Heading South Saturday 27th – Monday 29th June – Days 35 – 37
La Roche Bernard to La Turballe, Ile-de-Noirmoutier & on to the Île-D’Yeu
The premier plan for our June – July sailing was to get to Spain and back. Hmm… that’s not long to get there and back, and explore; the weather – a big question mark and to be honest, neither of us were really feeling it. We have our boat here ‘til autumn next year – so I think we will have a longer slot for this kind of trip in 2027. Also, we were wanting to take a bit of time go south and discover the delights of the western seaboard of France and it’s islands that we have heard so much about.
Saturday morning dawned cool, grey with a bit of rain and no wind to speak of – at least it was heaps cooler. A stipulation of the Capitainerie is for us to leave the car in its official car-park – 1.5kms away. Not far, and this allowed a quick walk past the main boulangerie in town for a baguette (mandatory, but quite a long queue).
We slipped our lines and we were off! A quiet motor down the Vilaine which is a beautiful, rural river with plenty of wildlife to observe – gannets and swans a-plenty. We were keen to re-fuel before the lock at Arzal, which we had booked for 1100. It takes about an hour to get there and the fuelling on a 24h fuel pontoon proved to be straight forward (thank goodness – normally it takes a couple of goes, but not today!) and then we looked up to see that the green light was on at the lock, meaning that we could enter the lock tout suite! This was great and altogether, there were only three of us wanting to transit through today.
Every silver lining has a cloud, doesn’t it? This meant that there wouldn’t be enough (depth of) water to continue down to the sea and we would have to wait an hour. At 12 noon we could get going again and the open sea beckoned; the rain showers and greyness began to disperse, the westerly wind came in and the sails went up!
La Turballe is about 13 nautical miles to the SE, around the Pen Ar Ran peninsula and we had quite a reasonable sail down although the wind came and went a bit. But we didn’t much care – we were en route and that is what mattered. At La Turballe we were greeted by a welcoming party from the Capitainerie and taken to a berth. It was warm and sunny and we were quite hot! After eventually booking in (they seemed a bit disorganised) we headed for the beach with our swimmers for a refreshing dip, from the edge of the most amazing beach. 
We had a wander into town which was quite lively and busy and spied some interesting drainpipes on the way to the super market the next day. We were planning to stay for another day, but had a quick look at the weather… Sunday’s wind was too much to turn down.
We left at a reasonable time on Sunday morning, the NW wind was blowing about 9 – 11 knots, perfect for our passage, 23 nautical miles to Port L’herbaudiere on the Ile-de-Noirmoutier.
We sailed close to a wind farm and through some very shallow waters (which dry at LW), across the “Embouchure de la Loire”. Here we had to watchout for the seemingly flow of ships leaving St Nazaire… only to discover most of them were at anchor! We arrived at the Port L’herbaudiere just after 1600 – no place to go unless you raft, so we had a look around the opposite side of the V (visiteurs) pontoon and our luck was in – one free berth – and in we went! We checked in to the Bureau de Port to discover that our Passport Escales ticket did not cover this place. Once in a while it’s OK to pay, as so many of the ports we are visiting are included on our contract. The harbour front here was geared up for tourists/visitors – many bars and beach shops. The question we mulled over a drink was should we stay or should we go? Bob cooked a delicious pasta dinner: 
After checking the weather, another day of great sailing wind beckoned and this made up our minds – we should leave at 0800 to make the most of the tide with our next objective being Port Joinville on the Île-D’Yeu. The wind didn’t disappoint giving up 9 – 13 knots from the NW. We left at the same time as two other yachts (always a feel-good factor) and we bowled along in the sunshine as another wind farm came into view. A lot of this was down-wind sailing, on one gybe or the other (goose-winging really wasn’t an option as the swell from the Atlantic was generous at about 2.5-3m). It’s always interesting coming into a new port and getting yourself orientated. We had recently joined the Vilaine River chat on WhatsApp which warmed us that there would be a rally in Port Joinville and to get in early. We arrived at about 1400 and really there were not too many boats around, so we could berth easily.
By about 1600, the boats started coming in and the whole of the harbour filled up, sailing boats squeezing in and rafting up wherever they could. Apparently the rally had been undertaking a “round the island race” today.
We came ashore to the Bureau de Port, and I stumbled on in my broken French to be greeted by a Scottish lady at the desk who saved my struggle with the language (Duolingo is going ok, but it has it’s limitations). She explained that if we wanted to stay for a few days, then we should use our Passport Escales ticket after 1st July (as the prices go up!)
Port Joinville is the main port for the Île-D’Yeu – for ferries, large ships, fishing boats and sailing boats – a real mixed economy and a great busy buzz about the place. We strolled into town to get the feel of the place – here it is relaxed and quite a different easy vibe – difficult to articulate – you just have to come! Easy to get an ice cream and iced tea.
We plan to stay for a few days – so more later!