Itinérary from Martigues to Vannes
This page is dedicated to MMM of PSD.
Martigues is a nice and small city about 20 km to the west of Marseille. Nicknamed " La Venise Provençale ", she is crossed by the " Canal de Caronte ", the waterway that joins the pond of Berre to the Mediterranean sea. Martigues has a marina where my thirty-six feet sailboat, a Dehler 36 CWS, was based since five years.
I wanted to bring back it in Vannes in the south of Brittany. It is the city where I live. To do this, it was necessary to make the tour of the Spain and the Portugal, via the strait of Gibraltar (see the map below). Also, it was necessary to navigate across the dangerous Bay of Biscay. After a long reflection, I decided to make this navigation as single handed man. I knew that it was a very difficult adventure and, because I don't hear, this journey became a contest. But I experienced several years of sailing, with five years in Mediterranean.
Itinérary from Martigues to Vannes
Therefore, the 7th of July, 2007, I left the harbor of Martigues, alone on my boat. I took down the Canal de Caronte, I passed the gate of the Fort Saint Antoine which closes a harbor called Port-de-Bouc, and I was in the gulf of Fos-sur-Mer. I immediately hoisted sails and the coast disappeared quickly in a light mist. The headland was put on Majorca, the biggest island of the Balearic that I intended to reach in three days. Around me there were only the sea and the silence. I heard neither wind nor the noise of waves.
The first day happened well. The time was beautiful, the wind regular and the sea calm. Then the night came. The sky became illuminated with stars and constellations. These nights in high sea remain an enchantment for me with the myriads of stars that it is not possible to see when one is on earth because the lights of the cities. Reinforced by my deafness, the silence on the sea becomes heavier in the black where only shines the froth raised by the boat and who breaks of each side in thousands bubbles and luminous spangles. The second day was identical to the first. The boat continued to carve its road and it was sufficient for me to insure that all went well. I often watched around the boat. It was a circular and sharp look that I had taken the habit to do regularly.
The second night worried me. The weather report had announced a storm accompanied by strong gusts of Tramontane on the Pyrenees. The Tramontane is a dangerous wind who blows very far; sometimes it can arrives to the Balearic Islands. 
I tried to advance as quick as possible but toward two o'clock in the night, the announced Tramontane caught up me. The sea became rough, the waves strong. The wind increased quickly and its violence tore the sewing of the envelope of the mainsail. I had got a lot of difficulty to arrange things. At one moment, a strong gust of wind kicks out me off the boat deck and I knocked a candlestick and made myself a haematoma to the left hip.
The Tramontane blew all night long and during all the following day bringing an agitated sea and a strong swell from the northwest. At the end of the afternoon, I could saw the very beautiful Cabo de Formentor at the north of Majorca. In the evening, I entered in the magnificent Pollensa bay where waters were calms. About two hours later, just before the night falls, I was able to moor my sailboat in the marina of Pollensa. I was relieved.
The following day I was obliged to search a workshop to repair the mainsail envelope. Being not hearing and not knowing the Spanish, I had got the luck to meet a French man aboard of a boat no far of mine and knowing a good sail's repairer. He was able to spoke Spanish and he has had the kindness to phone to the shop. The repairer came himself to look for my material and carried it with him. Finally, my envelope was repaired but this work took three days.
Waiting for the envelope was repaired; I decided to rent a scooter and went to visit the city of Palma de Mallorca and surroundings of Pollensa with her magnificent bay. The sinuous road leading to the Cabo de Formentor lighthouse is picturesque and offers a very beautiful panorama. It was a pleasure to discover this region at the handlebar of a scooter. I am certain that those who like to pilot a motorbike will understand me!
