We had arrived in Hondarribia, which boarders with Hendaye in France, on the 27th May, separated by a river whilst maintaining connection to each other. Hondarribia, a random choice of destination made as we sailed down the western coast of France whilst ticking off options, Hondarribia won the Jigsaw mooring sweepstake. It was a cracking result all round, we found a small town that neither of us had heard of previously. It had a decent and well run, marina that was a few minutes by our lovely folding bikes from the centre of the action. Arriving just before dinner time was exciting, we wanted eat out but had no idea where to go, unusually for Mary and I we did not immediately agree where to eat. There were a few failed attempts at restaurant landings, hampered slightly by the fact that it was 7.45 and the restaurants did not open until 8pm, eventually Mary took control, and we ended up in a fabulous place who agreed to open 10 minutes early for us. Magnificent fish was delivered to each of us, with the highlight being a raw fish and seaweed salad that was as good as anything we have had in years.
While in Hondarribia we did a good deal of exploration, both locally in the medieval old town and further afield to Saint Jean de Luz. The old town of Hondarribia was a walled town dating back to the 13th Century. It has loads of very old buildings and a fascinating collection of businesses including a puppet maker and a ladies hairdresser whose shop front must have dated from the 1920’s. A steep climb up the hill but well worthwhile, the climb helped me to overcome my aversion to sangria. A drink that I have avoided for years, sitting in the shady garden of an historic Basque bar I was convinced to try a glass after slagging off other people sitting nearby who were clearly enjoying it. All I can say in my defence is that it tasted significantly different to the stuff that we used to buy from Sainsburys in the 1980’s ( I am still staying away from mulled wine though). A trip to Saint Jean de Luz, by bike, Metro and TGV was a great little side trip, superb bay and a hike up to the chapel of Saint Barbara that overlooks the bay was a good way to walk off our slightly mediocre lunch.

Totally unexpected the weekend of 20 – 21st May was taken over by Rugby mania, as the town of La Rochelle came together to support their Rugby Team who were competing against Leinster in Dublin for the European Challenge Cup. Obviously, being the daughter of a Wexford man, my heart and soul was wanting Leinster to win. Maria Wilson joined me to enjoy the spectacle and what appeared (given the numbers) the whole town turning out to sit around the port and watch the game on two big screens which had been set up for viewing the game. The port made a fantastic amphitheatre the volume was astonishing, although, I have to admit to being slightly nervous at the number of people sat on the edge of the port wall and given the numbers how would they prevent people falling in, with not a temporary rail in sight. In the UK it would have been risk assessed to death… Anyway, I was sharing the nail biting game with my family back in the UK and alas, it was victory for La Rochelle (only by 1 point which is very marginal in Rugby) which found me out on Sunday evening with Maria Wilson waving the triumphant team home showing off their trophies. The atmosphere was fab though.
Paul returned and our thoughts quickly turned to moving on and heading south, after such a long time at La Rochelle it felt like a big step notifying the port that we would be ending our contract. The good thing is we have a three-year break option which means we can always go back there if we wish, it has been a great place to stay with lots of good sailing and places to get to and I would have no hesitation in recommending it. We decided that we would head to Hondarribia on the north cost of Spain in the Basque Country neither of us had heard of this place and it really is a gem. We were both keen to ensure as calm a passage as possible, as it was overnight and would take some 36 hours. We didn’t have to wait to long for a weather window and having done some tourist bits in La Rochelle ie the big wheel and the maritime museum (for the first time) we set off at 9.30 on 26th May.
We were expecting light winds of force 2-4 however they didn’t appear as forecast and the winds were very very light, with Biscay taking on the resemblance of a mill pond. This was a bit tedious as it meant we had the engine on the whole way, jigsaw is a heavy old boat and needs good winds to sail. We listened to an excellent book called the Thursday murder club on passage and were treated to an endless supply of dolphin moments who seemed to be accompanying us all the way. At night the dolphins took on the appearance of torpedoes, the phosphorescence creating a sparkling outline of these sleek creatures moving through the water at pace to play in the bow wave. It was a wonderfully clear night with stars winking at us all the way, a waxing moon kissed the sea goodnight at about 3am and the constellations the pan, Cassiopeia and Arions belt were very clearly displayed. The mountains of northern Spain came into view and they were very impressive and a welcome site. We tied up in Hondarribia at 4pm the marina surrounded by mountains it felt very different to France and we are looking forward to exploring this beautiful coastline.

