Meteofrance promised winds at Beaufort 4 for my sail down to Ile de Ré this morning, but as so many other times on this trip it was a complete miss. The first two hours I made about 5 miles, mostly assisted by the current, sometimes by some occasional puff on the sails. At eleven there was no wind at all, so I fired up the engine and went the rest of the way like that. Which I find utterly charmless, at least when I have to do it for hours. The forecasts are normally good at predicting strong winds, but when it comes to winds below, say 15 knots, it seems most like wild guesses. Extremely frustrating when it happens time after time.

I hadn´t been at the anchorage for long before the wind piped up (as forecasted) to 15 knots, gusting over 20 and increasing during the evening. I anchored in a bay on the west side of the island, hoping for shelter for the strong northwesterlies, but the land is so low it offers very little protection, especially since the bay is very shallow, so I had to drop the hook at least a kilometer from the shore. I was not tempted to row back and forth in this weather, I stay on the boat until tomorrow, when I put the bike in the dinghy and go to explore the island. It is too big to walk around by foot, and I think I will need two days at least by bike to sea all of it. It is supposed to be very pretty (and upmarket, it is a famous hangout for chic people from Paris). Pictures will come (if weather allows).