Better known as La Rochelle, ‘the little rock’ is home to Europe’s largest marina (Port Minimes) just a short water-bus ride away from the historic fortified city now bustling with tourists, restaurants and street performers.

We rocked up a week ago at 1pm after a speedy sail down from Les Sables d’Olonne with gusty 10-26knot winds filling our reefed sails. With the swell sheltered behind Ile de Re our journey was comfortable until we turned into the wind and swell for the last leg under the 30m bridge, past the commercial port, and left into the shallow final approach. The water was brown, the wind against tide waves steep but manageable and we snuck in before low water made the entrance too shallow even for our stumpy little keels.

Greeted by friendly marina staff we have had a pleasant two week stay. Except for the very grumpy lady in the main reception, I asked her what I had done to upset her, apparently she’s notoriously grumpy, even on the navily app. For Europe’s largest marina, it falls short on service, the shower blocks are dated, there is no postal or parcel service (Vigipirates/teroism I was told), there are no trolleys except for two tiny ones that require a passport or driving licence deposit (quite special), but the immediate area outside the capitanerie is in a stage of development.

During our stay we met many sailors en transit north and south, and for a change we are not the tallest or fattest boat in the marina. In fact we’re positively tiny compared to our eighty foot Fountaine Pajot neighbour, or even the sixty-seven foot ones a bit further up. We were next to the welcoming pontoon and it was entertaining to watch all the coming and goings, but this end and entrance to La Rochelle is rather bucket and spade. Cheap fast food, housing blocks in dis-repair, and not a blade of grass to sniff. The cycle-way and intertwined pedestrian path create a hazardous avenue up to a large marine park filled with chandleries, sail-makers, engineers, stainless steel fabricators, and XPO.

Finally!! After spending months trying and failing to get in contact with Antal UK, Italy and France it tuns out XPO stock Antal spare parts! And they have the parts we need. In fact the parts we thought we needed would have been the wrong parts, so hurrah for Arthur at XPO for helping me match our old worn pullies for the right new ones!! Albeit at a crazy price, but another job ticked off the list. Yay!

Janine’s parents came out to visit us for the second week, we took a trip to the old town with them and then sailed out to St Denis on Ile D’Olleron which is small, bustling with nice restaurants and bars, and in a picturesque setting and much cheaper than Port Les Minimus at La Rochelle. A much better option if your looking for a place to stay for a few nights. The sail over was calm and almost on a single tack, the return trip was very very calm, mill pond flat, and we motored much of the way to return to the adjacent berth, a double finger pontoon, think of it as a U shape garage that we had to reverse into with a cross tide. The width of U was only slightly wider than fat G, so it took three attempts to slide in (hand in glove style), wiggling in the last few metres. No gelcoat scraps or damage, but very tight, too tight.

After a 3am departure with two Pugs in hand, Neil and Maureen left us in the dark facing a six hour drive back to Cherbourg to catch the ferry to Poole. After hours of tears we pulled ourselves together and prepared to depart for nearby Royen, but like any plan, it was subject to change and change it did, we banked the following winds and tide and rocketed down the French coastline past Royen heading for St Jean de Luz doing 170nm under sail at an average 7 knots with just the foresail! Well, at least until the last 10nm which felt like we hit treacle so we motor with both engines blazing for 2 hours to get into the harbour and drop anchor before dark. We never left the boat.

Keen to get on our way to Spain we took a short hop over the border to spectacular Hondarribia under the Pyrenees mountains hoping to check in to Schengen and get our passports stamped, but this marina/town no longer provides this service so we’d have to keep going another 7nm to Passaia. As morning light broke we scooted off, past Passaia aiming for nearby Bilbao hoping to check in there, but we soon met strong winds and breaking seas and took safe harbour in a bay just east of Bilbao, a great little overnight anchorage... well, after we got the anchor working, poor electric connection again, a quick unwanted fix! Wanting to get going, we wanted to leave at first light again, but we met heavy sea fog, and waited for it to clear before continuing on to Bilbao, or maybe we could make Santander.

Again the seas rose quickly and more breaking waves made a further journey untenable so we tucked into the bay inside Bilbao, dropped the dinghy and headed off for the border passport office to get passports stamped, ‘cerrado’ (closed) at 1pm, and then back from the dinghy dock we passed a Aduana (customs) rib (we had already checked into EU customs in France, but maybe each country does it’s own customs procedure, it seemed like each French province did, we got checked 4 times). After another night on anchor we got ready to head back to the border passport office but saw a narrow window to get to Santander or Gijon before winds begin to grow in a direction against us.

So last minute change of plans we went to spark up big G’s engines to begin the 28 hour trip to Gijon with several safe harbours en route but were met with silence on the port engine. Grrr. After so much expert attention on both engines in Gosport and Les Sables it’s frustrating, however I’m now becoming a bit more savvy, batteries health fine, electrical connections fine, a real apprentice AA mechanic, starter solenoid fine, and diagnosed a faulty starter motor. A little bit of YouTube and a tap tap tap on the starter motor to loosen motor brushes seemed to be the magic trick and the engine started. Will need to service the starter motors now. Boat work doesn’t stop which means this ‘eliminate stress’ plan needs 6) to read ‘Do more work’.

We’re now moored up in Gijon after an uncomfortable, tiring, long, draw- out, uphill slog, against persistent current against us and choppy seas in all directions throwing the boat in all directions, not fun. My seagull joined us for the last 30 minutes, hoping for a tasty snack, we allowed him to stay as long as there was no poop! There was, grrr!! And we’ve got a new starter motor on order for Tuesday from the local Yanmar shop, so with forecast winds to be against us for a few days, Gijon will become home for a few days.