River Charente

Monday, June 23, 2008
Maiden Snork
Rochefort

River Charente

This morning we had a visitor - there will be a picture if I don’t run out of time!
This is a quick blog due to an expensive time limited wifi connection!

We spent a couple of nights on a buoy off Ile d’Aix at the weekend and came up the River Charente yesterday. Ile d’Aix is a few miles from La Rochelle and Al’s mother has childhood memories of visiting the island so he was keen to re-visit it. We hired bikes with funny wide handlebars and no gears! There is a lot of shade from pines, but not much in the way of swimming beaches. There was a huge wedding going on with lots of uncomfortably hot people in suits and small children crying.

Our second night was interesting - an electric storm in the early hours of the morning then a 0730 take off next morning for the Charente river. It was high tide so the bar (shallow bit) almost un-noticeable except for a slight ruffle in the water. The river flowed fast but was very pretty with reeds and fishing huts on the banks. Fish eagles too, hunting over the banks.

We made a stop at a small town called Soubise, so that we could wait out the time until the lock opened at Rochefort. Interesting mooring situation with a fast-flowing river coming down towards us, shoving us off the pontoon, and the wind blowing us on. The 2 more-or-less cancelled each other out so we had an uneventful entry. Leaving was a bit more exciting, with a stout Frenchman helping. No-one can resist offering an opinion! The problem was the reverse of coming in, with the wind tending to keep us where we were, and the river wanting to push us up onto the next boat. It would have gone very well if I had remembered to put the engine in gear. Al and the stout chap managed to hold us off the boat in front while I located my brain. You’ll be delighted to know that Rochefort was less problematic and much more dignified.

Rocheforte also has the very exciting Transbordeur bridge - pylons either side of the river, with a clearance of 50 metres for tall boats to go in and out. There is a sort of girder thing over the river, and a sort of cage takes pedestrians from one side to the other.

Rochefort is a slightly run-down kind of place with a Louise XIV history and a huge rope works and dry docks for building wooden ships. Not much more than 100 years since they were scrapped to make way for the modern age. More and more realising how fast things can change and do.

The yacht harbour here is surrounded by quite grand, but mainly disused buildings. Like most of the marinas we have been to, it is owned and run by the town or commune and its Mairie. They seem to be well-managed, the showers usually work and the Capitanerie staff are very nice and helpful. We got the spot we asked for and a free re-useable bag of tourist info. Charges vary from around 4 to 18 € per night for a boat our size and the third night is often free!

The lock opens tomorrow at 0915 so early night to get ready for the sea - well, the river, then the sea…