Logbook – Ile de Groix to Ile D’Yeu 4 Aug 19

The early start gave us a leap forward as we pressed on towards Ile D’Yeu.

This is also a very touristy French island but with a much larger marina and a possibility of replenishing our fuel, energy levels and stores as well as completing admin, such as laundry and banking.

The sailing was a combination of motor sailing and beam reaching in a good breeze.

The approach was only hampered by the port captain’s poor English.  Far better than my French I might add. We arrived and were met by the port dinghy to escort us to a berth.  As it turned out we were to replace a German boat rafted up to a posh French yacht. It hadn’t occurred to the Germans that their departure time might be relied upon by the port captain and so as we arrived there where several confused looks and a hastily conducted departure with boats moving everywhere in a frenzy of evasion and rafting up.

Ile D’Yeu is also busy so you can be 3 deep in the raft. 

As it was we had a boat inboard that was staying for a couple of days so we just had to move briefly for him to depart. So we tidied the boat and got some sleep before an early start to explore the local town and sort out the domestics. The night was unfortunately, disturbed by 2 ‘youngsters’ clearly had a skinful turning up to party on the boat inboard.  Andy suspects that a brief comment from the owner in a bar led to an impromptu invite and insistent knocking for a party that may have been promised.

The morning brought a neighbour’s cockpit filled with party debris and 2 empty champagne bottles. No sign of the neighbours thought and no-one appeared until early afternoon.

The town is charming and a mix of posh restaurants and shabby chic houses.  Estate agents night describe some areas as ‘lush with the patina of a by-gone era’.  Shabby chic in my book. Lunch was alfresco seafood on the promenade before a trip to the Super U supermarket for supplies.  A useful tip is that a pound coin substitutes well for a euro coin in a supermarket trolly.

The following morning was to be an early one to allow the inboard boat to leave, so it was dinner aboard and bed.

Morning brought drizzle and our French neighbour up early to slip. We had also acquired a French boat outboard and so it was all hands on deck to conduct a very simple warp out and warp back in of 2 boats.  The departing Frenchman seemed dubious but once he saw the procedure in action he was happy and went on his way.

We followed at a more sensible hour on our way to Les Sables, home of the Vendee Globe race.