IT issues –
A computer crash has delayed this blog. What a mess! But thankfully due to the efforts of dear friends Nancy & Mark Fox back in Virginia, most of my contacts, data and photos were recovered and downloaded to a new laptop!
So, with my brain back, I remember that we left Brittany, rounded the northwest coast of France and headed for La Rochelle. This was a longer sail – two days and overnight. But we needed to lay some sea miles down to rendezvous with our ultimate fate in Bordeaux. This bit of a rush caused us to skip the Loire Valley. But then you can do anything you want in life, but you can’t do everything.
Port La Rochelle
was bustling in the late 1600’s thriving on vigorous trade with New France (Canada) and the West Indies. Today’s maritime business for La Rochelle are the tourism and sea salt markets. And great restaurants with you betcha great French wine!
Entering Port La Rochelle. Towers date from the 1300’s.
We were looking for our berth. The Capitainerie (port authority) directed us to wait for the green light then go under the bridge to the white tower and tie up. Seems pretty clear but can you see the green light on the bridge? And how wide is the opening? You better be able to ask in French or as we did you just “go for it”.
Guess what type of food Les Flots serves?
Garonne River to Bordeaux –
Our stop after La Rochelle was Bordeaux and the surrounding wine country. It is not easy to get there by boat. The pilot guides, web sites, and other information sources all strongly suggest leaving your boat at Pt. Medoc on the Atlantic end of the Garonne River and visiting Bordeaux by train. All the information is negative – the intense river tidal flow (up to 6+ knots), no marinas, impossible to anchor, river traffic, hostile shores, etc.
Braun was determined leave the Atlantic and go up the Garonne River, 52 miles to Bordeaux and tie up smack in center city. In February he had contacted the Bordeaux Mayor’s office and received special permission to tie up at the downtown Ponton d’Honneur. All we had to do was get there. He figured we understood and could overcome the obstacles and navigate the river. But the hazards that will get you are the ones you don’t know about.
How about a bridge on the River that was too low to pass under? The Pont Chaban-Delmas Bridge. Why wasn’t it mentioned in the guides, charts or other sources? First it is barely two years old and not well known. The nautical publications and web have not picked up on the low center span. And then it is a lifting bridge opening to 50+ meters – plenty of room to pass under. But it only opens for large cruise and war ships, once a month or so!
So we had to call on our secret weapon – Mr. Andre Fromilhague. Andre is a Bordeaux Station Chief for the Cruising Association. CA is an international organization which provides services for cruisers, one of which is resident station chiefs with local knowledge. His help was invaluable to us over weeks that we were in the Bordeaux region.
Andre on the Pearl and on the phone with the French authorities. One of dozens of times on our behalf.
He hopped aboard the OP at Pauillac on our way up the Garonne to Bordeaux and guided us to the bridge. He had learned that an ocean liner was leaving that day and persuaded the bridge authorities when they lifted the bridge to let us “piggy back” our entrance on the ship’s departure. This got us into Bordeaux. Getting out was to be another matter.
The Pont Chaban-Delmas Bridge, span down. A beautiful ultra-contemporary vertical lift bridge built in 2013.
Bridge one half way up with cruise ship in distance ready to come out.
Span up. Takes 20 minutes to raise and stops traffic for 3 hours. They won’t raise for pleasure craft. The bridge opened for the cruise ship, we scooted through and made for a small pontoon – the Ponton d’ Honneur in Bordeaux city.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!
Bordeaux:
We were excited about our arrival in Bordeaux and here are some of the things we did, before we realized we were trapped.
Tied up at the Ponton d’Honneur, city center.
These Irishmen were our neighbors for a couple of days. They had rowed this homemade boat from Belfast! What stories they had but whew!! Do you see a shower on board?
Wine Country –
Bordeaux is the largest, oldest fine wine vineyard region in the world. This matchless cultural treasure has grown out of subtle harmony of soil, landscape and human experience and the origin of the wine chateau concept.
