We spent 2 lovely nights at St. Martin de Ré. Our grumpy neighbour lightened up a bit and even helped my parents to cross his boat, though he insisted everyone go around the back of the boat, which necessitated everyone exiting through our cockpit, though this made things very social. Our Breton neighbours told us that is was fine since we are “cousins” so our giant Irish flag again came in handy!
We rented bikes and cycled to the quaint little town of Loix where we had some coffees and ice cream. The contrast was interesting,as on the way to Loix the tide was miles out and the marine landscape was a deep green whereas by the time we returned the tide was in, and the water was a beautiful aquamarine colour.
Ireland being Ireland we obviously bumped into Dungarvan friends walking through St. Martin!
The next morning we had a bit of a logistical nightmare as we had to get out of the wet harbour early with the tide and the open lock gate, but Tom and Anne and Michelle and Peter were flying home and Eabha was flying in later in the morning. This necessitated getting everyone off the boat early and breaking up the raft and negotiating the very narrow harbour exit. Exit achieved flawlessly, we braved the choppy conditions to get the boat secured on a mooring well out from the harbour and then returned to the port in the dinghy.
Having seen off crew 2 and welcomed Éabha, we headed back out to the boat and headed to Rivedoux to anchor in the company of our new friends from ‘Rijac’ and Tomás had a whale of a time Stand Up Paddling with their daughters.
We had a slightly sticky situation when the current picked up and when I swam back to our boat to get the dinghy, I discovered that I couldn’t make it, but luckily I was able to retrieve everyone with the SUP and then was able to paddle to get the dinghy.
We then said our goodbyes and set sail for La Flotte. The wind had picked up to 20kn+and passing under the bridge, due to wind against tide, a very steep, short chop developed. The wind was against us any way so we decided to pull in the head sail and motor upwind. There were lots of kite surfers and one, made a very close pass off the stern and shouted Vivre l’Irlande”, so the ridiculously large Irish flag is working!
Coming into La Flotte at HW the staff had all gone home so no one was answering on Ch9. There are three drying spaces on hammerheads in the outer harbour and 2 on the right at the inner harbour. We took the space nearest the harbour entrance. One of the other visitors kindly warned me in French that the berth would dry out.
La Flotte is absolutely gorgeous and has previously won most beautiful town in France. Beautiful shops, restaurants and people. There are cobbled streets and every alley is a photo opportunity. Only 750k for a small townhouse here! It wasn’t the most relaxing sleep as I had to get up at 2am to adjust my ropes and again at 5 as the dinghy had floated under the stern and the boat was listing.
