Biscay

It was the 9^th of July. Our fridge had been replaced, and we were keen to make progress. We cancelled our planned trip to Royan, opting instead to try and make up some lost time by heading straight for Spain.

The book says that Biscay rarely lives up to it's fearsome reputation in the Summer months, and the weather forecast was for calm. It wasn't comforting. Twenty years ago my sister and her husband were capsized and lost their mast in a Biscay storm. Aside from the natural dangers, the French military have a firing range, thirty miles out to sea for the southern half of the French coast. I hid my anxiety from Catherine as best I could

We filled up with diesel in Minimes on the way out of La Rochelle. My plan had been to deflate the dinghy and stow it, but we'd run out of time the night before, Port Rot had simply left us with too much to do. Instead I thought we could do it while we were waiting for the fuel berth to open. No such luck. We got there at 7:45, 15 minutes before opening time and there was already a queue. We attempted to bring it aboard while underway, but it's a 3.8 metre dinghy, and we just tired ourselves out.

Never mind, we've towed it this far, we can tow it to Spain. Accepting defeat I went below to make a reviving cuppa. Meanwhile a large motorboat nearby took Catherine's interest in the cockpit. She watched with some envy as a large mechanical davit craned its much more substantial dinghy, a RIB, into the water. She turned the binoculars to see the name, “D – U something” she said, then “- A – N – E - S, Duanes” she said as the RIB came straight towards us. “I think we're going to have visitors”. Cuppa was postponed.

Now anyone who imports a boat and registers it on the Irish Ships' Register is most likely going to encounter Irish Customs. As we bought Aragorn, and our first boat in the UK, we found it particularly useful to contact Customs beforehand. Ronnie Lyons, whom we dealt with was very helpful, giving us good advice about how to ensure we got all the correct paperwork for VAT etc. He also giving us information on the other, sometimes dangerous, work that the customs office perform.

With the background of this positive experience, a visit from the Duaneries was an exciting distraction and we welcomed the two men and one woman from French Customs aboard with smiles and bienvenues. I think our relaxed attitude unsettled them a little at first, but they quickly relaxed as our sincerity won through. That aside, I was a bit unnerved by the pistols they all wore on their belts and the remaining Customs man keeping careful watch over us in the RIB twenty yards off our beam. A further twenty yards out the Duane's mothership also matched our pace, I wondered what firepower they had pointing at us. Paperwork all checked and in order, they accepted our word that we had neither drugs nor guns aboard, they had a token glance in a few of Aragorn's lockers and were gone.

The rest of our trip across Biscay was a uneventful, in calm seas and light winds it took us thirty two hours to motor sail to Spain. However we had extracted a trophy from our Biscay crossing, as before Les Duanes left we got them all to sign our visitors book.

Copyright © Pat Egan, 2008, All rights reserved.