As anyone in their right mind should, we paid homage to the great names of Medoc, north of the city of Bordeaux. Through the quaint villages of Saint-Julien, Pauillac, St.-Estephe and Margaux lies the famous Grands Crus Classes dating back to 1855. Touring and sampling wines at Lynch-Bages, Chateau Grand Larose and Chateau Kirwan was not only a learning experience but a delicious one too!
Little known wine fact – adding a solution of egg whites to wine (“fining”) does a nice job of pulling out excess tannins, suspended particles, etc. that might cause your wine to be overly astringent or bitter. Traditionally used in red wines Burgundy as a way to “smooth out” the rough edges and give more clarity to the wine.
Oh – one French oak barrel costs anywhere from 600 to 800 Euros – good only for 3 years in first quality production of wines and, then used for 2 years for secondary wines.
Posers in front of Chateau Pichon Longueville Baron
Checking wine for clarity
Healthy stash of wine barrels at Chateau Lynch Bages
These roses are in the vineyards at the end of the rows of vines. In prior times when mules were used they knew to turn and plough another row when they came to the roses. Also, roses are weaker than the vines. When the roses are doing poorly they signal that the vines are not far behind, and need tended to.
Delivery to the boat of some of Bordeaux’s finest.
Bordeaux City –
Old main gate to the city.
Grosse Cloche/Prison tower
On the hunt for goodies. FRESH croissonts.
It was in Bordeaux that we had our nephew, Beck (9yrs) and grandson Logan (11yrs) join us on board for a spell of sea time. As Beck would say…it was an “epic” adventure! A few pictures of the young lads…
Biking in Bordeaux
Beeg Fun…!
Departure from Bordeaux – Hotel California.
Ok, we had our fun and now it was time to leave. I and the four boys, Braun, Wayne, Logan and Beck set off from Bordeaux…or, that was the plan. We altered our departure to coincide with another luckily scheduled bridge opening…yes, this time for another cruise ship. However, the day before we were to leave the scheduled bridge opening was suddenly cancelled!
The unrepentant port authority refused to open the bridge and told us to wait for low tide and just go under, there was plenty of clearance for our boat. Oui Monsieur, put that in writing or an email? No way Jose, not a chance.
So we furiously began to calculate our chances of passing under without an opening. The bridge has an air draft of only 37 feet 5 inches at low tide. That’s the height of the bridge at its tallest point, the center, from the water at lowest tide! The height of Ocean Pearl, its air draft, measures 36 feet 11 inches (with antennas down). Do the math, 6 inches clearance!
If there were any chance of getting under the bridge without ripping the superstructure off the boat it had to be at the exact time of low tide. There is lots of information on the tides which are extremely important in this area. Reed’s tide tables, Nobeltec chart plotter, local Bordeaux information broadcast hourly, web sites like marcee.info.com tide predictions, etc. But they all vary and no one really knows for sure
when low tide is.
We combined what we thought was the best data on when was the lowest tide and decided to go for it.
From the side of the bridge, here is the clearance in meters when we went through, dead low tide on that day.
Passing under. BJ is outside looking up, waiting for the crunch, and catastrophe photographer, Wayne Davis is perched on the bow rail. Fortunately we actually had about 18 inches of clearance.
More to come…stay tuned ~
Ocean Pearl Out ~
Tina & Braun
Miss our young swabbies!!
A computer crash has delayed this blog. What a mess! But thankfully due to the efforts of dear friends Nancy & Mark Fox back in Virginia, most of my contacts, data and photos were recovered and downloaded to a new laptop!
So, with my brain back, I remember that we left Brittany, rounded the northwest coast of France and headed for La Rochelle. This was a longer sail – two days and overnight. But we needed to lay some sea miles down to rendezvous with our ultimate fate in Bordeaux. This bit of a rush caused us to skip the Loire Valley. But then you can do anything you want in life, but you can’t do everything.
Port La Rochelle
was bustling in the late 1600’s thriving on vigorous trade with New France (Canada) and the West Indies. Today’s maritime business for La Rochelle are the tourism and sea salt markets. And great restaurants with you betcha great French wine!
