1st July 2008

Hey!!! blogging again!!

Don't really know why I don't update his during the winter but it just seems to be a boaty, travelling thing!

We went back to Havorn at the beginning of July. She had survived winter without any problems. so it was nothing more than a general clean and spruce up before we were ready to launch. We launched into the River Vilaine in south Brittany. It is a beautiful river with about 25 miles of navigable water for yachts with masts up!

So, june has been very peaceful ......we haven't even left the river! we ahve spent a lot of time at Foleux - a tiny hamlet with a marina and a restaurant!! Now you know why we stay there! We have also pottered up and down the river - anchoring in tiny inlets, tying up at little wharfs....so relaxing!

Paul has tried his hand at fishing - but has found it very frustrating this year. his maggots seem to have lost their appeal!! He was also rather put off when I saw two men land a Selure [type of catfish] which was about 2 metres long!! even it's mouth was about 40 cms wide! so swimming is definately OFF!

We ahve had the car with us and made a couple of trips down to La Briere, a natural wetland park. the first day was blistering hot and we saw very few birds - then just as we were leaving a stork came and settled in the field next to us and we sat watching it catch and eat frogs!!! On the second visit we notched up a more impressive list - storks, egrets, night herons, herons, marsh harriers, hen harriers, short eared owl, fly catchers, whiskered terns and lots of warblers that I can't identify!?! Still desperate to see the spoonbills but they keep hiding from me!

Will now keep this up to date, I hope!

10th September

Golfe du Morbihan

Amazing!! Always wanted to come here, read lots about it....and now we are here!! Last few days of August were a bit too busy, but, in France, when the holidays end they really do end! So now we see very few boats and its just bliss!! We anchor off little islands; row ashore each morning to stroll to the baker for our bread; sit in the sun; visit quaint fishing villages........phew!!

in one village we learnt about their industry - breeding oysters! they dont farm oysters as such, just develop th eyoung to sell on to the bigger oyster farms that are everywhere on this coast. The breeding is very old industry and we saw the old huts were people used to work - they had stacks of roof tiles which were first soaked in lime, then stacked on oak frames inthe sea water. It was the womens work to then scrape the tiles to remove the baby oysters.

We had trouble identifying another bird!! this one doesnt even exist in any of my bird books. I have found out a bit - apparantly it is an ibis, a royal or sacrred ibis(only seen the name in french). It comes from Africa, dont know if they came themselves or have been introduced - but they are everywhere! We often see flocks fly over in early evening. Still trying to find out more.

Frankie joined us yesterday...........all good!!!

end of August

sorry to have been rather slow in blogging but access has not been easy!!I have adde one from earlier inn Auggust but it is quite out of date.

So.... we rae now in Vannes in the Gulfe de Morbihan. Paul and I first decided to come here in 1978!! taken some time but here at last! We plan to spend some time exploring the creeks and islands of this inland sea.

Hope to post more blogs later.

august

6th August
August already?? My, how time flies!!!
Well, we seem to avoided the worst of the weather – but it hasn’t been exactly good in Biscay! We were woken early (well, early for us!!) one morning by the harbour master knocking on the boat. We had to move quickly to a more secure berth as force 10 gales were imminent!! It certainly howled a hooley, but force 10? Probably not!
We have seen thunder storms like never before; had rain at some time most days; very strong winds and horrible rolling rough seas…………..but it’s not been terrible and we certainly have no complaints! And, since August began, it’s been our ideal weather – lots of sunshine, warm but not too hot, good sailing winds.
So, after a slow start, we are now in Brittany! We have come inland again for a few days on the River Vilaine. This is such a pretty river – we came through the locks at the barrage so we are on fresh water again and Paul’s fishing rods are once more revved up and ready for action!!!
Last week we stayed in a fascinating port of Le Croisic – this is a very lively fishing port. One of the things that makes it special is that after entering the river, it then opens out into a huge bay which completely dries to yellow sand at low water. There is a tiny marina, most of which also dries. A strange choice? We went there because before leaving work we bought boat legs!! For two years we have carried them but lacking the courage to try them out we hadn’t even fitted them! So, being once more in tidal waters we decided to have a go. We started off lying against a quay side with one leg supporting the boat on the other side – this went well so we then dried out and stood on legs in the drying marina…all good!! At low water it was a wonderful place to explore by dinghy and foot – just like land farmers, there are ‘fields’ of mussels and oysters; the ‘farmers’ drive out in tractors to ‘harvest’ their ‘crops’!! Fascinating.
Bird life? Despite our efforts we have not yet seen a spoonbill! But we saw a stork sitting on it’s nest atop of a pole as we came down the Charente; we sat and enjoyed a fantastic air show by Black Winged Stilts and Avocets on the Ile d’Oleron; watched a Hoopoe feeding on newly cut grass; lost count of Egrets; sailed with Gannets diving in front of the boat and with Storm Petrels skimming through the waves around us…………but we haven’t seen a spoonbill!

