We knew a storm was in the offing. We were living aboard ‘Bolero’ a Moody 376 sailing yacht, in the marina at Les Sables d’Olonne on the west coast of France

But our minds were full of two other things as we approached the “New Millenium”.
One was the much advertised ‘Millenium Bug’ which was possibly going to return all clocks to zero, and render unusable all the navigation instruments on which we had come to rely…… The other was the ‘Mare Noire’ (Black sea). A few days earlier, the oil tanker ‘Erika’ had sunk of the west coast of France, spewing oil into the sea and onto the coastline. We had volunteered for duty searching the rocky shore for oil-damaged birds, equipped with huge gauntlets and cardboard animal carriers, and our trusty Brompton bikes.

Now, as the wind began to strengthen, as a precaution, we doubled up all the shorelines on the boat. The wind was getting up and there was an air of worried anticipation everywhere.

We took a walk to the end of the pier…or as far as we could get …..mountainous seas were breaking over the famous wall, from alongside which the sailors in the Vendee Globe Solo Circumnavigation Races, leave and return.

The impending storm took over as the prime the topic of conversation…. but our coffee break in a favourite bar was spoiled by an electricity cut….. We returned to the boat for an early meal…. ‘In case it gets too difficult to cook later on’

At seven pm, as we were finishing the washing up, there was a crash and the boat heeled hard to port.

Donning wet gear, we dashed on deck to find that we, and several hundred other boats were being flattened by the strongest wind that we had ever experiended, either at sea or in port. The port rails were in danger of being trapped under the pontoon… the likely consequence being holing the hull and then sinking.

For two hours, I was on the deck and Dave on the pontoon, both trying to get fenders in place to protect the hull. My shouts of ‘Mind your hands’…. became … ‘mind your arms’… then ‘mind your legs’ … as the wind and waves got bigger and stronger.

Then at nine pm, came another even louder crack. Looking up, I saw that all the boats on the opposite side of the pontoon (none of them occupied) were drifting away towards to sea, along with their sturdy pontoons.

Dashing below, I called the ‘Capitanerie’ on the radio, to report this latest calamity. (It had not ocurred to us to call for help for ourselves and our own boat)

Within minutes the heaving pontoon was swarming with strong young men. They tried in vain to rescue the drifting boats and gave up, and turned their attention to us and our predicament. What a relief!

Extra long lines and chains were brought to secure our boat and the pontoon to the shore. But then as bits of masts and radars started flying around, M. Jean Archambaud, the Port Captain, declared the marina a ‘No Go Area’ and we were taken ashore by strong hands, leaving our beloved home to the mercy of the storm.

Only two boats were occupied that night… the couple on the other one quickly left to stay with friends and we were offered a bed aboard the lifeboat alongside the sea wall. We politely refused as we thought it likely that it might be called out… but we were given bedding from it and put into ‘the clubhouse’ for safety. (Indeed, there was a ‘shout’ at midnight and the lifeboat was out all night)

Our refuge was a glass walled octagonal building. We spent eight cold wet terrifying hours in it, watching chimneys, trees, TV aerials etc etc, flying by…. then at daybreak, with the wind now down to just a gale force eight…. we dared to creep outside and go to see how ‘Bolero’ had fared.

Amazingly, she was afloat, with only one broken stanchion to show for her night of horror. We had really feared to worst, and had expected to see mooring lines leading down to her watery grave!

Elsewhere was total devastation

Dozens of large yachts and their accompanying pontoons had been washed away… mostly landing in untidy heaps on the other side of the marina, where the Vendee Globe yachts line up so proudly every four years before their circumnavigations.

Most of the boats lined up on the hardstanding were flattened, telephone lines were all down. Trees were uprooted. Chimneys and roofs were gone. Boats were sunk. Cars were overturned.

Once the storm had abated, we became aware of just how fortunate we had been. The strongest wind of the storm had been recorded just south of us at Oleron. At nearby La Rochelle, pontoons and boats were washed ashore where they demolished the marina headquarters, with great loss of life.

In the aftermath, we were the fortunate ones. On land, there were no telephones, electricity or water supplies for days… but we were self sufficient. We had solar power, a wind generator, a diesel generator, full water tanks and a boat full of food. And a mobile phone charged from an inverter.

We were happy to try to repay our saviours from the storm, as they endeavoured to sort out their broken marina, by providing cups of coffee and snacks all day.

By December 28th, the folk were getting their acts together, fallen trees were sawn up and roads were cleared. People were on the move again. We had many visits from local people, offering accommodation, washing facilities, drying rooms, meals, etc etc.

The best invite of all was from former neighbours in the marina the previous summer…. they asked us to join them for their fabulous millenium meal…. Twenty people at table for a feast that lasted 48 hours!

Ten years on… and it all seems like yesterday!

Fears had been expressed about the welfare of some of the greyhounds whose owners might not wish to continue to care for them.

