That day has arrived.

The trip from Royan with his cooling towel.

We arrived in Arcachon 14 hours later having left in the dark at 5.45.The trip was fairly uneventful until arriving at the mouth of the bay having to deal with semaphore radio person .The place is lovely and pleased to be away from Royan. Eds was good and did his first voluntary pee on deck happy as ever to be back on land when we arrived . Tuesday we walked round the marina to town but what ever was in side him got to him. I had to borrow a little trolley to get back to the boat as he was struggling to walk but he was going down hill and the inevitable occured.A lovely old guy drove me to the vets and Eds was put to sleep so its just Bob's voyage now Ed's has got his own. He was a lovely dog and companion and will always be remembered for his funny ways. Fair winds old dog.

Leaving Royan for Arcachon

 

So last night in Royan..Seems like I've been here an eternity! The boat has . I stayed with a friend NW of Bordeaux with her three dogs which was good for Ed's and gave me some thing to do as the property is a new purchase and needed some sweat and muscle .Not too much as I went from there to Tuscany for another friends daughters wedding. A marathon journey of trains, ferries and car followed. A tornado arrived as I did in Bastia didn't last long but killed 5 people. Nightmare buying onward ticket for Livorno and time had to be killed necessitating leaving my bag in a back street corner shop with 3 Corsican blokes. This because all official left luggage facilities have closed due to threat of local terrorism. They were good to their word and the bag was intact! Camping on the overnight ferry ,plenty of dogs on board as well. Passed very close to Elba which I find evocative.

43 hours after leaving Bordeaux Nigel picked me up from Livorno 50 meters from boat ramp ,best thing about the journey ,massive lightening storm all the way to the restaurant near our Villa. Great group of people some I knew and Ed's enjoyed a few walks through the Chianti vineyards.

                                                   

                                                               Italian head wash!

                                                                              Marseilles.

Brilliant wedding, bride was lovely ,a few very drunk people by end of evening Nigel and I felt like old codgers but stayed till around 1 I think;. a few days of eating and chilling then the marathon in reverse except it got extended by a night as last train was missed due to delays. Stayed in Ibis because although SNCF very efficiently were giving out accommodation vouchers I was at counter awaiting attention after massive queue and the police came in to clear station due unescorted bag.  Ed's was really suffering thought it was curtains but I think heat and stress got the better of him .A day or two back at Di's and he's back to his new normal.

                                    

                                                                      

Now with dog on boat leaving on early morning tide with requirement to be at Arcachon bay for high tide. I'm sure with the light winds I'll have to motor a fair bit which is very annoying. More when I get there!

General photos.

A rather fine brew from the local Indian where I didn't eat

St Remee
Cognac

Gate guard

Villa in Tuscany

Wedding venue Tuscany

Bride with Dad

Given a suit exemption!

The bride

St Remey . Cognac region pre Italy stopover

Royon  beach

Few rain drops

They have rules over here too!

 

Royan

 

leaving La Rochelle Ed's on dockside.

Having dropped Jane off in La Rochelle, Noah and I sailed across the Rade des Basques towards Ile D'oleron which in the sea haze was a lot longer than I thought. A brief discussion was had about passing up a passage with a viaduct over it at 18 meters.(I'm not sure how tall the mast is but 15 meters is close) and crashing into a road bridge didn't seem fair risk so went around to the north. Should have got a picture of the cardinal marker. size of a light house on rocks with a ship wreck beside it but didn't. Wind not really in our favour and with 30 miles to go and a foul tide  expected at the projected speed in the Gironde estuary, engine on again very annoying! did mitigate by cutting through a nasty looking shoal but it all worked out fine and arrived Royan 10.30. Eds was good I was knackered and crew person bought me a coffee. Royan nice but full of tourists and a bit scabby. Crew person left in the morning as planned.Could be a long pause now in my blog due to logistics!

Ile de Re night stop.

La Rochelle to Ile de Ray , Ed’s back on board with Jane and Noah who is proving to be a bit wet and useless. Goes for naps and wants cooked food at lunch. Reasonable some might say as would I if he was burning any calories! st Martin on the island is idyllic. Been before a couple of times , nice turning up in the tiny port in your own boat though. Tides crucial as port has a tide gate really narrow and chaos in side with so many boats. Rafted up against Belgian who didn’t like dogs then 4 boats rafted against me!This obviously causes chaos again on departure. Meal in water side restaurant care of Jane as her last night and she wants lobster!

Bad sleep!

 

Well the anchorage was beautiful but the wave action wasn’t. Rolling all night with commensurate noise but the main thing was that the anchor went down and up with out a hitch . Never a forgone conclusion. Feeling as rough as Portsmouth prostitute after an American aircraft carrier has visited, mainly due to getting up and checking the anchor in between being bounced around accompanied by creaking and banging. Departed at 9 am with 13 kt winds and blue sky. Now wallowing under blue sky but 7 kt wind! Sailed most of the way towards Ile de Re passed it and arrived in La Rochelle at 10.15 pm . Bastards wouldn’t answer the radio ended up against a pink light jetty for the night

 but at least my little dog and Jane were waiting for us. Much needed good night’s sleep.