Sandy bottoms in Noirmoutier
A year afloat: to the Caribbean and back
Sam and Alex Fortescue
Thu 9 Sep 2010 22:45
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47:00.61N
002:12.88W There were lots of things I wanted to tell you
about. But the fact of the matter is there's only one thing that matters now:
the tide.
We're aground, you see. Not by much, you
understand; Summer Song is still mostly bobbing about. But the keel is in the
sand, there's no doubt. "Oh, four-and-a-half metres is fine," I told Alex
confidently when we anchored at sunset in a bay of Ile de Noirmoutier called
"Plage des Dames". The tide today is the largest of the year and falls over 6m
between its top and its bottom. But we were already halfway down the tide (more
or less), so 4.5m below the keel should have been fine. It's the 'more or less'
that gets you every time.
On the plus side, it's a starry, windless night.
And we saw the armchair in which a Royalist general was shot by the Republicans
after the French Revolution. He was defeated in battle, but too unwell to stand,
so they carried his chair outside, and... His rather glorious armchair has four
conspicuous round holes in the back.
We've had a cracking day cycling round the island.
We stopped in the capital for an icecream - they had no fewer than 40 different
flavours, of which 6 or 7 were various takes on chocolate. I hesitated between
the praline and the nutella, then went for both.
We also saw the island's principal defensive
feature: a small castle with an oubliette. Never has name seemed more apt.
'Oublier' means to forget, and this little prison, twice the height of a man and
two metres from side to side - all underground and kept in the dark - must have
made its inmates doubt they;d see the light of day again.
It's low tide very shortly, so with luck we'll
start rising again soon. Ask any of your sailing friends if they've ever run
aground, and they'll no doubt change the subject. For the smaller fry reading
this: ask the Gaffer - he'll tell you many a tale of unexpected rocks and sandy
seabeds...
Oh, and we've got bicycles in the
cockpit.
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