About this site

Piers and Lin du Pré bought their new Fleming 55 / 129, Play d'eau, in 2003.

She was berthed in Beaucette Marina, Guernsey in the Channel Islands at N49° 30’.197 W002° 30’.350 until she was sold in October 2021.

This site charts the thrilling adventures they had in her.

You can contact us here.

Where’s Play d’eau?

If the new owners have the AIS on, you can find where Play d'eau is right now.

Click here.

Zoom in and our position will be shown on a map.

Recent Posts

Leg 11 (2015) – La Rochelle to St Denis d’Oléron

Yacht Joshua, the yacht that circumnavigated the world between 1966 and 1969

With a following wind, blue skies and an almost too hot sun, we cast off for the short 1½ hour trip to St Denis.

At a gentlemanly time of morning, we nosed our way between the many pontoons of the 5,000 berth Les Minimes marina and entered the fairway to meet the day’s challenge. …

Continue reading Leg 11 (2015) – La Rochelle to St Denis d’Oléron

Leg 10 (2105) – Rochefort to La Rochelle

The early ,morning sun chases the cloud away

We’d be unable to anchor out. The wind was forecast to rise significantly in the afternoon and stay strong overnight.

Our plan had been to leave peaceful Rochefort at HW when the lock gate opened and anchor overnight at the southern end of Île d’Aix before making passage the next day to the St Denis marina on the island of d’Oléron. …

Continue reading Leg 10 (2105) – Rochefort to La Rochelle

Leg 9 (2105) – La Rochelle to Rochefort

John and Beryl have joined us for a fortnight

Our dear friends, John and Beryl, have joined us after a nine year absence from cruising.

Flying into La Rochelle two days ago, we’ve already been having a ball; dinner at Safron (first there, last to leave), exploring the ancient town and climbing the recently restored tower that guards the entrance to the vieux port. …

Continue reading Leg 9 (2105) – La Rochelle to Rochefort

Letter from Port la Fôret

The patisserie was calorific cruelty

A short and delightful walk away is the boulangerie at La Fôret-Fouesnant. It’s a patisserie and chocolaterie as well, and has the most mouth watering and calorifically impressive displays imaginable.

One fine morning I arrived at 10am and asked for, ‘Trois croissants, s’il vous plaît.’ The young mademoiselle politely told me they were sold out and that in any case …

Continue reading Letter from Port la Fôret

Golden Arrow – International Rescue

Brian George of Golden Arrow (International Rescue department)

The last thing we needed was for the seal to blow under 1,500psi and spray litres and litres of fluid into the engine room creating a highly flammable if not explosive oil mist.

The hydraulic leak from the port stabiliser ram had been sufficient for me to isolate it from use, leaving the starboard fin to do all the work …

Continue reading Golden Arrow – International Rescue

Leg 8 (2015) – Les Sables d’Olonne to La Rochelle

Dawn breaks over Les Sables d'Olonne

We’d slept well. The endless succession of trawlers that passed by the marina en route to the Maritime Cooperative auction market at the end of the port had taken the weekend off. Well, almost all of them.

In their place, the Saturday night revellers had tried but failed in their attempt to compete …

Continue reading Leg 8 (2015) – Les Sables d’Olonne to La Rochelle

Leg 7 (2015) – Pornichet to Les Sables d’Olonne

Play d'eau sets out for another lovely day of cruising

It was the Festival of Music, ‘a speciality’ we were told. What we didn’t know was that it started late evening and ended early morning.

But was the destination to be Pornic or Pornichet? Last time it was Pornic and it has to be said that although the village was lovely, we found the marina oppressive. Having never visited Pornichet before, Pornichet it was. …

Continue reading Leg 7 (2015) – Pornichet to Les Sables d’Olonne

Leg 6 (2015) – Port Haliguen to Pornichet

As we left port, we fell into another yacht race

Now we have to give fair warning. We could easily become addicted to this cruising on glassy flat seas with calm wind and dark blue skies.

We’ve had yet another gorgeous day of cruising, destination Pornichet, on the north coast of the mouth of the Loire where Lin’s Dad took part in Operation Chariot, the raid St Nazaire …

Continue reading Leg 6 (2015) – Port Haliguen to Pornichet

Leg 5 (2015) – Port la Fôret to Port Haliguen

We ate at the wonderfully eccentric Créperie

A serenade, flat seas, hot sun, dolphins, the ‘joy’ of falling into the middle of a yacht race in crowded waters, and just a touch of sunburn.

To celebrate such a brilliant time in Port la Fôret of jazz, more jazz, meeting friends and being in such a beautiful area, we decided to eat out. …

Continue reading Leg 5 (2015) – Port la Fôret to Port Haliguen

Quelle surprise

The Cornouaille Jazz Band with Piers

‘Would you like the band to play on Play d’eau?’ asked Alain. Without even a micro-second hesitation we replied, excitedly, ‘Brilliant!’

It was two years ago that we’d tried to set this up but it hadn’t possible. The marina was too full take us for the planned date. …

Continue reading Quelle surprise