Current Position
46 43 60N
002 20 61W
Port-Joinville, Ile d'Yeu
Andreas was very keen to visit Ile d'Yeu and a 36 mile sail without using the engine at all got us there in just over 6 hours. We had wind at F5/6 from NNW but a horrible sea state so we put one reef in the main sail and a couple on the genoa which made the ride a bit more comfortable. We were only a short distance away from the marina entrance when we were hit by a huge rogue wave that knocked Alice (the autohelm) unconscious and to our utter dismay, she died. Andreas hand steered the rest of the way and as we entered the port we were met by the berthing master (well actually I should say mistress) who explained we would need to raft off another boat for that night but would be allocated a berth the following morning . The place was absolutely rammed and there was barely room to swing a cat! The boat we rafted from was the sexiest thing we have ever seen on the water and Andreas has fallen in love! (Oh heck!!!) The owner was not on board when we arrived but that was ok because we did the perfect text book manoeuvre and allowed the wind to gently push us onto her and I stepped off and tied the fore and aft lines. It was perfection personified and even Andreas said “ I cant believe we just did that ”!!! The owner arrived a little later but was completely unphased at the pikey boat that had rocked up alongside his precious beauty. After engaging in conversation it turned out that the owner ( Jean-Francois Delvoye) of this beautiful Borèal actually builds them and his factory is on the Treguier River which we must have gone past when we were there. He and his family were blue water cruisers and the research that eventually led to the first design of this craft came from conversations with fellow cruisers by asking them what they would add/change about their current boat to make it perfect. Seventeen notebooks later and this was the finished result. Jean -Francois was very keen to hear our story and was commenting on the layout of Stiletto and our sail plan. He was very taken with our £1 solar lights that we have secured in the cockpit which give a nice glow after dark!!! Some things just don’t need to cost a fortune to work really well !! Andreas, who is a real anorak when it comes to makes of boats, had never heard of this particular make and was very quick to Google it. Visit the Borèal website - it makes great reading, is a true success story (of which you don’t hear many these days) and I’ll bet you'll want one. But, you will have to win the lottery first!!!!
Port-Joinville is the only safe harbour on the island and has a rapid turnover of visiting yachts, most of whom use it as a very short stay stop off point. Consequently, there was a mass exodus at 8am the next morning and true to their word, the marina allocated us a pontoon berth and we moved but it was a very tight fit!!!
It was while we were fiddling about on deck we heard voices calling “hello” and saw Pierre-Jean and Esther frantically waving from one of the ramps. They had also arrived the day before and were on the next pontoon. We spent some time with them on their boat, enjoying an exceptionally good glass of French red, and some very interesting conversations. Pierre-Jean is a true intellect and, it turned out, he had spent time in the UK as senior engineer on the channel tunnel project and lived in Croydon (our home town) and also in Sutton (where I once worked) and then ultimately Folkstone. He told us some hilarious stories of working with us Brits and we also got engaged in some interesting political discussions. He is now senior engineer with the French waterways (vnf – Voies navigables de France). In addition to this he is a keen and experienced sailor and had sailed with France’s greatest yachtsman Èric Tabarly on his yacht Pen Duick.
It became very obvious that the most common form of transport on the island was by bike. I have never seen so many and because there are so many, they have right of way over the few cars - that's a first! So, what better way to explore this island than by bike, which we hired from one of the many hire shops along the front. Armed with a large bottle of water and a map, we did a complete circumnavigation of the island in just 4 hours! The bikes were great, well maintained and as the island is flat it was easy to get around. The smell of the Tamarisk and Pine trees combined with the sea air was wonderful. During the season of July and August a lot of the tracks are closed to traffic which made cycling around a real joy. But, as in Pornic, the island was very, very busy which just reinforced to us that the season had truly begun, but was probably short by our standards!

Song for this post : Push Bike Song by Mungo Jerry
Thought for this post : It has been fabulous to meet up en route with our British friends and it has been equally as fabulous to make new French friends along the way and to get a very open and honest perspective on French life.
Highlight for this post : New friends