My second stop would be Ibiza. Unfortunately, when my boat arrives to this island, the harbor was partially closed. A small oil spill forbade the entrance. I decided to continue without stopping. I taken the huge pass between the south of Ibiza and the north of Formentera Island and continued my road all night long. The boat advanced under a good East wind. I was lucky but I had lowered the mainsail and I kept only the grand genoas. The evening of the following day, I arrived to Cartagena on the East Spanish coast. I was back on the continent! The tomorrow morning, I restarted immediately because I had goods weather conditions. But, while bordering the Andalousia coasts I was obliged to stop to Almeria where I stayed totally blocked five days because the wind was again blowing with violence, raising a very strong sea.
Being chatting with other yachtsmen in a mixture of English added with some Spanish words, I learned that the time was going to calm quickly. Effectively, I can leave Almeria and do a stopover in Malaga. I was surprised to note that there was not marina in this large harbor. I did not know where to go and it was not possible for me to communicate by radio with the harbor master. Finally, I accosted to the pier of tugs and moored my boat discreetly behind one of them!
I had just finished this operation that another sailboat arrived in the basin, looking for mooring. I sent them signs to come close my sailboat because there was a place between the prow of my boat and the stern of the tug moored before me. The newcomer's crew was composed of a young couple, Alessandro and Clementina. They came from Imperia, Italy, and went to Edinburgh, Scotland, where they wanted to live one moment so that Clementina would continue her studies. When the night falls, I invited these two young people to have a cup of tea in my boat and they accepted and we had got a good chat together in English language!
The tomorrow morning, whereas I does some body exercises and revived my legs on the ground, a policeman came in a car and explained me with gestures that he was prohibited to accost the pier where my boat was! I had to leave immediately. I tried to discuss but the cop didn't want hear me. Alessandro was also ordered to leave by the cop. Then we quit Malaga harbor at the same time and we recovered in high sea. There, we separated. Alessandro and Clementina headed toward Marbella. I put the headland toward the famous rock of Gibraltar.
When I arrived in Gibraltar, it was not possible for me to use the VHF radio system to reserve a place in one of the three marinas. I was obliged to anchor my boat in the bay near the airport. I would have wanted to go on the ground but this seemed too difficult. Besides, the interest was relative enough because I already knew the place and visited him some years ago. Then, the day following my arrival I lift up the anchor and I immediately left Gibraltar. I decided to cross the strait and go to Tangier, Morocco. The wind blew from the East and it was strong enough. I cannot hoist the mainsail. With only the partially rolled genoas, my sailboat goes to more than nine knots on an agitated sea. This was a very good speed but wondered me a sharp attention and not permits to use the autopilot.
I had no map of Tangier! While arriving in this harbor I must increase my attention because there were a lot of big ferries and cargos that went and came. I had difficulty to find the marina that was in a basin of the fishing harbor! The wind was violent. Despite of my efforts I didn't manage to accost the pontoon. The employees of the harbor came to help. They shouted me to launch ropes and I do it with strength. They caught them, pulled them and my boat was finally moored after lots of efforts.
Morocco is a welcoming and French speaking country. People were often surprised by my deafness but respected me. They had difficulty to believe me when I told that I had come alone with my boat. They put some questions and I tried to answer as well as I can. I liked do walks in the Medina (old part of the city) who was near the harbor. But I had to continue my journey. Unfortunately, the day where I decided to leave Tangier, a strong fog covered the south of the strait of Gibraltar. 
My boat being equipped with radar I was able to navigate. But I had been slightly frightened while crossing an enormous container ship in the mist. I comforted myself while wondering that a hearing person would have probably not hear this ship due to the noise of waves and the screaming wind in shrouds of the sailboat.
I sailed all day long and a part of the night and finally arrive toward two AM to Chipiona, a small harbor on the Spain Atlantic coasts not far from Cadiz. The harbor office was closed. I accosted the "muelle de espera" ("waiting pontoon" in Spanish), taken a shower with the cold water tap of the pontoon and went asleep on my berth. At six o'clock in the morning I was stand up and I left the harbor discreetly! I made again a long navigation of three days and two nights at the term of which I arrived in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, after having bordered the coast of the Algarve and passed the famous Cape de Sao Vicente where lived in the past, the well know prince Henri the Navigator.
