Rochefort to Royan is only 19 miles by road. There is a bridge between the mainland and the île d’Oléron, but it is too low for LJ’s mast to pass under, so we had to take the long way round and circumnavigate the island which clocked up 70 miles instead!  The ridiculousness of this 8 READ MORE

Arriving back at Rochefort with the car for a few days inland sightseeing was top of the agenda.   To make the best use of it, we headed to île Madame and then, a cultural tour to Cognac. île Madame has a history which for many years was conveniently forgotten by the French.  This is an READ MORE

We were due home in the next few weeks for appointments which were imperative and with Spain on a back burner for now, we made our way to Rochefort who agreed to take us for a month at a reasonable price.  It was time to investigate that dreadful noise, similar to that of dying animal, READ MORE

The traditional path to northern Spain by boat is to depart Les Sables d’Olonne, La Rochelle or Royan.  From here you turn various degrees of left and aim the boat at Bilbao or Santander and some 40 hours you should be in Spain! Any deviation to the right gets you nowhere other than America and READ MORE

Time was pressing, Île d’Yeu was next. What was normally a simple journey from l’Herbaudiere, was interrupted by numerous radio instructions from an armada of patrol ships which were protecting cable laying vessels out to a new wind farm.   What was amusing was those of us who called up were given simple instructions which READ MORE

It was a simple plan. Head south down the Atlantic coast to La Rochelle and wait until the weather allowed us to go to northern Spain.   We’d arrive somewhere that serves Tappas and then Richard and Amanda would jump ship in Bilbao and head home on a ferry.   We had three weeks to get READ MORE

Some years ago, we sold our family home in Woking and downsized to an apartment in Chichester which we could lock up and leave whenever we wanted, have no concerns about the garden and go sailing.   Yes, this does involve communal living and the inevitable service charges but our neighbours are the nicest people you’d READ MORE

Arriving at Arzal, and our rather underwhelming Airbnb, we came to try and understand the mystery around getting a boat lifted in our new marina.        Our old marina was a relatively simple affair which we all understood.  You turned up on time, aimed the boat at a trailer that was so far underwater you could READ MORE

Blink and there went the winter and as the days started to get longer our thoughts went back to LJ and where to go this year.   Having bounced up and down the Atlantic coast of France, the neighbouring north coast of Spain would be the obvious choice and we looked at this as a READ MORE