Garonne River to Bordeaux –
Our stop after La Rochelle was Bordeaux and the surrounding wine country. It is not easy to get there by boat. The pilot guides, web sites, and other information sources all strongly suggest leaving your boat at Pt. Medoc on the Atlantic end of the Garonne River and visiting Bordeaux by train. All the information is negative – the intense river tidal flow (up to 6+ knots), no marinas, impossible to anchor, river traffic, hostile shores, etc.
Braun was determined leave the Atlantic and go up the Garonne River, 52 miles to Bordeaux and tie up smack in center city. In February he had contacted the Bordeaux Mayor’s office and received special permission to tie up at the downtown Ponton d’Honneur. All we had to do was get there. He figured we understood and could overcome the obstacles and navigate the river. But the hazards that will get you are the ones you don’t know about.
How about a bridge on the River that was too low to pass under? The Pont Chaban-Delmas Bridge. Why wasn’t it mentioned in the guides, charts or other sources? First it is barely two years old and not well known. The nautical publications and web have not picked up on the low center span. And then it is a lifting bridge opening to 50+ meters – plenty of room to pass under. But it only opens for large cruise and war ships, once a month or so!
So we had to call on our secret weapon – Mr. Andre Fromilhague. Andre is a Bordeaux Station Chief for the Cruising Association. CA is an international organization which provides services for cruisers, one of which is resident station chiefs with local knowledge. His help was invaluable to us over weeks that we were in the Bordeaux region.
He hopped aboard the OP at Pauillac on our way up the Garonne to Bordeaux and guided us to the bridge. He had learned that an ocean liner was leaving that day and persuaded the bridge authorities when they lifted the bridge to let us “piggy back” our entrance on the ship’s departure. This got us into Bordeaux. Getting out was to be another matter.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!
Bordeaux:
We were excited about our arrival in Bordeaux and here are some of the things we did, before we realized we were trapped.
Wine Country –
Bordeaux is the largest, oldest fine wine vineyard region in the world. This matchless cultural treasure has grown out of subtle harmony of soil, landscape and human experience and the origin of the wine chateau concept.
As anyone in their right mind should, we paid homage to the great names of Medoc, north of the city of Bordeaux. Through the quaint villages of Saint-Julien, Pauillac, St.-Estephe and Margaux lies the famous Grands Crus Classes dating back to 1855. Touring and sampling wines at Lynch-Bages, Chateau Grand Larose and Chateau Kirwan was not only a learning experience but a delicious one too!
Little known wine fact – adding a solution of egg whites to wine (“fining”) does a nice job of pulling out excess tannins, suspended particles, etc. that might cause your wine to be overly astringent or bitter. Traditionally used in red wines Burgundy as a way to “smooth out” the rough edges and give more clarity to the wine.
Oh – one French oak barrel costs anywhere from 600 to 800 Euros – good only for 3 years in first quality production of wines and, then used for 2 years for secondary wines.
Bordeaux City –
It was in Bordeaux that we had our nephew, Beck (9yrs) and grandson Logan (11yrs) join us on board for a spell of sea time. As Beck would say…it was an “epic” adventure! A few pictures of the young lads…
Departure from Bordeaux – Hotel California.
Ok, we had our fun and now it was time to leave. I and the four boys, Braun, Wayne, Logan and Beck set off from Bordeaux…or, that was the plan. We altered our departure to coincide with another luckily scheduled bridge opening…yes, this time for another cruise ship. However, the day before we were to leave the scheduled bridge opening was suddenly cancelled!
The unrepentant port authority refused to open the bridge and told us to wait for low tide and just go under, there was plenty of clearance for our boat. Oui Monsieur, put that in writing or an email? No way Jose, not a chance.
So we furiously began to calculate our chances of passing under without an opening. The bridge has an air draft of only 37 feet 5 inches at low tide. That’s the height of the bridge at its tallest point, the center, from the water at lowest tide! The height of Ocean Pearl, its air draft, measures 36 feet 11 inches (with antennas down). Do the math, 6 inches clearance!