1st July

All at sea………….

We finally left the Gironde! It gave us a mighty kick up the pants as we left with very rough seas near the entrance! We, including the dog, just [JUST] managed to keep our breakfasts down! And so we entered Biscay.

It was over 50 miles to sail from Royan to the Ille d’Oleron – you have to go right round the outside of the island and then come back round the other side. Our first port of call was St Denis. This island is really a beach lover’s paradise, and as the beaches are doggy friendly, Dom is in paradise!!!

All the other ‘yotties’ are eagerly off, cycling round the island every day. But, as one of our bikes was stolen last year, we are forced to take a leisurely stroll to the nearest beach and spend a relaxing afternoon watching the world go by. Shame???? [Paul is truly devastated???]

The weather, like the rest of Europe, is far from settled. Warm, but not quite as warm as you’d expect; cloudy; windy; lots of showers – but preferable to the blistering, humid heat we had a few weeks ago. We still manage to eat all of our meals in the cockpit and live in shorts and tee shirts so we can’t complain!

There are lots of places to explore in this area including Rochefort and La Rochelle plus other island harbours, so………………..

The things we do forfun??????

Crane driver!?

Now I never thought for one moment that after giving up teaching I might become a crane driver!!! But last week, I did! Well, sort of…………….

Having arrived at Bordeaux and left the low bridges of the canal behind us, we needed to put the mast up again. We had heard it could be done in the locks at Bordeaux. What we hadn’t really realised was, that they simply gave you the key to the crane and left you to get on with it!!!!

Luckily [I just knew it wouldn’t be easy] we [I] had recruited the help of Alan who had come down the river at the same time as us. Hoping for the easiest option, I was the crane operator, leaving Paul and Alan to do the tricky stuff with the mast and rigging. Really, all I had to do was turn the crane handle as directed…but there were some tricky moments and lots of ups and downs……………..but we did it!

So, now we are a proper yacht again!

But, crane driving will not be my next carreer move!!!

25th JUNE

What a difference this time!!!

We left Castet en Dorthe and entered the mighty Garonne on Monday 18^th June. After our previous experience we were terrified to say the least! In fact, we postponed our planned departure [Sunday] because we were unable to make a certain arrangement for a place to stay in Bordeaux – we felt that we needed to be sure where we were going as turning around in such a strong tide is not always an option.

Fortunately, we need not have worried, well not too much anyway!! The sun was warm and we seemed to glide down the river with the tide under us all the way. The river was smooth and elegant – nothing like the raging torrent we remembered!! The banks were alive with ‘wildlife’ – most notably, red kites that were swooping down for fish right in front of us – we lost count of the number we saw, certainly more than 30!!

At Bordeaux the river changes it’s name to the Gironde as you pass under Pont St Pierre – from here it is officially ‘sea’ rather than river. We had an anxious moment under the bridge as the water boiled through the narrows - we were grateful for our powerful engine as we [Paul] struggled to keep control, but in a moment we were through and all was well. But, so much for our careful planning…..the waiting pontoon was being used by a water taxi which took up all the available space! The tide by now was almost slack, so we were able to go back to another pontoon to wait for the locks to open.

