We visited les Sables d’Olonne in January 2025, watched two participants in the Vendee Globe finish and then crossed the Gironde Estuary from Royan to le Verdon-sur-Mer by ferry, retracing part of the passage of ‘Cachalot’ in 1955.

Several years ago we discovered an article in ‘Yachting Monthly’ written by her then owner, Edward Elwyn Nott-Bower. He describes his last voyage in ‘Cachalot’, departing Crosshaven near Cork Harbour, Ireland on 9 June, 1955 with his wife, Angela and their daughter Jill. Their passage took them down the coast of France to les Sables d’Olonne, into the Gironde Estuary and on to Bordeaux then through the French canals to Sète, crossing to the Balearics and finally leaving her, laid up afloat, in Andraitx, Majorca.

Our interest in this article led us to visit Sète in February 2023 and this year found us at Sables d’Olonne and Port Bloc. Sadly, the ferry crossing today was in thick fog but we found Port Bloc, the sky cleared and the sun shone as we explored the small port which has not changed very much based on some old photographs on boards around the docks and a History of Port Bloc with archive photographs by the Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Inventaire général du patrimoine culturel [in French].

The following extract is from ‘Seeking the Sun: how we took our old 8 ton cutter from Cork to Majorca in the summer of 1955’, by E E Nott-Bower, published in ‘Yachting Monthly’, May 1956.

“We had intended to call at Ile d’Yeu, but the lights of Port Breton as we passed were so indeterminate that we ran on and entered the attractive fishing port of Les Sables d’Olonne in morning sunshine. An odd place this, in that by walking through some fishy back streets one suddenly emerges on a vast and fashionable plage lined with gleaming hotels and casinos. Having donned suitable disguises we plunged into this atmosphere and enjoyed the two hours or so which usually exhaust the charm of such places.” 

“This southward sail from Ireland to the Gironde was almost fantastic in that only once for a few hours did the wind come forward of the beam. From Les Sables to the Gironde entrance it was a beam wind, steady and moderate, and a sea of which the most delicate mariner could scarcely complain. Even the Gironde entrance, which we reached on 25 June, 1955 presented a smiling countenance, very different from its vicious aspect when we had sailed out of it seven years earlier after three days of westerly gales. We anchored for a day at Port Bloc, a pleasant little harbour at the southern point of the estuary, and then sailed sixteen miles up river to an old haunt of ours, S. Christoly de Medoc. It was here that we had left our last boat, ‘Smew’, a ten-ton cutter, for a winter in the care of the charming Vigneaud family, whose welcome now would have made the voyage worthwhile for that alone. Here again was Robert, the son, seven years ago a swaggering youth determined to impress Jill with his manly prowess, now married and matured but still retaining a trace of his youthful showmanship.” 

“As we did not float in the S. Christoly creek till two hours before high tide when we moved out on 28 June we had little hope of reaching Bordeaux. However a good westerly breeze hardened during the day and we were able to sail on through the ebb without difficulty. We had now to face the problem of getting our mast down before entering the canal which would take us to Sète on the Mediterranean coast, and we found the answer readily forthcoming at the most convenient place, about three miles short of Bordeaux. Here, on the starboard hand as you go up, is the headquarters of the Sport Nautique de la Gironde. Numerous yachts are moored here and a high steel girder landing stage is built out into the river. At slack tide, guided by the club’s factotum, a very small agile and excitable Breton, we manoeuvred ‘Cachalot’ under the girders. All was ready except for knocking out the wedges which seemed to have been put in with glue. There was only one set of tools which the little man thought he could wield best on deck while I was convinced that the region of the cabin table would be the more fruitful field.“