If there were any chance of getting under the bridge without ripping the superstructure off the boat it had to be at the exact time of low tide. There is lots of information on the tides which are extremely important in this area. Reed’s tide tables, Nobeltec chart plotter, local Bordeaux information broadcast hourly, web sites like marcee.info.com tide predictions, etc. But they all vary and no one really knows for sure
when low tide is.
We combined what we thought was the best data on when was the lowest tide and decided to go for it.
From the side of the bridge, here is the clearance in meters when we went through, dead low tide on that day.
More to come…stay tuned ~
Ocean Pearl Out ~
Tina & Braun
SUBJECT: Re: Mission Impossible…??
What a delightful and beautiful blog you have produced. Such an entertaining read, and with those photos!
Be safe and keep them coming!
Respectfully,
Dan
Sent from my iPhone
> On Aug 24, 2015, at 1:53 PM, Ocean Pearl wrote:
>
>
SUBJECT: Re: Mission Impossible…??
Loved the report, hon.
Wow – what an adventure, to say the least. I trust that your boat insurance premium was paid prior to “go for it” with the bridge!
My favorite photo is of you, Braun and the 2 cuties – aerate!
See you in Sep.
xoxox
On Aug 24, 2015, at 1:53 PM, Ocean Pearl wrote:
SUBJECT: Re: Mission Impossible…??
Tina,
I look forward to your travels; like reading a book and being taken on a
trip…..
Glad you are all doing great….. Interesting part about the bridge…..
Went to Jupiter Yacht Club the other day; I live nearby at a smaller
community called Jupiter Harbour located by the draw bridge on the Jupiter
Inlet. Met the new dockmaster, John, who knew who I was. We spoke about
SUBJECT: Re: Mission impossible—-
Not sure you are getting this since I had to resend twice. I think it’s because although I am Lou@l…, my outgoing messages read loucoppola@i…, ugh!
Glad all is going well.
On Aug 24, 2015, at 3:13 PM, Lou Coppola wrote:
Glad you made it out. My palms were starting to get sweaty.
Same pix, just a little bit brighter.
SUBJECT: Re: Mission Impossible…??
Big, big thanks for continuing to let us follow your travels. What a wonderful adventure. We hope to see more of you in Mustique next January. Keep up the news and all the best in the meantime, Walter
On Aug 24, 2015, at 1:53 PM, Ocean Pearl wrote:
>
SUBJECT: Re: Mission Impossible…??
Dear Friends,
Thank you for your report from Bordeaux!
Sometime in future it would be nice to visit the Greek Islands.
Strati HADJIYIANNAKI Capt.
—– Original Message —–
From: Ocean Pearl
To: stratih@o…
Sent: Monday, August 24, 2015 8:53 PM
Subject: Mission Impossible…??
SUBJECT: Re: Mission Impossible…??
Hi Tina and Braun,
Great to read your blog and hear about your adventures. Very brave of you attempting the Bordeaux bridge. We”re off the Deauville in France with Skomer later in the week and your adventures have whetted our appetite.
Bon VoyageDave
SkomerSt Katharine DocksLondon
Sent from my Samsung device
——– Original message ——–
From: Ocean Pearl
Date: 24/08/2015 18:53 (GMT+00:00)
To: dave@o…
Subject: Mission Impossible…??
SUBJECT: Re: Mission Impossible…??
Tina
I loved reading your France blog!! Amazing trip and tricky math..similar to fitting furniture into Nicole”s new nyc apartment! See photo not an inch to spare!
Marianne Burkart
Tishman Speyer
202-329-5159
> On Aug 24, 2015, at 1:53 PM, Ocean Pearl wrote:
>
>
SUBJECT: Re: Mission Impossible…??
Braun & Tina,
Thanks for the update. Sounds like a great trip. Maybe it will help to inspire Diane to bring the boat to Europe some day. I was wondering how the GSSR reunion was going. Did you guys ever all get together?