At dusk we locked into the safe, calm waters of the dock. The sky was amazing as dark thunder clouds piled up above us – they picked up the colour of the sunset and turned blood red! We expected a big hand to reach down at any moment!?! No sooner were we tied up than the storm [storms in fact] began – for 2 hours we had the most spectacular lightening……but no rain! Strange!

16th June

I have been struggling to access my blog site which, it seems, now belongs to google………..hence the delay!

Exactly two weeks now since leaving Castelsarrasin. And, we’ve been very busy doing very little! By the time we travel a bit, ‘do’ a few locks, shop, walk the dog, bit of boat cleaning and maintenance……….well, there’s hardly any time left for fishing!!! It’s just amazing how easily the days are filled.

The canal is also very sociable. Just by being on it grants you membership of a kind of fellowship! Everybody knows somebody that you have met, or has been where you have been, or wants to know what its like at somewhere you have been already, and so on. We pass many a happy hour over a beer or a bottle sharing canal/boat chats.

Our route included stops at Moissac, Buzet, Villeton, Mas d’Argenais, Meilhan and Fontet. We are now sitting at Castet en Dorthe, at the very end of the canal, and contemplating the next step back onto the mighty Garonne which gave us such a hard time on the way up!!! The weather has been varying between blazing hot and heavy rain – this has meant that the rivers have been in flood, but have settled down a bit now [hopefully] – we’ll see what tomorrow brings!?!

26th may 2007

Bird News

Our interest in wildlife in general, but birds in particular has really ‘taken off’ [excuse the pun] during the last two years of ‘freedom’ – so the following bits may be of interest….

• Black redstarts – the village is full of them!! They disappeared during the winter and came back in March. They even come onto the patio. In fact there is one sitting twittering on the telephone wires outside my window as I write
• Hoopoes – they are the ones with a long black beak, a fan shaped crest and they are very colourful. Mostly we catch just glimpses of them as they fly into or out of woodland – but on lucky days we see them up close. They appear to breed in this area and we love to catch sight of them – it’s become a kind of competition!!!
• Big Buzzards!?? – it’s now a project to try to be able to identify birds of prey. Sometimes it’s obvious, but often we see something big [very big even] and struggle!! There are some very big birds here, certainly they are not all buzzards! We have so far identified Black kites and Red Kites. There are Eagles but we need to be sure whats what here!! But the next one was a certain…..
• Griffon Vulture!!! – we went to the Tran Gorges for a day out earlier this month. We took the bird books as part of our ‘Big Buzzards’thing. As we approached the gorge, just as the road started to descend, something ENORMOUS started to circle in front of us. Paul stopped the car and we watched in amazement as this thing glided within about 20 yards of us. I frantically tried to decide which ‘big buzzard’ it could be, certain that it must be some kind of Eagle – but nothing matched and I blamed the book!! Later, we sat and watched it again – in frustration, I said to paul that the only thing in my book that it resembled was a Griffin Vulture and it couldn’t possibly be that so my book was firmly closed in disgust. We then went into the postcard shop which was stacked with postcards showing the Griffon Vultures which now live in that area……I WAS RIGHT!!! And it truly was an amazing sight.
• Osprey – having seen an Osprey pluck a fish out of the water at Castelsarrasin last year, I was on the look out for them again this year. So we were thrilled when we spotted one circling above us as we sat on the boat. Then we noticed something glinting as it caught the sun….it actually had a fish grasped in it’s claws!!! We watched it for some time until it finally dropped the fish and went off to try for another – wow!!

Re start

25^th May 2007

Hello again ‘bloggers’!!!

During the winter we seriously considered changing our ‘title’ to ‘Webbs do bob the builder’!!! But the house project is on hold now and we are once again heading for the high seas – well, the Canal lateral a la Garonne at first! The sailingthesea bit comes later….

The boat has been anti fouled, polished and cleaned; she was launched on 22^nd May and is once again ready for the off.

As blogging seems to be the easiest way to let lots of people know where we are and what we’re doing, we will try to keep up with regular postings again during the summer. Thank you for all the feedback [via emails] – it’s really good to know that we are being read!!! Watch this space……………………