Raffaellesco - Bill and Suzette's Sailing Adventure

  Next Leg… We were away from the dock at 0900 in order to catch the 0915 bridge opening. There were two boats ahead of us as we made our out. The breeze was fresh at 10-12 knot from the WSW. We sailed fairly close to our rum line. Our course put us at Fort Boyard, an interesting structure in the strait of Pertius d’Antioche off of Ile d’Oleron. The Fort was under construction from 1801 to 1857, began under Napoléon Bonaparte. It served until 1913. More recently it has been renovateed and used for filming movies and TV shows. Fort Boyard Anchorage We tacked north and worked our way around the shellfish farm. We dropped anchor at Anse de Maleconche off Ile d’Oleron. It was good to get out of the marina and on an anchor. We picked a spot as shallow as we dared since the tide was still falling. It was a relaxing afternoon, calm and partly sunny. Suzette seized the opportunity to wash clothes.         I spent a lot of time planning our route for the next few day...

 Exploring the City of La Rochelle We were docked in the old port area which put us right in the middle of the old city and where all the people were. Looking over the stern we had the aquarium just behind us. Through the big windows it looked more like an arboretum. Off our starboard bow was a three masted schooner and the entrance through the original walls of the city. La Rochelle dates back to the 12 th century with an ancient history of fishing and shipping. The modern cargo ships now go to a port outside of the city to the northwest. We set out in the morning to check out a new set of chandleries for some parts we were looking for. We had some success. We made another trip to finally find the port office. Next task was more groceries and stocking the wine cellar. Found a cool little wine store called the Wine Caves. We tasted some of their cognac and bought a case of wine. They had an interest beer that caught my eye as the image on the bottle looked like Frank Zappa. As i...

  Departure! Up early with the excitement of departure. The boat was ready to go. We walked the recycle and trash up to the bins and marveled at how many boats were on the shore being commissioned. A lot of the boats in the water were preparing to leave just like us. When we got back to the boat the SAS guys showed up to fix the 110v power for the water maker. When I was testing the water maker, I discovered that the 110v for the water maker was nonexistent. It worked fine on 12v power, so it was not critical to leaving. So, at 0830 they started tearing the boat apart. It was a good opportunity to see the inner workings of the system. They buttoned it up at about 0930 and we said our good byes. We spent most of our time in Les Sables working, but we did enjoy the waterfront and seeing the many boats being delivered. Les Sables is best known for being the starting point for the Vendee Global, single handed sailing race around the world. We departed as planned at a about 10...

 Tuesday 8/9 We started early today to beat the heat and to beat the lunch hour closure of stores. Early, as in 8:30, since the stores do not open until 0900. We broke out the bikes for the 2-mile ride to the bigger stores. We discovered a bike path along the estuary so we do not need to ride on the road with the cars. The estuary is controlled by a dam that empties the estuary down to a mud flat. We see people out muck raking for shell fish. When the water is retained people wind surf and paddle on what becomes a big bay. Estuary full Estuary empty (the aroma reminds me of my youth on the eastern shore marsh) We shopped until I dropped, Brico (The Home Depot of France), several culinary stores for more pots and pans and some groceries that only are available at the big grocery store. I can work on a project all day non stop, but 30 minutes of shopping and I am wiped out! We stopped at an Italian restaurant for lunch; Lemon Spritzer and pasta salad. Refreshed, we schlepped our wa...

Sailing Our anchor drag noise from last night; turned out that I had not fashioned a proper snubber and what sounded like an anchor dragging on rocks was the 3/8” chain rattling on the bow roller as the boat swung in the wind gusts. A little creativity on rearranging the snubber had that problem solved, silence is golden. We pulled anchor, intentionally, at about 1130 and set sail for Les Sables. We set the 120% genoa and the main in a reefed position just to run through the process in calm wind. With the sails reefed down to about 80% we were making 7+ knots in 10 knots of breeze on a reach. Shaking out the sails to 100% we were making 9 knots in 12+ knots of breeze with very little heel. The boat has a hard chine giving it increased stability, a nice feature, but not aesthetically pleasing to my eye. We were greeted by a small pod of dolphin; I do not believe I have ever seen dolphin in the Atlantic before. Lots of pleasure boats sailing and a few fishing boats. Set the auto pilo...

 Maiden Voyage Saturday dawned clear and crisp with a steady 12 knot breeze from the north east. We prepared the boat for departure with a bit more vigilance than we would have on Rascal since this was our first time out on Raffaellesco for a cruise. Extricating ourselves was a bit of a challenge as we had a catamaran 5 m behind us a cat 5 m in front of us, we were side tied with a cat on starboard and the wind and the fairway were on port. We fired up the 110 hp auxiliary, tested the bow thrust, cut loose all but the stern line and pushed the bow away with the thruster. Being careful not to let our but hit the cat we were tied to we eased forward as the bow cleared the cat in front. As we cleared the fairway, I started to breath again knowing that we did no harm to the millions of dollars’ worth of fiberglass siting at the dock. As we navigated out of the harbor it was fun to see the places on shore where we had been tourists for the last couple weeks. We cleared the harbor ...

 Lots of work to do…. Friday was a full court press. We moved just about everything out of the apartment. We had bought one of those folding wagons a couple days ago and it paid off for lugging stuff back and forth. Next on the list was to pick up all of the stuff that had arrived for us at AD; passerelle, stainless steel anchor, rode and chain for the spare anchor, the list goes on. In spite of their promise to have everything I ordered ready, we were still waiting for some critical items. We spent a lot of time simply placing things on the boat to decide how to store them and what we needed to purchase for lashing. We stopped at the port captain’s office to secure a slip for the next two weeks while we finished outfitting the boat. $900.00 later we were set, that was a shocker! This was also the last day with a car so we did as much shopping and stocking as we could. We stopped back at the apartment to make some dinner and then worked on the boat into the wee hours. Saturda...