Tag Archives: Port Haliguen

Cruising

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

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Play d’eau sets out for another lovely day of cruising
click to enlarge
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.

It’s official

We’re well and truly addicted. Yet another day of flat calm seas, blue skies and calm winds. Even dodging lobster pots is becoming fun – who can see the next one, first?

Pornichet

Two days ago, the question was whether our destination was to be Pornic or Pornichet. Two years ago 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.

Approaching along the 2nm channel, Pornichet’s lovely, long and golden beach was to the north of us, equally as long as the channel. But sadly, immediately behind the beach is an equally long line of multi-floored high rise ‘modern’ apartments.

Dawn lights up the high rise apartments on Pornichet’s lovely beach
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What a marina! Coping with large boats, pontoons are large and the fingers are super long. Long enough for Play d’eau to have almost no overhang. Never known that before. We moored in ‘Oscar 13’, stern too, amongst other large and larger (but not quite as shiny) boats.

Walking to the Capitainerie, cars were parked everywhere. Range Rover after Range Rover, Porsche Cayenne after Porsche Cayenne, BMWs with no model numbers, their tyres seemingly wider than the cars themselves. Definitely no Sparkys.

Cafés line the long marina front rubbing shoulders with chandlers, marine engineering and bodywork specialists. Pornichet’s more a marina town than a marina.

‘But you have come at the right time,’ we were told. ‘It’s Music Festival week.’ I have to say we found it hard to exhibit as much excitement as the bearer of these tidings.

En route

After two bad nights, we woke early and cast off at 7am. Bad nights? The Music Festival started at 10pm in the marina cafés and ended around 2am. Thud, thud, thud from the over-amplified bass. Oh joy!

Looking behind us, we saw a huge moustache heading for us…
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But the passage was brilliant. Smooth as ever. So much so that Piers set to with continuing Play d’eau’s polishing regime.

(Message for Jason – since we left, Play d’eau’s had two full snow-foam washes, and we’ve almost finished a total polishing.)

Arrival

‘Quai Garnier. Ici Play d’eau,’ I said in my best French accent on channel 09. ‘Play d’eau, this is Quai Garnier,’ said the Capitaine in perfect English. ‘We have a place for you on pontoon A. I am here with your two friends from Yacht Harvester to greet you.’

It can’t get much better than this, can it?

Met data

Pornichet: NE1/2, clear skies, good visibility
En route: Wind backed to NW3
Sea state: Calm, glassy flat to ruffled
Les Sables d’Olonne: W3/4, mainly due to local sea breeze. Clear skies, good vis.

Nav data

...the boat jumped our wake, and the skipper waved
…the boat jumped our wake, and the skipper waved
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Times are FST.

Departed Pornichet: 0700, 22 June 2015
Arrived Les Sables d’Olonne (Quay Garnier): 1451 (16 mins ahead of schedule – must plan better!)
Pinchpoints: None
Longest individual leg: 21.7nm
Time en route: 7hr 51min
Planned distance: 61.2nm

Tech issues: None

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

(click on the photos below to enlarge, and use the left/right arrows)

Click here for a slideshow, or click on a pic and arrow left/right

Cruising

Leg 6 (2015) – Port Haliguen to Pornichet

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As we left port, we fell into another yacht race
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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…?

A lone yacht going nowhere in no wind and beautifully flat seas
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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

Morning trawling leave a long line of hungry seagulls
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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

At low tide, a small island appears on the Plateau du Four
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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

Cruising

Leg 7 – Port Haliguen to Vannes – 2 July 2013

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Many colourful trawlers fish the Baie de Quiberon with seagulls hitching rides waiting from breakfast
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Our next port of call, the walled town of Vannes, is at the top of the beautiful Golfe du Morbihan. The Breton word Morbihan means Little Sea, an apt description given it covers over 100 square kilometres (approx. 12,000 hectares), with more than 40 islands, the largest of which is the Île aux Moines with its 7km coastline.

The inland sea of the Golfe du Morbihan is separated from the Atlantic by a narrow strait through which 400 million cubic metres of salt water pour at each high tide.