Nearly Ready
It's been a week and two days since we arrived back on Jigsaw, we spent the initial few days finishing off some of the jobs outstanding from our maintenance visit earlier in April. I am of the view that the capacity to fill your days pottering on a boat is endless. Eventually we left La Rochelle on a short trip to Ile d'Re - St Martin on Tuesday 2nd May, (this was after I had completed my on line driving course following speeding on the M6). It was an uneventful trip, apart from us trying out the new genoa, which seems to perform much better than the old one, but it was significant as the start of our shakedown cruise before heading south. Paul has got very excited about the new sail, seems to make a real difference to our boat speed, however the wind died so we put the engine on and continued onto St Martin, where we ended up rafted up to another boat as usual.
I can't make my mind up about Ile d'Re, it is quaint, picturesque full of narrow streets with beautifully coloured flowers growing out of walls and shutters painted in pastel shades of blue and green, but it is also very expensive, busy and gentrified with most of homes being holiday homes which for a former prison/military island is interesting. Paul and I discussed the first time we went to Ile d'Re we thought we had arrived at our place when we hired some bikes and spent a glorious afternoon cycling through vineyards and salt pans followed by a delicious lunch in Ars En Re. Now although it is still gorgeous to look at, we can see that it is not for the riff raff.
On the morning of 3rd May, as we waited for the tide to rise and the lock to open, Paul worked on the solar panels which remain mobile as we are still trying to decide on the best fixed location for them. As usual a very busy exit from Ile d'Re as people charged for the lock gates (not sure why people do this put hey ho). Got the main up and were at the back of a fleet of boats leaving the port we all seemed to be heading in the same direction Les Sables-d'Olonne. It was a glorious sail a beam reach and we were making about 6-7 knots, which for Jigsaw is good. A couple of times we even went over( 8, the highest I saw was 8.4 knots. Paul was again delighted with the new sail and explained at length how this contributed to our newfound speed, what was very interesting was that we caught and overtook 6 boats in front of us (which is a rarity indeed), but a force 5 on the beam is certainly our wind. Arrived in Les Sables-d'Olonne around 7pm.
Spent two nights at Les Sables-d'Olonne, took the bikes out for a tour went look at the boats that had come in from the Golden Globe Race. There were 3 of them in so far, an astonishing feat sailing around Cape of Good Hope, bottom of Australia, around Cape Horn, up through the South Atlantic without stopping, with no electronic navigation and minimal use of engine amazing really, but not something I would want to do. The boats that took part in the Golden Globe are all about the same age and size as Jigsaw which certainly gives us a clear sense of the scale of the achievement. The race was won by a woman from South Africa, Kirsten Neuschafer, who also rescued a fellow competitor whose boat was sinking on the way to winning the race.

Cycled on along the cliff tops and the dramatic coastline of Le Chaume and then back to Les Sables-d'Olonne and along its beautiful sandy beach. Les Sables is a busy fishing port, and the fish market opens in the morning and the afternoon and is where the freshly caught fish is sold at a reasonable price e.g., 3.95 euros for a kilo of hake, whole spider crabs and piles of oysters and other shellfish. We got a great big fresh Hake for about 6 euro and it was delicious, it was still wriggling when we cooked it.

