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 probably divorced, any further left and by hugging the coast you enter a French military firing area so it’s best to keep at least 20 – 30 miles out to sea.
With a bit of grim weather forecast we wandered around the cobbled streets of downtown La Rochelle waiting for it to blow over and for better weather to appear. We had a good few days to allow this to happen and still get Richard and Amanda to their ferry in Bilbao for their return to the UK
And then this;
The French Military decided to extend the firing range so far out into Biscay that they had pretty much cut off all routes from France to Spain for at least three weeks. The diagonal line from top left to bottom right was out of bounds – apparently they were practicing with torpedoes.
After numerous phone calls and harbourmasters interpretations it was discovered that the firing would not take place at weekends and so we had a chance. However, it was not going to be during our preferred choice of weather window. It had to be Saturday 25th May irrespective, and we’d just have to lump whatever weather was thrown at us.
At first, we made good progress rounding the lighthouse of Phare de Cassiron, off île d’Oléron, and aimed straight at Bilbao. As Le Jouannet picked up speed our arrival was predicated at being in 29 hours which on the face of it would have been a breeze. But as our speed picked up, so did the swell and with the boat wallowing (and the first mate already in her bunk), suddenly 29 hours seemed an eternity. We had to remind ourselves that this was supposed to be fun.
We gave it another 2 hours and as the wind backed and came on the nose our speed dropped as did our morale so the decision was made to turn back. Royan was not an option.
By early evening we were drinking chilled beer in St Denis d’Oléron whilst the wind was blowing old boots. We all agreed that we’d made the best decision – Spain would just have to wait.
We pottered back to La Rochelle the next day. We’d had a fantastic time, as always, with our wonderful friend. Before parting, they treated us to a meal to die for. We bid Richard and Amanda farewell as they boarded a coach for Bilbao to enjoy the Guggenheim museum, and after a month of company it all seemed very quiet.
24th – 27th May
Trip Mileage 96 miles
Mileage Completed 2162 miles