Three days of total silence, two misty and comatose nights, a complete solitude during which I crossed some sailboats, some cargos and, the night especially, several fishers. Fishers worried me because I knew that they communicated between them using the VHF (Very High Frequency) system and that I could not hear them nor could understand them. On the other hand they sometimes sailed with no regular lights or only with a "lamparo" a powerful and brilliant spotlight which attracts fishes to a net.
I was happy to arrive in Lisbon and meet again people. After some miles of navigation on the Tage river and the pass under the famous "Ponte 25 de Abril" (25 April Bridge), I moored my boat in the "Doca de Alcantara", a marina not far from the down town to which it is easily joined with public transportation. However this marina is far from stores, groceries and supermarkets. Another problem is the sanitary block that is not very clean and installed in a small bungalow! An effort would be to make even though this situation is temporary (in fact it already lasts since several years!).
I like the Portuguese capital a lot. It is a sunny and dolente large city, that stretch the long of the Tage River, with a beauty that they could qualify as slightly antiquated. It is pleasing to walk in the old streets and to move using the "eléctricos", these famous old style tramways that circulate everywhere, principally in the down town. Many monuments must be visited. One of most knowledge is the Tower of Belem, a pretty and few complicated construction, built on the right strand of the Tage and that seems bring from a fairy tale!
Despite of my deafness, I didn't have problems of communication in Lisbon because a lot of people speak French there. But five days later I appraised that I needed to continue to advance toward France and that my stopover had lasted enough. With regret, I dropped mooring, left the quiet Doca of Alcantara and, after having brought down the Tage, I found again the ocean and the high sea.
But the conditions of navigation had changed during my stay in Lisbon. Wind had gotten in northeast and an enormous swell arrived from the west. The result was a crossing and very hard sea. I passed with difficulties the famous Cape Roca that is the westernmost point of the Europa (9° 30' of West longitude). I made stopover to Nazaré, this picturesque seaside resort that keep a nice and active folklore! 
At the marina of Nazaré a high character man, called Captain Mike, is till pegging away, with the pipe always to the mouth. He is the responsible of the marina. He makes all, knows all, sees all and learns all. He is helped in his job by her kind wife Sally. They spend the summer in a big sailboat who is the sister ship of the "Spray", the boat of Joshua Slocum, an American that started from Boston, who was the first man to sail around the world from 1895 to 1898.
The wind being strong and the sea billowy, I was obliged to remain a complete week in Nazaré and wait for a better weather. I token the opportunity to do some maintenance works on my sailboat with the help of Carlos, a young employee who worked in a nautical yard near the marina.
Captain Mike, who knows my deafness, sometimes called me in his office and we had a little chat. He connected his computer on Internet and showed me some weather report sites. But I was not allowed to read or write my e-mails on his computer. For this, I had to walk three kilometers to go to Nazaré where I found an Internet point. I backed to my boat in cabs that asked me a moderate amount (3.20 €uros) for this course!
Another people that communicated gently with me because he spoken French a bit was the manager of the coffee-grocery store who close the marina's offices. Often, I went there during the afternoon to drink a coffee and eat an apple fritter!
Leaving Nazaré an early morning, I arrived to Porto at the end of the following night after several hours of laborious navigation on a sea that remained very hard. The day was not yet raised; I had difficulties to find the harbor's lights because the thousand of street lightings. Then I was obliged to use my navigation software on my computer. In this case, the fact that I cannot hear doesn't change anything! It is a question of headland, orientation, water marks and others alignments during the day or lights by the night. Be hearing or be deaf, there are not difference; the navigator must watch all his art.
I didn't remain in Porto a long time. A good weather was back then I arrived quickly to Bayona, first harbor toward north Spain after Portugal. It is the harbor where Christopher Columbus lands when he came back in Europa after his discovery of the America. Bayona is located at the entrance of the huge Vigo bay and is correctly sheltered. But there are a lot of yachts in this marina. .