All the animal welfare charities agreed to combine forces to ensure that temporary shelter could be found for any animal who needed it, and after the last race, there were people at the stadium ready with mobile kennels to take any unwanted animals to a safe place.

Many animals were saved.

Sadly though, two greyhounds were turfed out by their owner to fend for themselves in the very cold night air, and the busy streets of Swansea.

Many volunteers from various animal charities have spent hours today, searchimg streets and fields looking for these two poor greyhounds. We know that they have both already been hit by cars and are injured. This could lead them to try to shelter somewhere… as dogs do….and the first frost of the winter is forecast here for tonight…. but they need veterinary attention as soon as possible!

Our best hope is that some kind people have taken them in to care for them….
If you know of their whereabouts, PLEASE contact

http://www.greyhoundrescuewales.co.uk/og2009/og2009.htm

and they will ensure that the dogs get the medical help that they urgently need

Please share this and help us to try to find these poor innocent animals.

“‘Angel’ falls off a lorry
Málaga dog found in Somerset is being nursed back to health

By Dave Jamieson

It’s not everyday that a dog falls off the back of a lorry, but that is just what is thought to have happened in the case of a Spanish dog found in the south-west of England. Since Angel was found straying in Somerset, the local county council’s Animal Health and Welfare Team have been working with local organisations to help get the dog back to full health.

Angel, a pedigree boxer, was handed in to the RSPCA after being found in a car park in Taunton. She was found to have a microchip linking her to an address in Málaga, more than 1,300 miles (2,100 km) away from Somerset. She was registered in Spain 10 years ago but attempts to contact her previous owner, named on the microchip as Diane Levy, have proved unsuccessful and it is suspected that the dog entered the UK illegally on the back of a lorry.

The county council has a duty to make sure any animals suspected of coming into Somerset in breach of current UK rabies laws are either placed in quarantine, deported or destroyed, but luckily for Angel, the South Western Boxer Club volunteered to take responsibility for her and support her six months in quarantine.

Club secretary Glenda Tibbots, said, “When she came to us she was very thin and had black patches on her side with no hair there. She has had an operation to remove a big lump on her eye and is putting on weight. She is an absolutely super dog and needs a one-to-one home, so at the end of the six months we will try to find a new home for her.”

If anyone recognises Angel or can shed light on how she travelled from Málaga to Somerset, please contact Glenda on 0044 1278 785 071. “

Despite the fact that the Government in Westminster has seen fit to allow English badgers to continue to live in their natural settings (or should I say sets?) , the Welsh Assembly has decided that the culling of badgers in Wales is to go ahead.

The cull will happen in Pembrokeshire unless enough people can persuade the members of the Sennedd to change their minds.

The RSPCA is calling for a massive response to their request to sign the petition at:

www.backoffbadgers.org

Please sign it and ask your friends to sign it too.

It can be tempting to give your dogs and cats extra treats too in the festive season……….but it is a bad idea.

Watch this amusing yet very pertinent video:

http://www.giveanimalsavoice.org.uk/

Oops…. that video no longer appears….sorry!

Merry Christmas!

In this age where money appears to be the master, rather than the slave, I find myself confused by the dramatically emerging tragedy of arson, death and intrigue which is unfolding by the minute on the TV this week. The family involved are constantly referred to as having millionaire status, yet reading the story, one has the impression that they were, in fact very much like millions of other people in the country, i.e., in negative equity and living well above their means.

The media, too, appears to be caught up in the misconception that having expensive possessions, albeit unpaid for and in reality belonging to somebody else, makes people different from Joe and Jane Bloggs

I find it terribly sad that folk have to try to keep up appearances and lose track of reality.

Mr Micawber had it about right when he stated: “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.”

Somewhere along the line, since I did maths at school (admittedly a long time ago) ‘debit’ became renamed ‘credit’ and I can’t help thinking that that is where the rot started to set in.

Years ago, people tried to avoid being ‘in debt’.

Now it is increasingly rare to find folk who have bank accounts in credit… though to have ‘a good credit rating’ can mean that a person can get very deeply into debt….

What a sad, sad world we live in!

The South Wales Evening Post today reported a ‘shock’ increase in animal cruelty in the last year.

The BBC ran a similar story this morning.

However, whilst the figures are distressing and the number of badly treated animals is disgracefully high, the fact is that the 2007 Animal Welfare Act is doing exactly what it was meant to do.

As a direct result of last year’s legislation, which came into force on 26th March 2007 in Wales, RSPCA Inspectors are now able to intervene at an earlier stage to give advice to animal owners rather than, as used to be the case, having to wait until real cruelty had occurred and could be proved…….. they can now do what their title indicates, PREVENT cruelty, rather than simply come in when it is too late and merely prosecute.

