At some stage we would have to start our return north. Whilst travelling south this summer, the wind continuously blew on the nose (story of our life) so returning north is going to be great? We waved goodbye to Royan and the wind turned 180° and so we beasted our way back to La Rochelle!
Here the battery demons hit us again; we found yet another one had cooked. And yes, it was a month outside of its warranty date. Another £800 expenditure earmarked before next season and this brings our tally to 13 batteries destroyed in 6 years..
The housing problems ( click here ) (mentioned at the start of this year) continued to interfere with our lives costing us many a lost day trying to deal with ex-directors who continued to display stupidity beyond belief and solicitors who didn’t want to talk to us. How these people actually tie their shoelaces every day is beyond me (as said, other opinions are available).
We arrived in Bourgenay once more, as did the James family – my daughter Emily plus Guy, Frank, Evelyn and Sylvie, who came on board encore. Le Jouannet suddenly became a playground for little fingers which opened things that shouldn’t be opened, closed things that shouldn’t be closed. They bent things that shouldn’t be bent and changed the settlings on just about everything they could which meant compass north became South Easterly-ish, and our depth gauge could be reading anything between infinity and zero.
We messed about in the dinghy, played in the sea, built sandcastles on the beach, cooked BBQ’s off the boat and Frank and Evelyn had their first sea trials en-route Les Sables d’Olonne.
And then joy of joys, Guy (having done the honourable thing in asking me first) and more than 14 years after they got together, had 2 children and bought a house, asked Emily to marry him on a sunset evening on the pier at La Chaume (opposite Les Sables). The champagne was popped, the tears flowed, and we could not be happier for them.
25th July – 4th August 2024
Trip Mileage 97 miles
Mileage Completed 2400 miles