Brindabella

We left La Rochelle on Saturday bound for the River Gironde. We sailed out past Ile d’Oleron and down the coast to the entrance of the river.

The River Gironde is a huge river that eventually runs up to Bordeaux. However, we were stopping near the entrance at Royan. The pilot book indicated that the best time to arrive was at low water which means any swell is caught by the exposed sand banks. This seemed to work well, but it was amazing seeing the Atlantic swell which had only been about 1 to 1.5 m pile up on the sand banks. It was difficult to judge but it looked like they were reaching a height of 3 or 4 meters. The waves extending into the channel still made it rough. If the swell had been higher and pushing into an ebbing tide, you can imagine the entrance would be very bad.

We arrived at Royan and were allocated a berth in front of the Capitainerie. Royan is a modern town with large sandy beaches and a large shopping centre. The gardens are really well done.

We plan to be here for a few days until we receive a very low swell forecast as the onward cruise to Arcachon is extremely challenging. There are so many constraints on this next trip, it is almost impossible. We need to leave in the light and arrive in the light due to unlit entrance buoys, very low swell as we will be passing over a bar at Arcachon. In addition, there is a large missile firing range either side of Arcachon, which can prevent access to parts of the coast. All in all very challenging!

Time: 9:30 hours Miles: 57nm Total Time: 131:30 hours Total Miles: 784nm