St Denis to St Martin de Re
The Voyages of Richard and Amanda
Sun 27 Jun 2010 20:09
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POS: 46:12.3N 001:22.07W
St Denis is beautiful, it is a small town about
three quarters of a mile from the marina; the houses are mostly whitewashed with
red clay tiled roofs looking very typically French. We walked into town to stock
up along a tree lined avenue. There is a fresh food market every morning and
quite a good supermarket - although they don't do bags!! so we ended up carrying
all our provisions back in cardboard boxes.
Went out for a meal and of course there aren't many
English down here so not much English is spoken, so guessing what is on the menu
is part of the adventure. So now I know that huitres are oysters and an assiette
of six huitres is a plate of six. This is rather ironic as two days before we
had been discussing seafood and how oysters was one thing I wasn't keen on.
Actually they weren't that bad although nothing like as good as they are
supposed to be. A watery blob of fish tasting nothingness. I'm glad I've had
them, but won't be re-ordering.
We stayed in St Denis one day longer than expected
because it was so beautiful. Also the high tide was getting one hour later each
morning so the extra day gave us an extra hour in bed. So on Friday we were up
at 6.30am to leave the harbour crossing the sill with plenty of depth. The last
thing I wanted to do was go aground on the way out on a falling tide. We tied up
to a mooring buoy outside just to have breakfast before setting off to St Martin
de Re on the Ilse de Re. This is a simple 15 mile sail in light winds in what is
basically a lake as we are surrounded by land with the various islands around
us.
St Martin was highly recommended by Carl and Mel so
we were quite looking forward to the experience. Once again the port is tidal
with a lock gate that only opens 3 hours before and 2.5 hours after HW. We tied
up to a waiting buoy to wait for the tide to rise. From the outside St Martin
was impressive with turreted walls surrounding the entrance. The harbour is
actually an old moat that has been blocked off at one end with a quay and the
other with a lock gate. So half the moat dries and the other half keeps the
water in. The harbour isn't particulary big and the pilot book warns it can get
busy. Of course we chose the weekend that the sailing club were holdinga big
regatta so as we came in through the lock, there was a torrent of French from
the harbour master and much waving of hands, none of which, apart from the
waving of hands we understood. Eventually someone on shore took pity on us and
explained he wanted us to tie up to the wall till the regatta boats had been
moored then he would fit us in.
I think we tied up to the wrong wall because
eventually he gave in and directed us to follow a small boat to a berth. So we
wind our way down between two trots of boats, stopping to allow another boat to
come out, when our guide shouted to reverse into the berth. Now I know the
theory of reversing into a berth but have never done it in practice and given
the choice would not have chosen my first time in front of hundreds of tourists
wandering along the quayside with nothing better to do than watch this English
skipper mess it up. First of all I had to turn the boat through 180
degrees on a sixpence so that the stern was
pointing the right way, then reverse down the channel between the boats
about 100 metres then come alongside another boat before stopping 1metre
from a brick wall. Nothing to it if you are used to mooring in the med where
everything is stern to, but it was new to me.
One of the problems with going backwards in Justine
Gabrielle is that you need to be moving quite fast in order to be able to steer,
fortunately the previous owners had fitted a bow thruster. This is a propellor
fitted to the front of the boat that can push it sideways to left or right so as
you are going backwards you can help yourself keep the boat lined
up. In the end I was concentrating so hard that I
never noticed anyone watching me, and apart from one bit where we had to stop,
go forward and restart backwards we got tied up without hitting anything!!!
(Amanda told me that there quite a few approving nods from the spectators
of my performance, before she disappeared below for a stiff drink drink to calm
her nerves)
St Martin is an out and out holiday town, the only
shops we could find were expensive boutiques and restaurants. Everyone is
walking around looking at the boats taking in the scenery. It is pretty
spectacular and the marina is right in the centre of it all. As we relax in the
cockpit with a well earned drink, passersby are walking by 5 metres away looking
at us, looking at them looking at us etc...
We went off for a stroll leaving Justine Gabrielle
tied to a group of 4 boats with their sterns to the wall. When we came back, the
regatta boats had arrived and basically you could hardly see any water. It was
possible to walk from one side of the harbour to the other stepping from boat to
boat. They were packed in 7 or eight across and about 6 deep. Fortunately they
were all the regatta boats so would be leaving the next morning on the morning
tide as there was no way we could have moved otherwise.
Saturday morning will be any early start to leave
before 8.00am to head north
More later...
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