La Rochelle

Departing St Gilles around 6.30 am for the 55nm sail down to La Rochelle with light winds forcast and a sunny day expected, and what do you know, the weather forcast was right,,

slow progress but very pleasant in the warm sunshine,, allowing the tide to flood to give us plenty of clearence into the shallow entrance of the marina.
Routing to the north of Ile De Re, the long island just of the mainland and connected via a huge new road bridge. The height under the bridge was stated as 30m, but still makes you double check when you pass under with 16m sticking up, we followed the remains of a returning local regatta into the port of La Rochelle ( Port des Minimes ), which was a massive marina, home to some 3000 boats, plus visitors, after hunting down a berth on the packed visitors pontoon we settled down for a relaxing deck supper in the glorious warm sunset, with some local red plonk at 4.5euros for 5 lt we were all sorted.