After a wild night I carried on pumping out until mid afternoon when the tide was high enough to try and lift her using the local boat hoist. Guess what? the hoist was 100mm too narrow to get her in, despite a determined shove. By then it was too late to go anywhere else, JS marine could only offer a slip but no lift at Port La Barque, back up the Charente, however Les Minimes at La Rochelle said they would lift me as soon as I could get there, as it was an emergency. So another long night ensued although the temporary fix with mastic had reduced the need to bail down to an hourly 5 minutes of exercise and an extra long shore supply cable, loaned by the chantier, kept the electric bilge pump chugging away every few minutes.
The next morning I managed to add another hole to the limber pipe in the bilge so that the influx of water went more directly to the bilge pump, relieving me of the need to bail. Deciding to cut and run for La Rochelle, I left 40 minutes too early and, sod's law rules OK - we came to a gradual but dignified halt in the main channel, having to wait out the tide with the heads'l up until Grey Dove , with the wind up her behind, slid gracefully off the sand and over the bar. The Photo is courtesy of Barrie who was trying to be concerned yet not show his amusement at the same time...
Two hours later I was in Les Minimes, plugged into the mains, waiting for the boat hoist.
Once ashore, a local english speaking chantier/boat repairer stripped back the damaged area, draining the hull and I was able to start drying out the boat. I would like to say that I slept like a dead man that night but in truth I kept waking up in a panic thinking that I needed to pump the bilge....