Sunday 26^th August – Le Palais, Belle Ile – Port Joinville, Ile d’Yeu

46:43.629N 2:20.801W

Got out of bed not fully rested – the swell arrived at around 3.30am with high water and with the boats being so crammed together, Richard was up with the washing-up liquid to try to quieten the rope and fender squeaking.

There seemed to be a general waking up and departure around 10 and so we joined it; it was an interesting sight seeing the dismantling of the complicated berthing that the harbour master had arranged.  Everyone just cheerfully barged their way out, so we did too.

As we came out of the harbour we saw a yacht, about our size, with full sails up, with their fenders still out – unusual, so I started motoring past cautiously.  They called us over and asked for help; their battery was flat and so they couldn’t start their engine and in 4 knots of wind drifting on to a lee shore, they were not in good shape.  We took a rope from them and towed them clear of the shore and the harbour.  As the wind built to 8 knots away from shore, they said they were fine and so we let them go.  We then sorted out our fenders and warps, whilst motoring slowly away and keeping an eye on them - all was well.

The wind then built to about 18-20 knots and we close hauled for a couple of hours in it (quite hard sailing). As we cleared Belle Ile, we bore away towards Ile d’Yeu, a tiny island off the coast of France, and averaged 7 knots in F4-5 winds.

Ile d’Yeu is described in the Almanac as packed and that you should pre-book, so I called on the mobile and reserved a space in my best French (which has been improving).  Whatever I actually said, it worked, as we arrived and were escorted by the harbour master to a great alongside berth, facing the exit so that it is easy to get out.

We are now in South Biscay and as we leave South Brittany I reflect that it has given us tremendous sailing conditions, so much so that we haven’t spent a lot of time there as we have moved each day – as well as stunning scenery, it delivered good winds and little swell, we can recommend it.

This tiny island even has the shipping forecast for this area named after it so we are looking forward to exploring it tomorrow.