Island Hopping

The winds this trip have been exceptionally light - in fact we have had to use our engine to motor-sail some of the time on every voyage since leaving home.  This is most unusual!

On Friday 7th July, we set off from Port Louis headed for Ile de Groix, only 7 miles away, where we had decided to anchor for the night.

As we were entering the marked channel out of Lorient harbour, we saw a large and rather beautiful French yacht under sail and moving very slowly near to us.  They shouted over and we soon realised that their engine had failed and they were in danger of drifting into a buoy.  So we took them under tow for an hour or so until they were in deep water and clear of all obstructions.

French yacht under tow

Luckily a light wind had started up as we were ready to cast them off and we waved our goodbyes.

Setting sails once more

We motor-sailed in the light airs across to Ile de Groix and dropped anchor between two large areas of mussel beds off Port Lay.

Port Lay

Port Lay sunset

Next morning, we drifted and motor-sailed the 25 miles down the coast to another bay - Port Guen on the north coast of Belle Isle.  It was very shallow and we found ourselves anchoring a long way off the beach to be sure we wouldn't ground at low water.

Port Guen beach

In the morning we discovered an infestation of tiny flies in the cockpit plus a few large ants that seemed to have dropped their wings?!  We felt sorry for the ants and released them ashore when we went exploring in the dinghy.

Ants

The coastal path took us to an interesting place - La Belle Fontaine, where there was a building called an "aiguade".  This was built in 1696 to collect water from a spring and provide drinking water for the French King's ships.  However, in 1761, the British captured Belle Ile and held it for 2 years before being gifted the island of Menorca in return.

Inside the aiguade

Our next step was to the island of Noirmoutier, 40 miles further south and our route took us past a huge array of wind turbines, built onto a shallow offshore bank.  This was our first encounter with French turbines, only having previously met them in UK or NL waters.

Wind turbines in the distance

If we thought the sea off Belle Ile was shallow, we found even less water off Noirmoutier!  It was scarily shallow as we cautiously picked our way as evening fell through the waters leading to a buoyed channel into the port.  This is a strange and low lying island, where they have harvested salt for generations from sea-water filled inland lakes.

The next day we visited the Launderette ashore and turned our boat into a Chinese laundry as things dried.

Later, we hired bikes and visited the salt pans with their piled-up heaps of hand-collected crystallised salt.

Hot bike ride into the Noirmoutier flatlands

Next day, our travels continued to the cosy marina at Joinville, the capital of Ile de Yeu, 20 miles away.  There was a mass of other boats arriving with us and somehow the port staff squeezed us all into slots several boats deep. 

Jam-packed at Port Joinville!

It was getting hotter and we noticed a very different feel here compared to Brittany - much sandier, drier and with orange pan-tiled roofs rather than slate.

Joinville sea front

We stayed a day to explore on foot and followed a lovely coastal path to the north-west, setting off early to avoid the midday heat.

Ile de Yeu - footpath