We have had a great summer with the new boat. We love the 57! We didn”t make it to Kodiak Island but we did cross the Gulf of Alaska and cruised Prince Williams Sound. Absolutely beautiful there and almost no cruising boats to be seen. Lots of fish boats, whales, Eagles and glaciers. You know…..Alaska stuff.
As I write this we are making our way across the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Tomorrow we have an overnighter to Newport, OR. After that we have a six day non-stop past Calif and into Ensenada. We”ll leave the boat there for awhile and then head further south in November. We”re ready for some wArm water! If you see Ken & Roberta tell them that we hope that we can catch up with them in Cabo. Also say hi to Steve & Carol.
Keep in touch!
Cheers,
Stan & Diane
Sent from my iPhone
> On Aug 24, 2015, at 10:53 AM, Ocean Pearl wrote:
>
>
SUBJECT: Re: Mission Impossible…??
Great account Tina–enjoyed immensely!
Way to go Braun!!!
Have done the ICW three times now Jacks to Solomon”s Island and I get real nervous if I have less than two or three feet of clearance.
Greg
Sent from my iPhone
> On Aug 24, 2015, at 1:53 PM, Ocean Pearl wrote:
>
>
SUBJECT: Re: Mission Impossible…??
Great photos!
Alex
Alex Gambal
14 blvd. Jules Ferry
21200 Beaune
03 80 22 75 81
03 80 22 21 66 FAX
alex@a…
On 24 Aug 2015, at 19:53, Ocean Pearl wrote:
>
SUBJECT: Re: Mission Impossible…??
Hi Tina
Good to hear from you again. And an interesting time you have had. Good reading 🙂
We are more or less done with our Danish summer. One more party on the boat, on Saturday, and we turn south. UK, channel Islands, La Curuna, Lisbon Portugal and the Algarve coast are the headings in our plans.
We expect to be back in Gran Canaria by mid/end of October.
I read about Ken and Robertas changed plans for the winter, back to Seattle. How does that change your plans? Will you still ship to Charlotte Amalie from Mallorca? Do you plan to do the Cuba Nordhavn meeting many has talked about?
At this point we plan to cross over to the Caribean this winter and are considering when it would be best for us. It could be fun to meet somewhere overthere.. 🙂
MY l”Adagio
Laust Sondergaard
Captain
Presently: Denmark – en route from Bornholm to Cph.
Denmark: Mob +45 42614834
Sattelite Phone: +88 167 773 3906
> On 24 Aug 2015, at 19:53, Ocean Pearl wrote:
>
>
SUBJECT: Re: Mission Impossible…??
Outstanding! Heartbreak about the computer
but the bridge drama was nailbiting.at least
you ate and drank well in Bourdeaux, keep
them coming
All is well on this end, we”re actually having
a cool and dry August, Pat Olliphant and wife
Susan were in town and had dinner with Jim
last night ,everyone in fine form
Where will you leave the boat for the winter?
We look forward to your return
Best, Billy Dee
williamdunlap.com
786-512-7451
Follow me on Instagram and @billyd_bill on Twitter
> On Aug 24, 2015, at 1:53 PM, Ocean Pearl wrote:
>
>
SUBJECT: RE: Mission Impossible…??
From: Ocean Pearl [mailto:blog-17828-comments@t…]
Sent: Monday, August 24, 2015 1:53 PM
To: mberra@v…
Subject: Mission Impossible…??
Bonjour!
You might have created a new sport…..yacht Limbo dancing! Loved this post and looking forward to more!
Cheers,
Marcy
SUBJECT: Re: Mission Impossible…??
Good to hear from you. Don”t know how to not type below the line!! But great to hear from you
nevertheless. Sounds like you continue to have wonderful experiences with your travels around the
world. Love, Bronnie
—–Original Message—–
From: Ocean Pearl
To: abacusexch
Sent: Mon, Aug 24, 2015 1:53 pm
Subject: Mission Impossible…??
SUBJECT: RE: Mission Impossible…??
What an unfortunate squandering of a special moment! While Braun was loading the Bordeaux on board, where was The Red Cup, filled to the brim with wine country”s finest?
