France & the Bay of Biscay
10 April - 200 km winds at Auckland airport resulted in a four hour departure delay, a missed Air France connection in Los Angeles, and then an arrival in Paris via London minus one of our ten bags – not bad odds. We decided to wait the couple of hours for our bag to arrive on the next British Airways flight and get our rental car organised as by then it was too late to find accommodation. Finally we were ready to set off from Paris at midnight, Cap’n Dave driving through the night, collecting a few lightning strikes aka speed camera flashes, and arriving in La Rochelle at 0600 cold, drizzly and just getting light. It had taken us 48 hours.
We then spent the next five weeks in La Rochelle, a charming medieval seaport town getting ourselves and NOETA ready – shopping, researching, shopping, storing, shopping, installing, shopping, fixing, shopping, sailing, shopping, sailing, shopping…. as well as drinking coffee, beer, checking out local wines, and a few restaurants… key learnings in France – get things when you see them and things done now – otherwise they will be out of stock for at least a month or they will be on holiday, at lunch….
Initially we stayed in an apartment at 6 Rue Cardinal – absolutely perfect! Situated in the university quarter, it was fifteen minutes' walk into the old town, ten minutes' walk to the marina, and two minutes' walk to the laverie (laundromat). Then when NOETA was in some semblance of order we moved on and spent the remaining three weeks living on her. Pierre Menardon’s Uchimata team continued to work around us during those three weeks, installing the washer dryer, freezers, solar panels, Raymarine electronics, electrical sockets etc.
Matt Chrisp joined us on Tuesday April 24 for our last night at the apartment and his parents Duncan and Amanda on Sunday 6 May. They are with us for a least another couple of weeks and it is wonderful having them involved, so much to learn, so much to do, we couldn’t have got to where we are without them and the wunderlist app.
Finally Thursday 17 May 1530 we set sail! Out between Iles de Rey and D’Oleron and then a downwind parasail across the Bay of Biscay – two and half days, three nights. We were lucky with the weather, blue skies, clear starry nights, relatively calm seas and average 10 knot NE wind behind us. Despite good conditions I didn’t feel all that great – I think a combination of not yet having sealegs and five weeks of non-stop getting ready (not counting the months in New Zealand beforehand). We staggered our four hour watches, I drew the 0400 – 0800 which I loved, watching the day break and talking to dolphins who visited us several times across the Bay.
We made landfall at a Coruna on Sunday 20 May 1000 – HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY ARTHUR!, I got to put my Radio Operators certificate into use, probably need to practice a bit more and I think my “out” is a bit stern. What a lovely marina - clean water, helpful captainerie and 60 euro a night. The five of us checked out the old town, had a lunchtime drink (my new favourite is now vermut rosa on ice with a slice of orange), afternoon sleep then back into town for a quiet meal – it was an early night, we were all still catching up on our watch deprivation.
This morning a quick excursion to the Deutsche Bank and then the old town, narrow winding shaded streets to the central market, modern super underneath, old style booths up top – all cheaper, better range, better organised than France. Five hour motorsail down the coast, genoa gave us an extra knot, to our first anchorage in a quiet bay Ria de Camarinas...to be continued……