Sabado Santo, or Easter Sturday has always een a very special day. For years I have been in Morales on this day. It is the day where everyone goes to eat in the bodegas. This involves spending all morning preparing the meal and, just as the meal is ready, escaping to visit all the other bodegas and eat and drink their food and wine. Having lunch at five in the afternoon was a traditional option.

This year, no Morales.

Instead, an early start and we boarded Doro-san with minutes to spare with the tide going out very fast. We threw in our stuff, unshackled and left the mooring just in time.

Lali, Boris and I had decided to cross to the other side of the estuary, go past the ports and beaches of Pornichet, la Baule, Escoublac and reach “la pointe du Croisic” where the bay of le Croisic starts, from which one can get to Quiberon bay and the islands of Houat and Belle-Ile.

We had little wind to start with but things got rapidly better and with a nice starboard reach and 8 knots we got to the pointe in three hours and a half. There we turned, had our lunch and cruised back. The wind did get up a little and a steady force 4 pushed us all the way back to the part at a speed of up to 6 knots.

Doro-san responded greatly. It was the first time we had been able to maintain those speeds and this is good news as it means that we can now hope for more ambitious expeditions.