After Bayona, I stopped briefly in a small harbor called Camariñas, in order to adjust my navigation schedule. I wanted to overcome the dangerous Cape Finisterre by day. There was a strong fog when I passed him. The fog is very frequent in this region, even during the summer. Fog also at the Cape Villano, a sinister and ghostly place with a cyclopean lighthouse, perched on a black rock. His light pierced the mist with difficulty. At the end of the day I was happy to arrive at A Coronã, a large harbor at the northwest part of Spain. I immediately surrendered in the city to look for an Internet point in order to consult the weather report.
The old part of the city of A Coronã is very nice. The city herself is very interesting and presents beautiful facades and beautiful beaches. On a hill close the sea, there are the famous "Torre de Hercules" (Hercules's Tower) a very old tower serving as beacon for the Roman galleys. A small and old look tram brings the visitors from the harbor.
But I was obliged to leave again despite a weather that stays not nice. Again and again to leave, it is the sailor's life! A morning I rose early and prepared the boat for a navigation that I guess not easy toward the big harbor of Gijon. But, after passed the Cape Ortegal, I met a very hard sea and a violent wind all over. Waves were high. Two strong breaker waves failed to lie down the boat. I understood that it was useless to force the passage. I took a refuge to Viveiro, a pretty small marina at the end of a profoundly ria, behind a fishing harbor.
While arriving to a pontoon at Viveiro, people came to help me to moor my boat. I said them that I didn't hear because they spoke to me. They asked me if I had had problems and I answered "yes" because I could not go to Gijon. Next to my sailboat was a French boat. Aboard there were a couple of retired, Daniel and Véronique. They went to Caribbean but were refugees in Viveiro too because the bad weather. We were completely locked during seven days and this let us time enough to do knowledge. Then each goes toward her destination. Daniel and Véronique are very far now and arrived to Caribbean. We continue to communicate with e-mails. 
This is one of the long navigation charms: it is easy to find new friends and relations because they share same values and same way of life that are slightly out of the mainstream. At the end a disability becomes a simple detail which is not see more along because there are always full of things to tell or exchange and it is that who is important.ails.
The eighth day, the weather was improved; I can leave and navigate on a still agitated sea. After one day and a difficult nightly navigation during them I crossed an enormous oil tanker, I arrived to Gijon who is a nice and modern city. I immediately looked for an Internet point in order to follow the weather reports. I surrendered there every day to supervise the evolution of the sky and winds.
Finally, the fourth day I obtained a window of weather that permitted me to arrive to the Oléron Island about in three days if the time remained steady. It was like a poker strike but that appeared me playable! Then the morning of the following day, when the day was not yet arise, I left Gijon. The first two days gave me some difficulties but the third day was distinctly better. Wind fell so that I must start the engine to permit the boat to advance. I arrived in a small harbor called Saint Denis d'Oléron at the evening of the third day. Exactly the lasting I had calculated! I was very satisfied because I had succeeded to cross the dangerous and bad reputed Bay of Biscay!
I stayed two days in Saint Denis d'Oléron, in order to let pass a small stormy depression. Afterward, the time being stabilized, I left northwards one early morning. I spent by the west of the Ré Island, then between the Yeu Island and the continent. The following night, I was in the East of the Hoëdic Island. Finally I arrived at the entrance of the Golfe du Morbihan whereas the day roses. I had sailed thirty-six hours without sleeping due to the pleasure of the navigation in known waters. Also I was so excited by the arrival. Vannes were now close and it was only a question of hours.
It was passed two months and half since my departure of Martigues. But I had won my challenge. I had proven also that it was possible to sail for the deaf people. Even as single-handed man.
René Legal
Entering the "Golfe du Morbihan". Vannes is not far now!
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The sailor is greeting you ! |
Setted sails |