La Hirondelle 47

 

Diamonds, of sunlight, swirl and shimmer upon the swell. Stargazer, cruising chute bellied taut, making six knots over the ground, in ten knots of breeze.

We had set out in the first grey glimmer of the dawn.

Leaving the bay beneath the pines, silently.  Stargazer weighing anchor under sail. Tiptoeing out of the shelter, of the cliffs, leaving barely a ripple on the water.

A gurgling bow wave swiftly building, as we clear our wind.

Reaching past the the southern tip of Houat's smaller sister, Hoedic.

Coming up, hard on the wind, once we pass its outer ring of reefs.

Climbing as high as we can, to windward. Playing the lifts, as the warmth of the sun begins to pull the breeze from south west, to west. In our favour.

Slipping between the experimental, floating, wind turbine: and the extensive farm of its static counterparts. Construction completed over the winter.

Turbines astern and a clear horizon ahead; Stargazer can ease sheets. Course set south west. In the full glory of a summer's morning. The dew dried from the decks. Guernsey and salopettes discarded, in favour of shorts and polo shirt.

Stargazer skips lightly across the gentlest of swells. On into the afternoon. 

A low grey hump, on the skyline, gains shape colour and form, ahead.

Resolving itself into the terracotta pan tiles and brightly painted fishing fleet, of Port Joinville.

Stargazer has made her Vendee landfall, on the Ile d'Yeu.