Steven Argosy
MV Seabird
N6204
Barcelona
From: Ocean Pearl [mailto:blog-17828-comments@t…]
Sent: Monday, August 24, 2015 7:53 PM
To: sargosy@o…
Subject: Mission Impossible…??
SUBJECT: Re: Mission Impossible…??
Great stuff-gutsy with that bridge. Hope you”re bringing some nice Margaux home! W
Sent from my iPad
> On Aug 24, 2015, at 1:53 PM, Ocean Pearl wrote:
>
>
SUBJECT: REPLY TO;;;RE: Mission Impossible…??
ahoy oc AND MORTALS,
CRACKING GOOD PICTURES OF La Rochelle,thank you.talking of IT.i just installed Windows 10 and my super computer has regained some of the super speed I have got used to and the clarity of images and definition of lettering is quite remarkable event by todays standards abiet it is a 4 core AMD fireblade desktop with 1920×1200 26″monitor so it should show a pretty picture. but I get thru laptops like they”re going out of fashion. I haven”t had one yet that”s outlived its guarantee.so this time I bout a dell thinking it can run my small business comms- what a mistake that was”,
I never liked dell cos they always seemed to be at the back of class when it came being lively and they haven”t changed, this one its slow its like the old days on win 98. that”s why i”m on this desktop instead of stretched out in bed doing this in comfort instead thinking of cutting this short cos spines playing up again and i”m in lots of pain.leannes darts are going well, she”s been doing really well in super league and was an early select for the County team in 2 weeks time at home locally in north London,Rayners Lane.wel that”s it be well be safe be good and god bless. roy and Leanne palmer in London England.x
Message Received: Aug 24 2015, 06:53 PM
From: “Ocean Pearl”
To: snowgoose@f…
Cc:
Subject: Mission Impossible…??
SUBJECT: RE: Mission Impossible…??
Great adventures continue!
From: blog-17828-comments@t…
Subject: Mission Impossible…??
To: rlaface@h…
Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2015 17:53:27 +0000
SUBJECT: Re: Mission Impossible…??
Glad to be back to the adventure. Thanks for sharing, Bill
On 8/24/2015 1:53 PM, Ocean Pearl wrote:
> ———————— If you reply, DO NOT type below this line
> ————————–
>
> *
> IT issues -* A computer crash has delayed this blog. What a mess!
> But thankfully due to the efforts of dear friends Nancy & Mark Fox
> back in Virginia, most of my contacts, data and photos were recovered
> and downloaded to a new laptop!
>
> So, with my brain back, I remember that we left Brittany, rounded the
> northwest coast of France and headed for La Rochelle. This was a
> longer sail – two days and overnight. But we needed to lay some sea
> miles down to rendezvous with our ultimate fate in Bordeaux. This bit
> of a rush caused us to skip the Loire Valley. /But then you can do
> anything you want in life, but you can’t do everything./
>
> *Port La Rochelle* was bustling in the late 1600’s thriving on
> vigorous trade with New France (Canada) and the West Indies. Today’s
> maritime business for La Rochelle are the tourism and sea salt
> markets. And great restaurants with you betcha great French wine!
>
>
> Entering Port La Rochelle. Towers date from the 1300’s.
>
>
> We were looking for our berth. The Capitainerie (port authority)
> directed us to wait for the green light then go under the bridge to
> the white tower and tie up. Seems pretty clear but can you see the
> green light on the bridge? And how wide is the opening? You better be
> able to ask in French or as we did you just “go for it”.
>
>
> Guess what type of food Les Flots serves?
>
> *
> Garonne River to Bordeaux -* Our stop after La Rochelle was Bordeaux
> and the surrounding wine country. It is not easy to get there by boat.
> The pilot guides, web sites, and other information sources all
> strongly suggest leaving your boat at Pt. Medoc on the Atlantic end of
> the Garonne River and visiting Bordeaux by train. All the information
> is negative – the intense river tidal flow (up to 6+ knots), no
> marinas, impossible to anchor, river traffic, hostile shores, etc.
