After a frisky sail out of Bourgeney, checking of course that other yachts had made it over the sill and out through the breaking swirling swell at the entrance we had a good sail all the way to La Rochelle. A tricky encounter with a manoeuvring cargo ship at the commercial port meant we dropped sails early but still had an enjoyable entrance into La Rochelle. We stayed for a week or so enjoying the company of Adrienne and Peter of Amazing Grace and proud new owners (or very nearly) of Grace, a beautiful Amel 50 they have commissioned as their home for the years to come. It's a great French holiday resort and we enjoyed a few days of real downtime and a little bit of sightseeing. We took a train ride to Cognac to visit the famous distillery and sample its wares. It was a very hot day and an unexpected delay of three hours on the return train ride left us a little hungry and thirsty. However we still don't particularly enjoy brandy! (See photos below)
On 23 July we left La Rochelle, heading for Rochefort, an ancient naval town at the navigable head of the Charante River. A beautiful river to motor up with some fascinating fishing conventions and a very tightly controlled locking system. We made it with plenty of time to enter the lock in and enjoyed another couple of days exploring the old rope works and Naval Museum. It was a hot few days so we escaped on 25th July heading for Ile D'Aix, Napoleon's last stop before being exiled to St Helena. Stayed over night on an inner buoy ( great taxi service) with the keel up and as we departed the next morning for St Denis d'Oleron trailing a lot of muddy water in our wake.
We stayed 3 days on Ile d'Oleron, probably our other most favourite island. We took a great cycle ride through the woods and around the coastline, climbed the lighthouse and walked miles through vineyards which we later found serviced the needs of the distilleries in Cognac and similar distilleries in the area. It is an interesting harbour to enter, impossible at low tide as it is possible to walk across the sands from one side to the other but sufficient water flows into the harbour fairly quickly to allow passage for any yacht or deeper keeled vessels to enter. So much more to explore on this island and 2 other marinas to try.
We departed St Denis sailing up under the huge bridge near La Rochelle and Ile de Re to the harbour of St Martin de Re. Another lock controlled entrance into the busy harbour in a beautiful old harbour and town. Very much a holiday island and too busy and hot for us to stay for long but worth exploring at another time.
Departing St Martin as soon as the lock opened we headed up to Les Sable d' Olonne arriving at the Quai Garnier on 30th July after a motor sail in lovely conditions.