L’Herbaudiere, France

Despite the wind still blowing 20-24 knots from the West, we felt we had to get out of Pornic.  Unfortunately Pornic is 10 miles into a West-facing bay, so with a reef in the main and the engine on, we set off with intentions of getting round to Ille d’Yeu, 30 or so miles away.

However, an hour out, the conditions were pretty bad.  There was a little ebb tide which was kicking up the waves and with a Westerly swell, it meant that there were large and steep waves, and coupled with the F5 we were motoring into, it wasn’t particularly nice.  I took the decision to change course for L’Herbaudiere, a small port on the Northern tip of Ile Nourmoutier, and we reached shelter an hour and a half later and had a bottle of wine with our lunch as compensation for the rough passage.

L’Herbaudiere is lovely.  We were rafted 5 boats out, (which was fine with us as it is sociable) and they even gave us a discount as we were rafted so far out!  Lots of other boats were obviously sheltering from the weather here as well, to the extent that a returning fishing trawler had a real squeeze to fit past the rafted boats (now 6 deep) to get back to his berth.  Only neat work with his bow thrusters saved us from being squished!

Tight manouevres in L’Herbaudiere harbour

Nutmeg from up the mast

We found a beach to spend the afternoon on.  We have noticed that a lot of kids younger than Emilia are very proficient cyclists.  A lot of the families teach their kids to cycle on the beach where the sand makes for an easier fall.

Jemima in her fortress, L’Herbaudiere

Whilst we were in L’Herbaudiere, we noticed the following yacht – “Wife of Pi” – registered in Dublin, and wondered if Ben Cooke (or indeed Sarah Webb!) have anything to tell us?

Too much of a coincidence, surely?