Beware the Aix mud
LETTERS
I enjoyed Nick Chavasse’s article on sailing around the La Rochelle area (YM, February 2021) and would just like to add a few details. Ile d’aix may be a lovely spot to anchor before going up the Charente, but be aware the bottom is thick, glutinous mud. After having a lunch stop there a few years ago, we had to lay out the anchor and chain on the marina pontoon and scrub it all off. A nearby French yachtsman came by laughing his head off. ‘You’ve been to Aix’, he exclaimed. ‘Everyone has that problem.’
The marina in Rochefort has a certain charm and the town is an 18th-century gem, but the lock sill is very shallow. A yacht of 2m draft is often close to touching going in or out and there are usually a couple of days every month when it does not open due to tide height being too low. It’s best to enquire in La Rochelle or St Denis before heading there, though you can sit on the waiting pontoon in the river if you wish.
The approaches to La Rochelle are also quite shallow but usually passable. However the marina in Minimes is very shallow in places and unless it had been dredged in the last 12 months, boat movements are impossible at the bottom of a big spring tide. Don’t be put off though, this is a lovely sailing area with lots of shoreside attractions. Rex Frost
Nick Chavasse responds: Delighted that you enjoyed my article on the La Rochelle area.
I have known yachts to be stranded in Rochefort for several days and the same can be said of other marinas and ports on this coast. Fortunately market forces, normally in the shape of no visiting yachtsmen, encourage the port authorities to bring in the dredgers when this occurs! It is a constantly changing situation and the prudent mariner might well phone in advance, but actually half the fun is going and having a look. The La Rochelle area is prone to tidal access constraints and you will need to go further north to avoid this. As you say, it is a lovely sailing area with much to offer.