This beautiful place is a bit like the Orwell, without Felixstowe. The estuary has loads of moorings and 2 marinas and then you go under a massive road bridge. But the upper reaches are tranquil, with wooded banks and only a few houses. Planning laws are strict, and you can't build within a certain distance of the river. The town, as so often in fishing harbours, is built up the hill. If you're out in all weathers catching cod you don't want a beach house. But the difference, apart from the temperature, (which in my opinion is a major difference) is that on the Orwell you wake to a dawn chorus of curlews and oystercatchers, which is the most beguiling alarm clock, capable of banishing the slight haze that sometimes accompanies a regatta morning on a yacht. But here, I've no doubt there are loads of birds that I don't recognise, but they don't sing in the morning, and I miss it.

We're in regatta countdown mode. The boats from the Musee Maritime at La Rochelle are arriving, marquees are being erected, and the plastic fantastics are being evicted, although it doesn't look as though they'll clear the whole visitors' pontoon for us. Never matter. The howling NWerlies are moderating, my crew are making me feel guilty about not having the new Genoa or the spinnaker, as the racing here is taken quite seriously, but I don't care.

The pic is of Ninita, opposite us on the pontoon, and the cynosure of all eyes.
Since I wrote that, more of the La Rochelle boats have arrived: Pangur Ban, Rose Noire, and the rafting is challenging with 2.5 kn of tide running diagonally through the pontoon. But we have the race buoys in the chartplotter, my neighbour in a Contessa 26 has removed tons of cruising supplies from his boat and stored them, and the bar is full of pre-race joshing, from which I remain coolly aloof. But the crew is so keen that we have to go out early tomorrow morning to practice putting up the spinnaker. I ask you. I think racing is like cars - the desire to win is compensation for some personal or physical inadequacy. But I would say that, because I'm crap at it.

We can't get a result, because we don't have the big Genoa or the spinnaker, and our handicap is based on them. A bientot.