LES SABLES AND PASSAGE TO L'HERBAUDIERE
Aquila
Alan and Sarah Bennett
Sat 28 Jun 2014 08:41
Friday 27 June. After our day’s excitement with (Nick and Judy)², we decided to enjoy a ‘lay day’ in Les Sables – especially as N&J C had asked us to supper at their gîte! In the morning, Nick kindly took us and the empty propane bottle to a couple of likely outlets, but as expected the UK type of refill bottles are not available in France. No worries, we should have enough in the other bottle to last us until back in UK.
Nick kindly collected us again in the evening in Judy’s open-toped Stag – travelling along the seafront accompanied by its throaty roar was another memorable event! A lovely alfresco meal prepared by Judy and Nick E with the Atlantic’ surf providing the visual and audio backdrop made for a perfect evening (photo) – complete with numerous ‘middle aged rants’: banks, US gun law, US capital punishment, dodgy catholic priests, EU, and tree preservation orders all came under the collective microscope! Thank you to all for such fun.
The following morning we slipped as planned and shaped a course to the NW. The forecast had promised WSW2-3, but when a shallow trough passed over us we were left with WbyN varying between F1 and 4. Thus the trip to L’Herbaudière at the northern tip of Isle Noirmoutier was mostly spent hard on the wind; but progress was generally good, and the early grey skies transformed to their usual clear blue. In an attempt to stop his hat blowing off, the skipper sported a new style (for him) (phot – hope you approve Marie!). We covered the 50 odd miles in nine hours, and felt our way into this charming sailing/fishing port in time for a cup of tea.
We will probably spend a couple of days here; the next real excitement is when Trisha and Sian join us on 3rd.
