Pornic - Santurtzi

Nick W.

Having rested 24 hours from the beating we took the previous night, we weighed anchor at 1105 and set sail with 1 reef in a pleasant NNE 14 knot wind. The sky was clear and sea calm within Baie Bourgneuf. Outside the bay heading south between the wind farm and Île de Noirmoutier toward Pont d’Yeu SCM the wind freshened to 18 knots. We had one 10 minute gust of 24 knots in the late afternoon and went to 2nd reef. During the night the wind weakened and we gradually shook out the reefs until by 4 am we started motoring. After tracking down the coast until 0720 24/9 off the entrance to Bordeaux by which point the wind had eased to NNW 8 kts we heading out SW to chase the wind. Further offshore the wind was NNW 20 kts around noon but then weakened until by midnight we had to start motoring in 5 - 10 kts. We motored the rest of the way helping with sail as the conditions allowed. During the first night we passed many relatively small fishing boats fishing individually. On the second night we passed through groups of larger vessels which appeared to be trawling together. We encountered several sail boats when crossing Biscay to Santurtzi mostly sailing in the same general direction. Unlike the earlier passages around the coast of Bretegne, we did not see any dolphins.