PASSAGE TO ST-DENIS-D'OLERON
Aquila
Alan and Sarah Bennett
Fri 6 Jun 2014 10:06
46:02.1N 1:22.2W
Thursday 5 June. What a difference a day makes: the morning dawned bright and still, with yesterday’s gale and rain but a memory. The lock opened as scheduled at 1050 – it being Neaps, water had to be released from the basin to level the river outside. This lowered the level in the basin considerably – causing us to drag our wing keel through the build-up of silt in the lock’s exit. Fortunately l’eclusier had warned of this eventuality, so we poured on full power and ploughed through it – just!
Out in the river, we tried the asymmetric (see phot), but conditions were too light so on went the donk for the two hour trip down to La Charente estuary. An easterly zephyr then allowed us to set the asymmetric for a while – Sarah’s concentration on its trimming (see phots) made the skipper very happy – as we ghosted our way to our planned lunchtime anchorage off the north coast of Isle d’Aix. As soon as the Manson Supreme had a hold, the skipper went over the side to investigate the cause of an intermittent medium-to-heavy vibration we had been experiencing when going ahead at medium-to-slow revs. As suspected, we had a fouled prop: some 10ft of the material commonly used to secure pallet loads was found entangled in the folding boss. The emergency knife soon had it clear (see phot), so the skipper then proceeded on a celebratory waterline scrub.
After a leisurely lunch and a dip by Bill (see phot - the girls whimping out this time!), we weighed anchor and enjoyed a two hour close-hauled fetch in calm seas and bright sunshine – what the mate termed ‘a Hester day’ – towards our evening destination: St-Denis-d’Oleron, on the northerly tip of Isle d’Oleron. With the sill to the marina shown on the chart as 1.5m above CD, we hove-to for 30 minutes while awaiting the making tide to work its wonders; subsequently enabling us to float safely across the obstruction at 2000. A delicious supper on board of veal-in-a-creamy-mushroom-sauce-with-sautéed-courgettes-and-spinach rounded off a perfect day.
