sandyr
The Canal du Midi runs for 240km from the River Garonne at Toulouse via Carcassonne to the Mediterranean at Agde. It was the brainchild of Pierre-Paul Riquet, a minor noble and tax collector, who succeeded in convincing Louis XIV (and more importantly, his first minister, Colbert) of the merits of linking the Atlantic and the Mediterranean via the Garonne.
The work, begun in 1667, took fourteen years to complete, using tens of thousands of workers. The crux of the problem from the engineering point of view was how to feed the canal with water, when its high point at Naurouze, west of Carcassonne, was 190m above sea level and 58m above the Garonne at Toulouse. Riquet responded by building a system of reservoirs in the Montage Noire, channelling run-off from the heights down to Naurouze. He spent the whole of his fortune on the canal and, sadly, died just six months before its inauguration in 1681. Read the rest…
sandyr
Following a conversation in the Hendon Hall Hotel one evening, Graham Colover offered his boat, a 34 ft Jeanneau named Chai of Burnham, for a sailing trip over the second bank holiday in May.
Graham lent Robert full size charts to plan the route for this intended trip which was to Oostende.
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sandyr
Greetings from Victoria, Vancouver Island.
I’ve been asked to explain what sailing I’ve been doing since moving to this Canadian Pacific Island. Well, I’m the in the ideal location. I have a Waterfront apartment so I can see the weather when I wake up. I’m near two marinas so I can be on a boat in10 minutes as opposed to the 2 to 3 hours drive from London to the South Coast.
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sandyr
Michael Doctors 1941 to 2008
Michael Doctors first started sailing dinghies in his late teens and bought his first yacht, the Leisure 23 ‘Avocet’ in his mid thirties. Since then he and Annie owned 2 further yachts which Michael skippered and sailed to numerous ports and destinations in the UK and France. It was largely his (and Annie’s) enthusiastic embracing of the idea of a sailing club of Jewish affinity that led to the existence of the High Seas Sailing Club. Read the rest…