Many of the buildings in LSO are relatively new, lots of newish apartment blocks and shops but these are punctuated with some much older buildings, the likes you would find in the Disney Aristocats movie with the madly beautiful slate roofs with turrets and towers creating a splendidly chaotic skyline. We have always used Les Sables-d'Olonne as a stopping off point but having stayed more than one night and cycled around it is much more appealing than I initially thought, there is quite a bit going on and there is a good bit to amuse oneself with.
On 5th May a rainy day we set off to Ile d'Yeu. We had another great sail 5 - 6 knots in force 3-4 winds, Paul has, unusually, taken to repeating himself as he keeps on about the quality of the new sail and its performance ( I am convinced!!!!!). Ile d'Yeu is such a beautiful island not flashy, cycling or walking very much encouraged. The cycling routes take you to some beautiful places, each turn of the corner offers another astounding, end to end loveliness! We have brought a few friends and family to the island in recent years and it seems to captivate people with its mixture of rugged beauty and gentile charm.
Our visit coincided with May Bank Holiday during which there were also celebrations for VE day and fund raising for the Les Society National de Sauvetage de Mer - the French lifeboats. Bands were striking up and Paul was initially concerned when he heard 'land of hope and glory' he was in a panic that our attempt to miss the coronation had backfired on us, fortunately, the music was as part of the VE celebration and nothing to do with the coronation - phew.

On Sunday evening we attended the SNSM fund raising bbq on the sea front which was a great event where we were treated to French Sea Shanty singing, very lively. The event was attended in large numbers, young and old all paying tribute to the lifeboats. The meal was set (not a burger in sight) it consisted of scallops kebabs, rice, potatoes and a fish terrine and splendid un-named fishy sauce, it was very tasty and impressive that they could pull it off in such numbers.
Thanks to some strong winds we decided to stay put for another couple of days and visited the Citadelle - Fort De Pierre Levee the Citadelle was built in 1866 it was initially a State Prison, served as a barracks and then as a detention centre where it housed detainees during WW2. Its most famous prisoner was Vichy President, Marshall Petain, who avoided the death penalty (because of his age) despite having be found to have committed treason during WW2, he died there in 1951 aged 95.
Left Ile d'Yeu on 10th May heading for St Giles Croix de Vie another beautiful sail all on the Genoa which prompted Paul to comment once again about the beauty of the new sail, we averaged 5 -6 knots. Our mate Stuart Lewis arrived for a short visit at around 9 pm he had been doing the pensioner Inter-Railing around Europe for the last 7wks. The rail trip sounded very exciting, varied, eventful and they had covered a lot of ground. Stuart was in good form and it was good to spend time with him, travelling around on a boat you do get very dependent on the other person. Stuart left us at 6am on 12th May for Barcelona he was expecting to get there at 2100 and the trip involved 4 different trains.
The 12th of May was the anniversary of mum's death, lots of whatsapp message and photograph exchanges with family. We all miss mum so much, she was such a lovely woman with a quick tongue and a lot of love. She really was a matriarch and is so missed by all of us.
On 13th May we headed back to Les Sable d'Olonne, this was mainly motor sail. After supper we took a slow, ice cream punctuated, walk around the harbour and used the Bus de Mer to return to our mooring, it was a beautiful evening with a golden sky and a gentle breeze on the water.
Our final bit of this shake down trip was back to La Rochelle setting off at 9am, it really felt like we were returning home. Jigsaw has been moored in La Rochelle for 5 years and it's been an interesting and very eventful time. Initially we were out here quite a bit and it seemed to be going very well and then Covid hit, and we didn't get out very much for couple of years, perhaps a bit of a first world problem when you consider what many went through. Anyway, it does now feel like home as we have spent time here and got to know the place. We are fortunate as we both have Irish Passports so are not subjected to any of that 90-day limitation nonsense that brits are subject to since Brexit. BREXIT what an unmitigated disaster that has been, it is a delight to be in Europe and to be able to travel around freely and freely buy tomatoes and cucumbers.
We managed again to sail most of the way with a beam reach a couple of hours on the motor and then a few hours with the wind behind us. We are now tied up in La Rochelle Paul is heading off to back to London for a few days and Maria Wilson is coming out for a weekend in La Rochelle. We have a few jobs to do which we will get done when Paul comes back. All in all the shake down trip has been a great success and allowed us to refresh our sailing skills, now we can really look forward to the next stage of the onward journey to the north coast of Spain and beyond...................