so lovely to see everyone and we all enjoyed the gorgeous weather too. Please come again, it will always be sunny with us 😎 🌞. See you in the Canaries???
This lovely island has been a great place to spend a relaxed ten days, we recommend it if your heading this way. The boys have loved every day of sailing school, the French bakeries, market and general island life. Hugo has taken to wind surfing, and even the instructor was truly amazed how he got it instantly and took off into the distance!!!
Lunch in the harbour then back to the beach!
with a slightly bemused Felix sat on the back. They were a long way out before the instructor had sorted the other kids and then raced across the bay to turn Hugo round and point him back to shore!
First time I’ve ever stood on this thing and I’m off whilst no one is looking!
We’ve also had time to finally get the boys haircut, as I’d soon have been plaiting it! One very smart Hugo. All ready for our guests of Kate, David and Anita to arrive.
I’ve even done all the laundry and ironing! Novel ironing board position??? Chloe, Gaynor – you have to be impressed (or just purely shocked 😂), I just can’t have the boys looking scruffy……
I’m not sure how long ironing in 40 degree heat is going to last!!
The boys started their first day at sailing school today on this small island of Ile d’Oleron, and boy they were excited!
They went out in a small catamaran and came back grinning from ear to ear. So they’ve had a French lesson and a sailing lesson all in one, can’t be bad. And we’ve booked them in for the whole week 😀. Russell and I had a quiet two hours without the boys, which after 6 weeks of them 24/7 was slightly strange and rather nice!
Hats off to Rob and Kiki who made an epic 4.5 hour drive to visit us from beyond Toulouse somewhere! It was wonderful to see you guys, and thank you so much for making it all the way to the tiny port of St. Denis on the Ile d’Oleron. We had a fantastic seafood dinner ashore and drinks aboard to celebrate a belated birthday. I promise Rob and I didn’t talk too much about work, well only a bit..😉
Thank you to Kiki who was a huge hit with the boys and many thanks to Rob for bringing out the first two Swallows and Amazons books for Hugo. They will be devoured shortly!
Some things leak (still can’t get the hot water tank to stop slightly leaking even after the third mend) and other things block. I won’t go into detail about where this pipe is from…but let’s say there is a certain chemical reaction between seawater and ‘x’ which makes calcium. Old pipe, previously not used much, now solid and very blocked…
Russell valiantly cleared the blockage and cleared up….(in 38 degree heat) whilst I took the boys round the excellent (and wonderfully air conditioned) aquarium. I think we got the better deal!
Nearly a year on, we are back in La Rochelle, where we first saw and bought our yacht. The harbour master recognised the yacht from their records and we were greeted like lost friends and walked out of the office with gifts of a flag, hat and key ring much to the boys delight.
Time for scooting around and exploring the sites. It’s been 36-40 degrees today in this mini-heatwave, so trying to keep cool has been a key objective!
Running through fountains!
Felix scooting
The two towers were great to explore, excellently cool and the prisoners graffiti from the 1800’s was amazing to see etched into the limestone walls. They have drawn the ships they were captured in from the commercial trade wars.
Sainte-Martin-de-Ré is fun, lively historic port which is in the centre of town. A great base for the weekend. We were serenaded during dinner and had fun exploring the fort and town. The boys made great friends with Charlie on the boat next door and we hope to meet the lovely family again in Spain in a few weeks.
A popular place to be, but we can see why! We cycled through the fort and across to the Atlantic side of the island for the long sandy beaches. It was really lovely.
Halls Aboard - Sailing Kathryn del Fuego 