9th October
From Mortagne we headed for Bordeaux. This turned into quite an adventure!!! We came out of the marina on the last bit of the flood tide so we knew that we didn’t have enough fair tide to go all the way. Despite all our pilot books saying otherwise, we were able to anchor in the river with good holding and wait for the ebb to finish so that we could take the next flood all the way to Bordeaux.
The starboard bank, of course, is Medoc country. Vines grew right down to the water’s edge and many of the famous name wine Chateaux could be seen clearly - some even had name boards along the river bank so that we knew what we were looking at and could try to remember if we’d ever had any!!
As the tide rose the stream got stronger and stronger, so we were whooshing up the river at enormous speed! We then began to grow concerned about how we would be able to stop the boat…..at one point we were doing more than 10 knots over the ground even when the engine was no more than ticking over. Bordeaux was by this time very close, it was dark and if we didn’t stop….well the next fixed bridge was too close for comfort.
It felt as if we white water rafting as we flew under the high road bridge, the mooring pontoon was just the other side. As we turned the boat the tide had even more to push against the broadside of the boat and we were really struggling. Once turned we put the engine to full throttle to try to fight back against the flood. Gradually we inched forward and tried to slide in sidewards to `park’ in between two boats already on the pontoon…we missed the first time and had to make another circle and slide in again. We had to keep the boat on full throttle until a head line was securely tied. The water just boiled past us!! We tied up using every bit of rope, string and shoelace that we could find. Every now and then there were huge surges of water - all very disconcerting. Whole trees kept zooming past us, sometimes crashing against the boat. It was horrible!!! WE spent most of the night planning how on earth we were ever going to get off again!
In fact, daylight and a slacker time of tide made it all much easier than we had feared. We slid across the river and into the old dock basin which now serves as a kind of marina. Peter, my sister’s husband, joined us here having flown in from Manchester. Together we had a lovely day mooching around the old city on Sunday `tourist style’
The starboard bank, of course, is Medoc country. Vines grew right down to the water’s edge and many of the famous name wine Chateaux could be seen clearly - some even had name boards along the river bank so that we knew what we were looking at and could try to remember if we’d ever had any!!
As the tide rose the stream got stronger and stronger, so we were whooshing up the river at enormous speed! We then began to grow concerned about how we would be able to stop the boat…..at one point we were doing more than 10 knots over the ground even when the engine was no more than ticking over. Bordeaux was by this time very close, it was dark and if we didn’t stop….well the next fixed bridge was too close for comfort.
It felt as if we white water rafting as we flew under the high road bridge, the mooring pontoon was just the other side. As we turned the boat the tide had even more to push against the broadside of the boat and we were really struggling. Once turned we put the engine to full throttle to try to fight back against the flood. Gradually we inched forward and tried to slide in sidewards to `park’ in between two boats already on the pontoon…we missed the first time and had to make another circle and slide in again. We had to keep the boat on full throttle until a head line was securely tied. The water just boiled past us!! We tied up using every bit of rope, string and shoelace that we could find. Every now and then there were huge surges of water - all very disconcerting. Whole trees kept zooming past us, sometimes crashing against the boat. It was horrible!!! WE spent most of the night planning how on earth we were ever going to get off again!
In fact, daylight and a slacker time of tide made it all much easier than we had feared. We slid across the river and into the old dock basin which now serves as a kind of marina. Peter, my sister’s husband, joined us here having flown in from Manchester. Together we had a lovely day mooching around the old city on Sunday `tourist style’
posted by Sue at 8:33 AM
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