>
> Braun was determined leave the Atlantic and go up the Garonne River,
> 52 miles to Bordeaux and tie up smack in center city. In February he
> had contacted the Bordeaux Mayor’s office and received special
> permission to tie up at the downtown Ponton d’Honneur. All we had to
> do was get there. He figured we understood and could overcome the
> obstacles and navigate the river. /But the hazards that will get you
> are the ones you don’t know about./
>
> How about a bridge on the River that was too low to pass under? The
> Pont Chaban-Delmas Bridge. Why wasn’t it mentioned in the guides,
> charts or other sources? First it is barely two years old and not well
> known. The nautical publications and web have not picked up on the low
> center span. And then it is a lifting bridge opening to 50+ meters –
> plenty of room to pass under. /But it only opens for large cruise and
> war ships, once a month or so!/
>
> So we had to call on our secret weapon – Mr. Andre Fromilhague. Andre
> is a Bordeaux Station Chief for the Cruising Association. CA is an
> international organization which provides services for cruisers, one
> of which is resident station chiefs with local knowledge. His help was
> invaluable to us over weeks that we were in the Bordeaux region.
>
>
> Andre on the Pearl and on the phone with the French authorities. One
> of dozens of times on our behalf.
>
>
> He hopped aboard the OP at Pauillac on our way up the Garonne to
> Bordeaux and guided us to the bridge. He had learned that an ocean
> liner was leaving that day and persuaded the bridge authorities when
> they lifted the bridge to let us “piggy back” our entrance on the
> ship’s departure. This got us into Bordeaux. /Getting out was to be
> another matter.
>
>
> /The Pont Chaban-Delmas Bridge, span down. A beautiful
> ultra-contemporary vertical lift bridge built in 2013./
> /
>
>
> Bridge one half way up with cruise ship in distance ready to come out.
>
>
>
> Span up. Takes 20 minutes to raise and stops traffic for 3 hours. They
> won’t raise for pleasure craft. The bridge opened for the cruise ship,
> we scooted through and made for a small pontoon – the Ponton d’
> Honneur in Bordeaux city.
>
> MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!
>
> *
> Bordeaux:* We were excited about our arrival in Bordeaux and here are
> some of the things we did, /before we realized we were trapped/.
>
>
> Tied up at the Ponton d’Honneur, city center.
>
>
> These Irishmen were our neighbors for a couple of days. They had rowed
> this homemade boat from Belfast! What stories they had but whew!! Do
> you see a shower on board?
>
> *
> Wine Country – *Bordeaux is the largest, oldest fine wine vineyard
> region in the world. This matchless cultural treasure has grown out of
> subtle harmony of soil, landscape and human experience and the origin
> of the wine chateau concept.
>
> As anyone in their right mind should, we paid homage to the great
> names of Medoc, north of the city of Bordeaux. Through the quaint
> villages of Saint-Julien, Pauillac, St.-Estephe and Margaux lies the
> famous Grands Crus Classes dating back to 1855. Touring and sampling
> wines at Lynch-Bages, Chateau Grand Larose and Chateau Kirwan was not
> only a learning experience but a delicious one too!
>
> Little known wine fact – adding a solution of egg whites to wine
> (“fining”) does a nice job of pulling out excess tannins, suspended
> particles, etc. that might cause your wine to be overly astringent or
> bitter. Traditionally used in red wines Burgundy as a way to “smooth
> out” the rough edges and give more clarity to the wine.
>
> Oh – one French oak barrel costs anywhere from 600 to 800 Euros – good
> only for 3 years in first quality production of wines and, then used
> for 2 years for secondary wines.
>
>
> Posers in front of Chateau Pichon Longueville Baron
>
>
>
> Checking wine for clarity
>
>
> Healthy stash of wine barrels at Chateau Lynch Bages
>
>
>
> These roses are in the vineyards at the end of the rows of vines. In
> prior times when mules were used they knew to turn and plough another
> row when they came to the roses. Also, roses are weaker than the
> vines. When the roses are doing poorly they signal that the vines are
> not far behind, and need tended to.
