Les Sables d'Olonne to Cannes - Pete's Log (20/08/13 to 15/09/13)

20/08/2013

Pete’s Log:

Depart Les Sables d’Olonne to sail to Cannes Boat show. Eric is on board to help sail Havachat to Cannes. First 2 days and nights light winds and calm seas.

 

 

 In the night 23^rd to 24^th, wind and waves increase to 49knots and 3 to 4 metre waves. Hit 16.4knts speed with wind and waves pushing. Through the day winds gusting to 51knots. We left our track and headed into Lisbon to shelter from the winds now gusting up to 64knots by now. Even at anchor the wind was still 45knots, but the anchor held firm. Left Lisbon in the evening at 2:30 after refuelling boat. Wind had gone back to force 4 on a 3m swell.

 

 

 

 

25^th of August: No swell, no wind and no fish... motoring! But then finally: “Black Marlin!!” Yee Haa!!

 

 

Should come past Gibraltar in the morning and into the med. 9:15 – just passing Gibraltar. 100’s of ships!! Great to see! No wind.

Fresh Marlin steaks for lunch. Wind coming straight at us. Cartagena in 1 hour – Coronas and the best Paella in Spain I’m told!

Friday 30^th of August – Cartagena to Cannes

Leaving Cartagena, wind directly in front then no wind and no waves only millions of boats in the med. Stay overnight in the Port Porquerolles on the Island of Porquerolles , fuel up and then leave for Cannes. Arrive at Cannes on the 5th of September.

10^th to 15^th of September: Cannes Boat show

 

 

18^th to 22^nd of September – Cannes to Alicante

Leaving Cannes at 10:54, with Karl (we met Karl in France, has the same boat as ours ordered with Privilege) joining me on the trip. Winds gusting 38 to 50knots. Main, 3^rd reef and stay sail. Wind 60˚ to starboard and boat sailing nicely at 7 to 8 knots. White caps, sell 1 to 1.5metres. anchor for the night to see what weather is doing. Leaving again, but weather not great. Motoring very slowly into 2 to 2.5m waves and wind. Need to keep going to get to Alicante in time to pick up Martina, Jack and Lisa... For the rest of the trip the wind was on and off good and bad or front on! Arrived at Alicante on the 22^nd of September and picked Martina and kids up from airport at 20:35!

Ile d'Yeu

Monday 15/07/2013

We left on Wednesday morning early to head off to the Ile d’Yeu, north of Les Sables of the French coast. It was a great sail with good speed and we made it to the Ile d’Yeu by lunchtime. As the wind was coming from the north east, we stayed on the western side of the island and anchored in a beautiful bay.



We spend Wednesday and Thursday exploring the island with its lovely white houses with colourful shutters and paddle boarding and relaxing.



We set sail again on Friday morning to go to La Trinite sur Mer, but turned around after a couple of hours, as the winds got up to 40knots and the seas were rough. We reefed the main sail and had the stay sail up and the boat went well with this, but we didn’t need to go anywhere, so we decided to stay a bit longer at the Ile d’Yeu instead and went back to our anchorage we had before. Saturday and Sunday at the island were fantastic; we met some nice French people at the beach, Sebastian and Simon with all their kids and their mum Lucille, who invited us to come with them to see the fireworks on Saturday night for the celebration of Bastille Day.



 So the weekend was spent with windsurfing (an English kid offered to give us lessons... great!), paddling, bike tours exploring the island and our new friends.



Monday morning off again, back to Les Sables to get ready to leave to go back to Australia... Ben needs to do some more studying, the boat needs cleaning .... we had to motor sail most of the way as there was no wind at all! Back at Les Sables at lunchtime.

And Big Thanks to Chris, Tene and kids for looking after Pete so well (the food was just too nice! Had to work it all off again later!) at their hotel Le Chene Vert all this time while the boat was getting built!!!

  



The First Sail from Les Sables d'Olonne to La Rochelle - The boat went well and the crew got better... (Quote Pete)

Saturday 29/06/2013

Today was our first trip with Havachat. We planned to sail from Les Sables d’Olonne to La Rochelle. After wanting to leave at 07:00 we finally left at 08:40 (as usual with our family...) It was a windy, rainy and cold day and we thought for everybody to give it a try without seasick tablets. The seas were a bit rough so it didn’t work too well...  Kate went straight back to bed and slept for a few hours, so did Ben.

 Lisa and Jack sat in the cockpit with their blankets and a bucket.

Both were sick. Especially after Pete was so nice to give us some French Onion Soup for lunch!

Pete’s and my sailing went ok for the first go by ourselves and went better as the day went on.

We finally arrived in La Rochelle at 17:00 and made our way into the biggest marina in Europe! Three thousand boats and the marina is getting extended at present time to fit another two thousand boats! I have never seen so many masts in one spot in my live!

La Rochelle is a beautiful old town, where we spend almost a week to do sightseeing, eat ice creams and waffles, explore with bikes, get our diving gear, sailing jackets and windsurfer and clothes at the summer sales. On Tuesday the 2^nd Kate and I picked up Mama and Papa from the airport in Nantes to spend a week with us on the boat. They both love it! We did some more sightseeing, the old tower and the aquarium (it was amazing!) and had a nice dinner out.

Friday 05/07/2013

The seas are flat, 10 to 15 knts wind; perfect conditions to take Omi und Opi on their first sailing trip!! We left at 07:45 this morning to sail back to Les Sables d’Olonne. This time everybody took a seasick tablet before we left, but I think today it was not necessary at all! We all felt fantastic and started having a normal life while sailing: Pete is perfecting the sail trim to get the best speed out of Havachat, Kate is drawing, Lisa and Jack are playing cards, Ben is studying for his HSC, Mama and Papa are just relaxing and enjoying the sail and I made a nice risotto for lunch and start on my diary. Very peaceful!! It was a long sail, as we had to tack a lot to get into Les Sables.



Tuesday 09/07/2013

A few nice days in Les Sables with Mama and Papa, with ice creams, sightseeing of the beautiful shell-wall street, nice dinner at Chris’ hotel. On Tuesday I took Mama and Papa back to Nantes to the airport and in the afternoon the girls and I did a huge grocery shop to get ready to set sail again on Wednesday.