Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink – So said Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” – eau dear! (Please ‘xcuse the pun!)
Île-D’Yeu – St Gilles Croix-en-Vie – Les Sables D’Olonne – Bourgenay Friday 3rd – Sunday 5th July
Days 41 – 43
On Friday, the plan for the day was to spend the morning cycling around the NW of the Île-D’Yeu and back to port via the Grand Phare (lighthouse) and the Citadel, then to pack up and leave by 1430, heading for St Gilles Croix-de-Vie.
A small puddle had been appearing around the base of the housing for the water pump and this needed investigating. Touching the joints and pipes only made things worse; Bob had gone to the shops to buy a few last minute things, so I was left wondering what best to do. Thankfully he soon returned, and being quite handy with plumbing, was able to take off the bit of pipe where the trickle came from. Nothing really looked untoward, so he clipped it all back together and checked the water tank – which was super low. So we filled up with water (210 litres), but the leak was still happening…
Further investigation lead us to take the whole pump off. Dismantling this wasn’t so great, as the inwards pipe to the pump now freely ran with all the new water that we put into the tank. With quite a lot of PTFE tape (plumbers self-amalgamating tape) – a lot of tape doesn’t make masses of difference – the pump and pipes were re-assembled and the leak continued. Please check the tank to see how much water is left in it – not much by now, as we had shipped it all out via the washing-up bowl. Bob diagnosed the problem as needing new “O” rings. We decided that we would just have to put up with the leak until we could get the rings. (We carry so much stuff to mend the boat for that “just in case” – but no O rings).
So, we decided to re-fill the water tank. However, with all the frenzy and too-ing and fro-ing, I failed to replace and secure the cap on top of the tank. So there we were merrily filling up the tank, and the boat with water! If I was grumpy before, I was very grumpy now! Bailing out and sending things up onto the deck to dry out was not on my list today. Most would say – well just pump out on the bilge pump – yet another “not working item of equipment” and a bilge is a greasy, disgusting place – one where it seems impossible to get rid of the smell of diesel. Another job onto the list…
By the time we were able to leave, it was 1600 and there wasn’t enough wind to sail, certainly at first; so for 2 hours we tanked along on the engine towards St Gilles Croix-de-Vie. This is a 15 nautical mile trip, which at average speed of 5 knots should take 3 hours.
The coast of Île-D’Yeu
Approaching St Gilles Croix-en-Vie
We pulled in around 1920 to be greeted by a welcoming Port Lady in a dory and had to raft up alongside another boat, which is par for the course when one arrives in the evening, as most people have got there before you. The place was quite jolly with a funfair going on along the front.
Saturday 4th July dawned hot and sunny (already) and again little wind. We moved our boat forward along the pontoon, as people were leaving and our inside boat also wanted to depart.
Our mission was to find a shop to buy the O rings – on Saturdays most of the shops close by 1230 and don’t re-open again ‘til Monday. Off we went on our Bromptons about three miles to an out-of-town shopping centre to locate the Bricolage. This was simply a vast store; we had looked up the French for O Rings – Joint Torique (you learn something every day!) and could ask where they were in the store.
Locating a packet of varying sizes, we hot-pedalled (via the super-market) back to the boat and fitted a new O ring on both sides of the pump.
This time we didn’t lose too much water and the leak had completely stopped – hurrah!
The tide had gone out and we had a delicious lunch of baguette and Bulots (dog whelks) with lemon juice squeezed over them and a cold drink. We had once again put things out to dry; so soon packed everything up, go the bikes on board and departed for an afternoon sail to Les Sables-D’Olonne.
Au revoir to St Gilles, and what a cracking sail it was too!
We averaged between 6 – 7.5 knots in speed (that’s 6 – 7.5 nautical miles per hour) mostly on a beam reach (this is where the wind is at right angles to the boat and is the fastest point of sailing). Later we altered our course slightly and the wind was further abaft the beam (to the back of the boat) and we were running before the wind. The wind was about a force 4 (NW) when we started, building to a force 6 (26 knots across the deck), so quite testing.
“Long sleeves” weather for today’s sailing!
Les Barges light, near to Le Sables – 25m high!
On entering Les Sables, there was quite a bit of activity in the port (when isn’t there?) and a motorboat that could quite get out of our way. (We did avoid it, of course!) All this when you’re not very sure where you will be going but the two Port dories were occupied with trying to sort the motor boat out… it had lost its propulsion. We had spied a place (the only place) and decided to go for it. The wind would be blowing us off, so we had to be pretty quick. Luckily there were a few people on this pontoon to take our lines – I didn’t clock this at first, but they were from the Douanerie (customs)!
This is us approaching Le Sables-D’Olone which was originally famous for its amazingly glorious and vast beach has become latterly well-known as a sailing centre for the renowned Vendee Globe – around the world sailing race which starts and finishes here every four years.
It has been an important port since 1218 and during the 13th century some impressive fortifications were built; nowadays it has a population of about 50,000. It is also a centre for CAVAC – a French Agricultural Cooperative and for salt. It has two yacht basins and good facilities including free use of washing machines (note to self!).
We were told that we weren’t in the best place, but as it was so windy and now quite late, the Port Lady didn’t want to move us on the proviso that we would move/leave quite promptly in the morning. Some pictures from our evening stroll:
This place was heaving! The bars were packed and after our dinner on board, we strolled out to the beach and back through town, where it became totally apparent that the IronMan event for the next morning was being set up – this is rather like a triathlon I think – involving swimming, cycling and running. Then it clicked – France were playing this evening in the Football World Cup and anywhere with a Screen was ram-jam-packed. The match started at 2300; France were playing Paraguay. A huge roar of cheering went up later when they scored the only goal of the match. The fisherman go out early in the morning – about 0500 and the wash from their boats gives us all a touch of rock’n’roll – so not the best night’s sleep that I’ve had!
Sunday 5th July
Once again the day dawned with not a breath of wind, gin-clear skies and the heat from the sun quite noticeable. The Port Lady wasn’t too bothered with us and we had to think about whether we wanted to stay or go. It was loud and crowded; people were cheering their IronMan people on with hooters and their voices. So we made an escape, under engine to Bourgenay, about 5 miles down the coast. We didn’t even bother with the sails, just motored down which meant that we would arrive about 2 hours before low water (LW) – enough for us to get in; Bimini shade up, hats on the whole way. Izzy (our self-steering girl) wasn’t a happy bunny though – to be added to the list of jobs! We arrived at around 1345 and made for the fuelling berth, helped by a fellow sailor from “Whiskey Mac”, who we got to know later.
In the afternoon, I caved in to a snooze; Bob decided that he would disassemble Izzy… so I wasn’t allowed to sleep for too long. But, the prize was to help put her all back together. We tested her and she looked OK – the real test will be when we put to sea.
Our neighbouring boat came along and asked if we would like to come and have a drink with them in about twenty minutes – how lovely! We quickly went ashore to book in to the Capitainerie, which I proudly managed virtually all in French – phew!
David and Elaine have kept their boat down here for several years now; they are from N Ireland and it was very nice to get to know them.
Classic evening sunset over Bourgenay.
Tonight England are playing in the world cup, so Bob had gone to bed early, to get up at 0130, now he’s sorted his VPN to watch the match live. We had a boat arrive and raft up alongside Boni in the meantime and now it is 2340, so I am going to bed with my ear plugs firmly in place!