47:01.512N 02:17.684W   L’Herbaudiere on Ile de Noirmoutier

7^th June, 2009

Today we have been hampered by the very strong wind and rain. There is no way we are putting to sea with the weather conditions as they are. The racers have not left port and seem a little unhappy.  They have planned for one week of racing.  Jim has been up in the night putting on more lines as the boats outside are bouncing around such a lot.

On Saturday there were very few shops open but today the fish shop is open and we have brought some hake to cook for dinner. The beautiful cake shop has a queue.  We can’t quite understand why they are closed on Saturday but Sunday most shops are open for trade. They all seem to have wonderful lunch hours when the shops are always closed from 12.30 to 2.30 or even 3.30 but all appear to close again around 6 even the bigger supermarkets.

Late afternoon we walked along the long beach from the marina to the next head land and back luckily missing the showers.  We passed some very expensive houses with their own steps down to the beach and a few had their little boats anchored off the beach which were bouncing back and forth with the waves.  Two very experienced wind surfers were having a great time and using the very strong wind to their benefit.