Sailing CalistaMay 2020 – June 2020
With our official “Handover” now completed, we now had to learn how to sail and dock Calista on our own.
We had taken plenty of notes and videos, and it was now time to put into practice and familarise ourselves with the various systems.
Before we could go out sailing on our own, we had to display our New Zealand registration number on each side of the hull. Paul took on the task of applying the stickers to ensure it was positioned exactly where he wanted it. We borrowed the Amel dingy to reach the port side as our dingy had not yet been delivered.
With the Amel 50 being a centre cockpit and steering from the Port side, it would take awhile to judge the distance when coming back in to berth Calista.
It was quite daunting being in charge of docking our brand new yacht by ourselves.
On one occassion with the wind blowing side on, we had a small mishap. Unfortunately Paul miss-judged the approach and aquired some small abrasions to the gelcoat from the pontoon.
The Amel guys were quick to repair the small scratch.
La Rochelle marina has over 4900 berths and we had a lovely spot on the Amel sales pontoon where we could see all the comings and going from our cockpit.
One evening we tried out the mast lighting and underwater lighting and it all looked pretty impressive.
One fine day Kevin from Amel suggested that he would like to go out sailing and get some drone footage of 3 recent Amel 50’s out sailing together.
So we along with Speed of Life and Be Brave headed off out into the bay and the race was on.
At one point we had 9.7kn of boat speed and it was a real buzz for Paul at the helm.
Calista lead the way for awhile until the wind dropped a little and we lost some of our speed.
Speed of Life then furled out their big Code O and powered up and overtook us taking this photo as they sailed past us.
Flying the NZ flag Calista took the lead once again on the way back in.
It was a magic day for everyone.
After the local lockdown was lifted and local sailing within 100km was again allowed it was very busy over the weekends. Everybody seemed to get out on the water and it was quite a procession of boats returning back to the marina at the end of the day.
We opted to change our sailing days to mid week from then on to avoid the pressure of being amongst the French boaties rushing to get back into their berths.
Another time we went out sailing with Be Brave and Speed of Life to the West coast of Isle de Oleron on the Atlantic coast and anchored out overnight so that we could all get some experience at anchor on our new yachts.
On other occasions we ventured on our own for more nights at anchor to Ille Aix and Isle de Oleron. It was lovely to watch the sun going down whilst anchored out in a bay rather than being in the marina.
Ille d’Aix
The small island sits off the coast from La Rochelle, with no access by road it is very popular for day trippers by ferry or boaties.
The two twin lighthouses were a magnificant sight and towerering 25 metres high.
We decided to go ashore at Anse de La Croix Beach. The dingy was too heavy for the two of us to drag up on the beach so we attached the small dingy anchor and left the dingy in about 1m of water at the far end of the beach.
We wandered up from the beach and realised we couldn’t leave the dingy for too long as the tide would start to turn and we would need to swim out to it if we were away for too long.
Crossing the bridge over the moat.
Pathway leads into Fore de La Rade and the village. Fortifications are evidence that the military had occupied the island dating back to the 17th century.
The moat steps were unaccessible and closed due to being dilapidated and unsafe.
When we got back to the beach Karen had a swim and retrieved the anchor and brought the dingy closer to shore for us to hop on board and head back to Calista.
Isle de Oleron
The island is the largest island on the French Atlantic Coast and is joined to the mainland by a bridge and cycle paths that criss-cross all over the island.
We arrived at the beach and realised we didn’t have our dingy anchor with us so we couldn’t venture too far.
There were a few people walking about on the beach, the sand was such a lovely golden colour and so soft under foot.
After checking out the beach we continued by dingy a little further along the coast to the entrance of the channel and cruised up the channel into the fishing port of Boyardville.
Regular ferry service operates three times a day to La Rochelle.
There are sightseeing and sailing trips operating from Boyardville.
We went up the river as far as the bridge then turned around.
There were some colourful fishing boats tied up to the pontoons.
Coloured flags attached to floating bouys which are attached to the nets and fishing pots.
Oyster boat
Another lovely sunset over the island.