Early intervention means that owners are given a chance to change their behaviour. If they do, the animals get a better life, but failure to comply with advice will result in prosecution at an earlier stage than was previously possible.

The people in the picture above are members of the staff at Llys Nini, but we have personally transported both Roxy the Rotti and Clancy the King Charles Spaniel, to and from the vets’ surgery for treatment. Both are now looking for new loving homes

It is rewarding to see how well animals progress from the pitiful condition that they are often in when they arrive at Llys Nini, to the happy and fit animals they become thanks to the applied TLC at the re-homing centre.

Perhaps then, the increased numbers of successful prosecutions for cruelty is not a shock, but is rather an opening up of what we knew was there all along….. and proof that action is at last being taken to stop the terrible mis-treatment of helpless animals.

Our own lovely dog was a rescue dog from Llys Nini, and a better companion would be hard to imagine, but we often wonder what her life would have been were it not for the intervention of the RSPCA…..

If you are looking for a pet, why not try the re-homing centre first, and give a new lease of life to a dog, cat, rabbit, ferret, bird, etc., etc.?

Or if you would like to volunteer to do something positive to help, why not go to your local centre and offer your services?

Sadly, the cockle beds in the Bury Inlet and the Three Rivers area of Carmarthen Bay have had to be closed today because an outbreak of diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP) has been detected.

The news was issued by the City & County of Swansea Council in a bulletin this afternoon

They say that it is still OK to walk on the beaches and even to bathe in the water.

However, with a brisk westerly wind blowing up the Loughor Estuary and the rain battering horizontally, probably nobody would chance a swim today!

Here’s hoping the problem will be quickly sorted, though, to allow the local cocklers to get back to their work.

It is to be hoped also, that this time around, the tests are more accurate than those conducted in 2001 when DSP was detected in this area, closing the beds for fourteen months …. and unnecessarily, as the readings were later found to have been unreliable.

On a day when all the rest of news is sad or bad, it is great to hear some good news for once.

This Newfoundland is being trained to rescue people from the sea in Swansea.

The picture came from the Daily Mail and you can read more about this Super-Dog here

” Government (in Portugal) looks to ban seven breeds of ‘dangerous dogs’
22/3/2008

According to a recent announcement from the Ministry for Agriculture, the Government is looking to ban the importation and breeding of seven different types of dog, classified as dangerous. Cross-breeding with any of the seven is also to be prohibited, the dramatic law change being due to what Minister Jaime Silva described as a “very serious” recent history of attacks by these so-called ‘dangerous dogs’.
“This law change will go ahead, and I personally would like it signed and implemented as soon as next week. The history of attacks has pushed us to be swift in taking action, as the incidents have had devastating consequences”, he said.
The seven potentially dangerous breeds soon to be banned from entering, being bred or cross-bred in this country are the
Brazilian Fila dog,
Argentinean Doge,(sic)

Pit Bull Terrier,
Rotweiller,
American Staffordshire terrier,
Staffordshire bull-terrier,
Tosa Inu.

At present, in Portugal, some 5,500 dogs considered to be dangerous have been officially registered, with around a further 1,000 identified following an attack or for showing signs of uncontrollable aggression.

More than half of these registered animals are in Lisbon (1,656), the remaining majority being found in Oporto (1,015), and Faro (1,003).

Despite saying that, both as a cabinet minister and as a citizen he is “not a defender of prohibitive measures”, Jaime Silva has stressed that the ‘disrespect for the law shown by a number of owners of dangerous breeds’, spurred the ministry to take immediate action, and not put law changes off for any longer.

Currently in the Ministry for Agriculture’s possession, being deliberated, the proposed decree fully forbids the reproduction, breeding or cross-breeding of the afore-mentioned types of dog, as well as their entry into the country, be it through exterior purchasing, as an offering or an exchange.

An exception is to be opened to dogs registered in the ‘Book of Portuguese Origins’ (LOP), as well as to animals used in the army or for state security.

As a consequence of the impending law, owners of ‘dangerous dogs’ will be obligated to sterilize their animals. If this is not done within a two-month period after the law is implemented, owners may face a fine of between €500 and €45,000.

Control mechanisms will be reinforced, as will awareness campaigns and legal obligations for anyone owning one of these breeds.

A ‘dangerous dog’ is, by official definition, an animal that due to its size or aggressive nature, as well as jaw strength, could cause serious injury or death to people or other animals.

Owners must be over the age of 18, have a special license requested from their local city or village hall (Junta de Freguesia). To obtain this licence the dog must be vaccinated against rabies and have an ID microchip.

Owners must also have insurance for ‘civic responsibilities’ as well as annual criminal record checks.

On the street, the dogs must always wear a muzzle, have a metre-long lead attached to a collar or chest-strap, and be led by an individual over the age of 16.”

I hope this information might help anyone considering taking their pet dog abroad with them on holiday this year. It follows last year’s ruling in France