The nav plan

The pinch points start at the narrow strait entrance to the Golfe where tidal flows create currents of over 4kts. These become more pronounced as you pick your way through the islands towards Vannes, in one place exceeding 9kts. Bear in mind Play d’eau cruises at 8kts so we could easily find ourselves going backwards!

The ‘Sandbanks of Poole’ equivalent to the Golfe du Morbihan
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We planned to leave Port Haliguen so we’d arrive at Port Navalo, the entrance to the Golfe, at its high tide to be carried on its peak to Vannes. In practice, it gave us an unexpected additional 2kts all the way.

The Golfe is a favourite yachting area for thousands of boats. Couple this with fast Vedettes ferrying tourists, and it becomes a challenge to play boats against Vedettes against tides against the shallow sea!

Arriving

Access to Vannes is through a swing bridge which only opens at specific times. For us, this meant being at the bridge at 1530.

After three exiting yachts we went through and up a short canal to Vannes to berth.

Tecky details
The Vedettes don’t take prisoners. Travelling fast, they pass close and make large wakes
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1242hrs FST – Departed Port Haliguen
1542hrs FST – Arrived Vannes
Planned distance – 19.3nm
Longest leg – 9.8nm of pilotage in the Golfe
Tech problems – nil

Piers and Lin
from the Pilot House of
Play d’eau
Fleming 55

You can get in touch with us any time by using our Contact Form.

Cruising

Leg 6 – Port La Foret to Port Haliguen – 1 July 2013

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A cold, grey sky greeted us as we emerged from our cabin and raised the blinds in the saloon to view the outside world. Whilst Lin went to fetch fresh croissants (a pink job) I busied myself with engine and nav checks (a blue job).

Lin at the helm, not always doing a pink job
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Leaving Port La Forêt

Casting off at 0830, we motored gently from the sleepy marina along the narrow half mile channel to the open sea where we began dodging the many poorly marked lobster pots that seem to litter the Brittany coast.

Lin brought the La Foret Fouesnant croissants and fresh coffee to the pilot house for breakfast and we were soon set up for the six hour passage to Port Haliguen, a small marina and fishing port on the south east side of Presqu’ile de Quiberon some fifty miles to the south west.

The nav plan

There are no real pinch points along the route today, but there’s one part worth mentioning.

Towards the end of our journey we pass to the south of Presqu’ile de Quiberon where we need to thread our way through the many reefs and islands which extend fourteen miles to the south west.

Threading our way through the reefs, we passed within 50m of this outcrop
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The track we take through this area will depend on the sea state at the time and how comfy we feel about cutting corners and threading our way thought the rocks!

Arriving

Just as we rounded Presqu’ile, the sun came out in her full glory and turned a grey day into a great day.

Given the sea state was completely calm, we chose the shortest of short cuts through the reefs where the tide, at times was running at 4 knots against us.

The Harbour Master was waiting for us in his RIB and led us to our berth. Would you believe, it had one of those pesky water connectors we’d first encountered at Camaret. The receptionist at the Capitainerie couldn’t have been more helpful. In answer to our first question she responded, ‘Oui, of course there’s Wi-Fi and here’s the code.’

This is the adaptor required for the new style water outlets being installed in many French marinas
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In answer to our second question, she replied, ‘The Chandlery is closed and there’s nowhere else to get the adaptor. But wait a moment.’ Picking up her radio she called another of the marina staff and spoke in rapid fire French. All I understood was ‘Play d’eau‘.

As we returned to Play d’eau someone asked, ‘Monsieur Play d’eau?’. ‘Oui’. ‘The Capitainerie asked me to give you this adaptor, with our compliments’.

So now we are the proud owners of the elusive adaptor!

Tecky details

0830hrs FST – Departed Port La Forêt
1453hrs FST – Port Haliguen
Planned distance – 51.1nm
Longest leg – 38.1nm, Pointe de Trévignon to Basse du Chanel SCM
Tech problems – a very slight oil leak from the aft of the stbd motor. Needs investigation
Note: that the previous leg’s nav kit issues were all resolved with a re-boot. The question remains, what happened?

Piers and Lin
from the Pilot House of
Play d’eau
Fleming 55

You can get in touch with us any time by using our Contact Form.