Saint-Nazaire

Hello, we left Pornichet on Saturday it was still windy but had eased overnight so seas a little less disturbed. We headed along the coast, and managed to stay fairly close in as we moved towards St Nazaire. Per the Almanac we had to enter the east lock, i radioed ahead and they confirmed next opening would be 12:10. So we tied to a random wall had a cuppa and waited. While waiting we realised that we were moored at the seaward end of the submarine pen for the Espadon, the sub that visitors can walk around and that has a viewing gallery above it which explained the random voices we could hear.
Well they let us into the Bassin de St Nazaire and we tried to figure out where to go, there were a few fishing boats on one side, a couple of yachts in a corner and the Loire princess on one edge, that's the paddle boat that does Loire river cruises, looked very plush. In the end we decided to moor along side the pontoon directly in front of the old submarine pens where it said don't moor without permission of the mayor, this was secure as doors to pontoon locked and we would have to use dingy whereas everywhere else was along side the Bassin edge and anyone could walk aboard. The 2books we have gave different opinions on where we should go and neither option looked viable, but we did do as recommended and headed for the Capitainnerie to tell them where we were, pay our dues and leave phone number in case boat needed to be moved. However Capitainnairie weren't interested we had to talk to intercom they didn't let us into building we tried to explain we wanted to stay for 2 nights and where we were, they decided it was gratuit (free).
Has been a nice quiet couple of nights OK so no power or elec but peaceful even though only 5mins to beach and 2mins to supermarket and Randun Bleu (or similar) shopping precinct and town centre.
On Saturday we wondered around town but today we went to junk market, really was rubbish, then around harbour before short 5km jog then after lunch a walk on the Promenade towards St Marc where we ended up on Friday on our walk from Pornichet. Tomorrow we plan to head to Pornic for a couple of nights before anchoring off the islands of Noirmotier or isle d'yeu. Photos on other device so to followEn savoir plus