Isle d’Oleron, Gijon

2 – 8 May

We finally left La Rochelle on the 2nd May for a short motor (no wind) over to St Denis on the Isle d’Oleron. On the trip over we tested out the steering, checked the compass and generally checked over the boat, ensuring everything was ready for the long trip to Spain the next day.

Departed from France on Sunday 3rd May and set sail for Spain. The first half of the trip was fairly windy and we had a good sail, although Anne especially was suffering from nausea and lack of sleep. We had to motor for around 9 hours when the wind dropped, but sailed for the last few hours, arriving in Gijon around 11.00 am on 5th May – a trip of 46 hours.

Gijon is a large town, mostly having been rebuilt having been destroyed in the Spanish civil war, much of it in the original early 20th century style, with only a small older area remaining from before that time.

First impressions - the Spanish are generally very friendly and helpful. We are only just beginning to learn the language, but many speak some English and those that don’t are tolerant of our lack of Spanish and help us with attempts at speaking it and the pronunciation. Also, Spanish women are generally dressed very stylishly – Anne definitely feels she needs new clothes!!

Whilst in Gijon we had a very enjoyable day out to Oviedo, the capital of Asturias. A lovely city with much early 20th century architecture in the new town and an old quarter full of historic and attractive buildings as well as a large and bustling market.

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La Rochelle - Winter 2008-09

25 September 2008 – 1 May 2009

We settled down and soon met a number of other liveaboards who were also staying in La Rochelle over the winter. We started swapping books, joining each other for tea/coffee and drinks, and helping each other with advice and assistance on a wide variety of problems and jobs on the boats.

We were encouraged by the others to make the repairs to our pedestal ourselves, with parts manufactured and welded by a local machine shop. With a great deal of assistance (by Frank on Shalini) we went ahead with the repair. The machine shop did a fantastic job on manufacturing new parts and welding; the pedestal has been reassembled by Frank & Jim, the paint system applied by Anne and allowed to harden for a couple of weeks, and the steering was reinstalled by Jim and is now in good working order.

In December we spent a couple of days in Paris with Frank & Judy – a day walking around enjoying Paris and the Christmas lights, and a day at the Paris Boat Show.

During the winter (November and January) we had a couple of visits to England to see family and friends – fortunately missing all the snow and ice.

At the end of March we visited Roger and Val (who we had met in South Brittany) at their home in Saintes. They made us very welcome and we had a lovely time. They showed us both Saintes and a nearby walled town called Brouage, both of which are very attractive and interesting places.

At the end of April we had a couple of days out – to Rochefort and St Martin on the Isle de Re. Both very enjoyable but quite different. Rochefort is a typical French town with a naval dockyard full of historic buildings; St Martin is a very picturesque walled island town with many tourists even this early in the year.

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