>
>
> Delivery to the boat of some of Bordeaux’s finest.
>
> *
> Bordeaux City – *
>
>
> Old main gate to the city.
>
>
>
> Grosse Cloche/Prison tower
>
>
> On the hunt for goodies. FRESH croissonts.
>
>
> It was in Bordeaux that we had our nephew, Beck (9yrs) and grandson
> Logan (11yrs) join us on board for a spell of sea time. As Beck would
> say…it was an “epic” adventure! A few pictures of the young lads…
>
>
> Biking in Bordeaux
>
>
>
>
>
> Beeg Fun…!
>
> *
> Departure from Bordeaux – Hotel California. *Ok, we had our fun and
> now it was time to leave. I and the four boys, Braun, Wayne, Logan and
> Beck set off from Bordeaux…or, that was the plan. We altered our
> departure to coincide with another luckily scheduled bridge
> opening…yes, this time for another cruise ship. However, the day
> before we were to leave the scheduled bridge opening was suddenly
> cancelled!
>
> The unrepentant port authority refused to open the bridge and told us
> to wait for low tide and just go under, there was plenty of clearance
> for our boat. Oui Monsieur, put that in writing or an email? No way
> Jose, not a chance.
>
> So we furiously began to calculate our chances of passing under
> without an opening. The bridge has an air draft of only 37 feet 5
> inches at low tide. That’s the height of the bridge at its tallest
> point, the center, from the water at lowest tide! The height of Ocean
> Pearl, its air draft, measures 36 feet 11 inches (with antennas down).
> Do the math, 6 inches clearance!
>
> If there were any chance of getting under the bridge without ripping
> the superstructure off the boat it had to be at the exact time of low
> tide. There is lots of information on the tides which are extremely
> important in this area. Reed’s tide tables, Nobeltec chart plotter,
> local Bordeaux information broadcast hourly, web sites like
> marcee.info.com tide predictions, etc. */But they all vary and no one
> really knows for sure/* */when low tide is./*
>
> We combined what we thought was the best data on when was the lowest
> tide and decided to go for it.
> From the side of the bridge, here is the level of the water in meters
> when we went through, dead low tide on that day.
>
>
>
> From the side of the bridge, here is the level of the water in meters
> when we went through, dead low tide on that day.
>
> Passing under. BJ is outside looking up, waiting for the crunch, and
> catastrophe photographer, Wayne Davis is perched on the bow rail.
> Fortunately we actually had about 18 inches of clearance.
>
> *More to come…stay tuned ~
>
> Ocean Pearl Out ~
> Tina & Braun
> *
>
>
> Miss our young swabbies!!
>
> //
>
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SUBJECT: Re: Mission Impossible…??
My Dear, have delayed responding because there is so much to absorb. You do know I am living vicariously thru your wonderful blogs. Quick question – that unique up and down bridge that make some boats wait a long time, for no understandable reason except les graft! If I had another life it would be as a traveling historian (are we not devastated with the ISIS destruction in Allepo, Syria – at least we were there but such barbarians – much like past history. Or, my other desire would be a marine biologist who can fly a helicopter – in the air and under the sea – o.k. I did one!
I brought Bibbs home with 3 prescriptions and special food. She is now at my side at the computer in her furry doughtnut doing some grooming – I am on a schedule like caring for a baby. I have to orally insert meds (next one at 10 PM) for the next 4 days to curb vomiting and encourage appetite. My first administration of a pill was not well accepted – but who is the caregiver here. She doesn”t look forgiving but we are going to have some talks on the next pill invasions. I bought a cat tree, she glanced at it and then opted for a spot in the delivery box! Can”t wait for you to meet her – the staff at the hospital loved her but she was a challenging patient.
So love you,
Mom
—–Original Message—–
From: Ocean Pearl
To: maraleeco
Sent: Mon, Aug 24, 2015 12:53 pm
Subject: Mission Impossible…??