Snork Maiden redux

Sorry all - blog is WAY behind but I promise I will finish it at home.  We are packing the boat to leave.  Huge heat here as everywhere.  Meanwhile - if you want to check out our trip photos https://plus.google.com/photos/101071641620402583976/albums/5881415925577166305?banner=pwa Au revoir.

--> Ars-en-Re 10 July 2013 We are still here in Ile de Re – the weather is fabulous – a proper summer at last!   We have spent the last two early evenings at the beach – nice swimming at high water when the sea has warmed up over the sand.   Gentle surf and we had a tiny beach to ourselves.   We cycle with rented bikes, around 6 kms – not so far, although all the cycle tracks on Re seem to go uphill!   On the way back we went into the village of Saint Clement des Baleines to checkout a restaurant and almost literally ran into a bus load of string players there to give a concert in the church.   So we ate and then went to the concert – some good guitar playing followed by a string quartet, and still light when we pedaled back to the boat after 10pm.   Ars-en-Re basin de la Cree Bird Reserve Sea lettuce on Grande Jonc beach The day before, we went to a beach at Les Portes and cycled back via the bird reserve.    There’s a video clip from th...

La Rochelle to Ars-en-Re  Ile de Re Monday, 8 July 13 La Rochelle now behind us.   We saw 3 films at the Festival – one a silent called TABU –   partly written by Robert Flaherty (Nanook of the North) and set in the South Pacific – Bora Bora. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022458/ It was accompanied by a player using a martenot and some other instruments.   The next film was a documentary about the martinot – so interesting – possibly the first electronic instrument with its own sound, launched in the 1930s by its maker and used in film scores, as well as specially composed music.   https://www.facebook.com/wavemakers.lechantdesondes On the last evening there was an outdoor showing of FINAL CUT, LADIES & GEMTLEMEN – a clever compilation of shots from features.   A bit of a one-trick pony, but fun for an outdoor screening. The weather is still consistent, with clear days and NE winds.   Yesterday we left at around 0945 on a falling tid...

--> Thursday, July 4, 2013   Just a short blog this morning.   The weather in Biscay is continuing to frustrate us – now more for the return journey than the outward.   The weather pattern in Biscay is for N winds until around the end of June, followed by Westerlies that can give a reach back to the French coast.   This just doesn't seem to be happening this year!  Having said that, we are also considering the shorter passage to Santander, given the possibilities of strong ENE poking around Finisterre and reaching its fingers towards Cabo Penas (next to Gijon).   We had a chat with a fisherman selling on the quay here – he is complaining about a lack of stability in the weather systems in recent years.   We bought 2 small bass for supper.   Yesterday was pretty drizzly – summer comes one day and goes the next!   In the afternoon we went for a walk through a nature reserve – important for migratory birds and full of flowers, snai...

--> 02/07/2013 9:14 PM Boyardville Hmm.   Where to start?   Two days ago we left St Denis d’Oleron and made for the North Western end of the island, still possibly going to Spain.   We took the view that we would poke our noses out into the Bay of Biscay and see how we felt about it.       The adventure began in the marina when our exit resembled an episode of the Navy Lark, with poor Snork Maiden cast as the long-suffering HMS Troutbridge.   On the trip from La Rochelle to Oleron, we had a problem with the wind vane steering – the rudder when released should fly out at 90º to the stern, enabling it to be captured and brought back on board.   It didn’t, so we fiddled around a bit with a chap next door who was a kind engineer with an easily accessible dinghy (I had just tied ours down, as if for an Atlantic crossing).   We slacked the offending nut and bolt & thought all would be good.   Ray (from our ‘home’ club of Star...