18th June 2009, Royan, France

We moved across to the north side of the river Gironde to Royan today after 2 nights in Port Medoc ( which is really the marina name, the village name is Le Verdon which is near Pointe De Grave).

But anyway, I’m sure you’ll be interested to hear about our crossing from Spain…. We had been watching the weather and considering moving further along the coast towards Santander or Santona before heading up to France, (mainly because the crew on both Balchis and Sheer Fantasy would prefer to only do 1 night at sea); and also watching for the opportunity to go north. It was looking good for the 15 & 16 to head north, then 16 & 17 and not very good for going east (all things considered). But we were very happy at Ribadesella on the town quay (free, no electric, but OK) and enjoyed the walks; the weather could have been a little better but – hey-ho! After discussing the benefits etc of either going east or a 48 hour passage to get to France from Ribadesella the crews agreed that they were ‘up for it’. Not entirely comfortable about it but would do it in the right conditions. Great – because on the 13th it looked like 14 & 15 would be the best options for a while --- we go tomorrow. The first day would be little wind and some showers and the second day should produce a good sail with 15 knots of wind from the side and nothing too horrible over either of the nights, missing the Landes firing range and arriving at the Gironde at a good state of the tide a couple of hours after day-break.

First day the weather turned out as predicted and only a couple of ships over night – we had the radar on ‘Watchman’ which sweeps for a couple of minutes every five minutes. The dolphins put on a spectacular show generating bio-luminescence when they speed through the water and the jellyfish were amazing when the lit up and flashed colourfully when disturbed. In the morning of the second day the wind increased as predicted and we got our sailing in - right through until about 6 am the following morning – just before we had to think about getting ready for the river. However as we were getting nearer land there was an increase in shipping and boating activity and had to be more vigilant. The big fishing boats were no problem; they were about 5 miles away; the smaller fishing boats were no real problem either; one sailing boat just before dawn could have been a problem but both (we and it) altered course and everything was fine. BUT… there was one big problem – I had been off watch an hour and was dosing before going into the river; it was still dark; Bob & Di were up ahead but their lights were not very bright; the radar was used to help see what was around . THEN…. There was a big light dead ahead…. Looked quite close … couldn’t see any Nav lights…. The big light looks like it’s getting closer… alter course… still coming straight at us…… alter course ….. still coming….
CALL THE CAPTAIN….
After a quick explanation of the situation – lets have a look through the binoculars - OK – big bright light is OK - No Nav lights is OK -- Big bright light is about 23 light-years away and is a planet…. Panic over – back to bed…

The sailing was great, the swell was not too big, there was not too much rain the first day, the winds didn’t get too strong the second day or over-night and everybody was very happy to have reached France. About 220 miles to get to France from Ribadesella and about 4 to get to Royan from Medoc , what a difference. We will now slow down a little and make our way north calling in at places we missed on the way down (Royan is one). The hardest part so far is the language change and coming to terms with the difference in attitude of our new hosts to that of the Spanish.