Sunday afternoon the wind finally took a break, so we decided to go ashore to stretch our legs and have a look at the other side of the island. It was a lovely walk at the beachside with amazingly beautiful houses built ashore.

The trouble was the wind only slept for a little while. By the time we were back at the beach to ride back with our dinghy to the boat ( it was less than 2 hours)  the wind was blowing again pretty strong and the waves had increased too. I hated it! Fortunately this time we at least did take our outboard motor (not the paddles only) so we managed to go back to Altimate – without we couldn’t have done it! It was a hard struggle to get onboard with those waves and we were lucky that we didn’t get hurt. Sailing is sportive !!

Well, the night was not much better with gusts up to 30 knots we were rolled side by side and up and down, it was like being in a washing machine. Even though I’ve never been in one to compare… 🙂

We couldn’t get much sleep, so as soon as the sun rose we left our anchorage and headed back to Île d’Yeu. As horrible as the last nights were as sweet was the sailing –  nice winds, warming sunshine and a great view. Skippers heart delight. 🙂

At Île d’Yeu we stayed the next day to get some tiny things done on Altimate, like putting up some hooks for towels and do some “takling” on ropes (closing the ends of a rope so they don’t come off). Due to the wild ride at the anchorage buoy, the two lines were nearly chafed through.

Wednesday we took off to sail to Les Sables d’ Olonnes. The whole Thursday I spent my time close to a washing machine. 🙂  Since we didn’t have the possibility to wash our clothings for the last three weeks I took the opportunity . Yeah! The machine was pretty close (only maybe 200 meters away) and nobody (apart from me of course) seemed to want to use it . Chaca 🙂

I did the whole nine yards – ok only five washings, but it took me the whole day from 9am to 7:30 pm. Hahahahaha, what a success. Norbert in the meantime cleaned and stored the dinghy and our staysail. 

Cleaned up we rode to Saint-Martin located at the north coast of Île de Ré. It is supposed to be one of the most attractive harbours in west France. Apparently we visited the town already in the summer with the kids by bicycle. We would had liked to stay there but as you can only enter and leave the harbour at high tides as the entrance dries out, it wasn’t possible with our timeline last time. Just to give you an idea – the tide in this area of France means 5-6 meters of water elavation between high and low water… but this time the tide schedule was perfect. The boats could enter in the afternoon and they could leave in the morning.

Lucky as we were this time we reached the entrance at a perfect time so we didn’t even have to wait to enter. And as if couldn’t be enough we realised Saturday was “ La fête de la coquillages “ – shellfish event. So we enjoyed great shellfish food at the party and – it almost felt like being in Austin again – life music á la “ Honky Tonk”, classic cars and a stage with country music. 🙂

Ok, not with country music ( yeah, lucky enough) and not life but with a pretty good DJ – for France 🙂

Today we just relaxed did more or less nothing, enjoyed the quaint little harbour and town strolling around, drinking coffee at a cafe, eating crepes and watching people. What a beautiful day!