My next destination is La Rochelle 46 08.83N 01 10.11W but before that just
a few comments about Pornic.Pornic is a very pretty place and has a chateau
and a church and really thats about it. If you are a beachy type of person
there are lots of little beaches scattered around and, of course, you can
travel into the French countryside. After a week here I had studied the
tourist office, the railway station and the shops, so now what. There seems
to be a lack of technology, they all look blank when you say "Cybercafe" or
"Internet" I expect they all have it at home but its not available publicly.
After two weeks I was ready to go but the wind had got up, and it seemed a
lttile unwise to leave, I stayed a further week, and decided to leave on
Tuesday 15th at about midday to arrive at L.R. at about 14.00 (High Tide)
the following day.
Monday the sea was coming over the marina wall.
Tuesday was a little better and the forecast said easing off during the
afternoon and evening, I pottered until about midday and then set off. To
get out of the bay I had to head straight into the wind so off I went. At
one point I saw a boat coming towards me surfing down the waves, but I was
going into it and at one point, for the first time since I've had this boat,
the sea came rolling up the deck at me, I failed to duck because it was the
first time, and got soaked for my trouble.
Once I got out of the bay and turned onto my southwards heading it got
slightly easier and I was chugging along at about 5kts. Life was easy,
nothing happening, noone in site,but a ittle bumpy, when after about 6 hours
the boat suddenly started making circles to port, the three week old ST2000+
had given up the ghost and was having a fit. I spent about half an hour
trying to get it back into life but finally gave up and put my ST1000+ back
on. This proved adequate and that my system was not broken just the pilot.
Raymarine tell me to send the pilot back to Fareham for a warranty
check/fix, but how do I get it back and how do I steer without it?
The ST1000+ looked after me for the rest of the way. I eased the speed down
to about 3kts during the night and by daylight found the Isle of Rhe in
sight. Shortly after the laptop decided to crash, there was very little
effect in this it just meant I lost my second by second updates, so what, I
could see where I was going. The sea was still a little bumpy but had eased
off considerably since the previous day and was almost comfortable.
I arrived off L.R. at about 10.00 two hours earlier than I had wanted. I did
some calculations and reckoned there would be 1.89m of water in the entrance
to L.R. so I headed in very slowly. There might have been 1.89m of water but
the waves took a good 0.4m off that so I hit the bottom and got stuck. I
wasn't exactly stuck, because each wave was lifting me and pushing me
further in to the shore, after a short while I realised I would be on the
shore soon unless I did something, so instead of anchoring I put on some
power and when the wave lifted me I moved slowly outwards, evetually I was
lifted over the last rock and suddenly had speed. I made haste to the deeper
water and circulated with the other boats which had collected there. I
followed them into L.R. at about 13.00, an hour earlier than planned even
so.
L.R. had sold out to an event but I berthed where I shouldn't have and went
and booked in. Acording to the office there literally was no room at the
inn, but when I looked at the visitors pontoon that night I counted at least
a dozen spaces, ho hum! Next morning they wanted to raft me up against
another boat for two weeks so I went and had a look and found me a finger
berth which the owner was willing to let me have for my time. I think I've
upset the boat next door because it is a tight fit and two days later he
came and took his boat awayand he hasn't been back since.
And thats about that, how I got to La Rochelle.
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