Leg 6 (2015) – Port Haliguen to Pornichet

Now we have to give fair warning. We could easily become addicted to this. We’ve had yet another gorgeous day of cruising on glassy flat seas, calm wind and dark blue skies.

Port Haliguen

I have to say that Port Haliguen is more a convenient stop-off point rather than somewhere exciting to stay and explore. Why? Catering for visitors is not its strength. Yes, the port is well equipped to help with anything your boat might need and the Capitainerie staff is really helpful but there are two major impediments.

First, Port Haliguen is a good 1½ miles from the nearest village. Second, finding a boulangerie for your mandatory breakfast croissants and baguette for lunch, let alone a local supermarket, requires a degree in geography and specialisms in map reading and GPS.

But as a one night stop-off for planning your entry to the Morbihan or for further cruising along the coast, it’s perfect since it has an H24 access.

Destination Pornichet and…?

So we’d planned for one night only before setting course for a new destination, Pornichet, on the north coast of the mouth of the Loire by St Nazaire.

Thereafter, the (current) plan is to visit Sables d’Olonne and La Rochelle (the locked Les Chalutiers marina – vieux port) where we’ll have our stabilisers fixed and meet John and Beryl who are flying out to spend a fortnight with us as we further explore the coast together.

The WW2 raid on St Nazaire

Lin’s Dad was in the Royal Navy during the last war on the Hunt-class destroyer, HMS Atherstone. Operation Chariot was the raid on St Nazaire with the objective of destroying the gates of the Normandie dock by ramming them with an explosive-packed destroyer, the obsolete HMS Campbeltown, to prevent the dock’s use by the German battleship Tirpitz.

The memory of his account of what happened with HMS Atherstone differs significantly from the history books….

En route

With no serenade from Alain as we left port, Piers let rip on the Kahlenbergs only to find a yacht race in full flight in front of us complete with support vessels buzzing about!

Piloting Play d’eau around the back of the fleet before paralleling and overtaking them, we were astonished to see the yachts were making some 5 knots in just a 2 knot wind. Then we realised they had their engines on so were actually motorboats in disguise.

The whole trip was in flat calm water and uneventful. Addictive.

We have a day off tomorrow (Sunday) and plan to move on to Sables d’Olonne on Monday.

Nav data

Times are FST.

Departed Port la Fôret: 0900, 19 June 2015

Pinchpoints: None
Departed Port Haliguen: 1030
Longest individual leg: 19.9nm
Arrived Pornichet: 1458
Time en route: 4hr 28min
Planned distance: 34.85nm

Tech issues: None

Piers and Lin
from the Chart Table of
Play d’eau
Fleming 55