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For a while last night, there was a sense that the wind might be dying. Wrongo! This morning it was back with a vengeance, and getting stronger as the other 3 of us joined Alice to rent bikes.

Our fearless leader (Alice, of course) led us off back down the trail to the Super Marché in Gruissan about 2 km west of us. As we struggled to peddle into the wind I estimated our wind speed, as a good sailor should, at about 30 kts ( that is, “knots”) or about 45 km per hour. (Gale force is about 33 kts, storm force is at 49 kts, and hurricane is over 63 kts.)

As we entered Gruissan, it was almost impossible to peddle with the wind on our right, and all of us were tilted – severely – towards the wind…which was increasing in strength. Thankfully, we found a bike rack, chained our bikes up, and hurried into the shelter of the narrow streets. We strolled around, and then had coffees at a small street café, and then found our way to a climb up to an ancient hilltop tower above the town.

As we climbed higher, the wind increased in strength until we were all hanging on for dear life to the metal railing. A nearby woman had her sunglasses blown right off her face! The wind strength at the top was, I am sure, over 65 kts, and thus, hurricane force. It was almost impossible to stand, and rather than wait until Sandy was streaming horizontally from the pipe rail, and, since sand was blowing in horizontal lines, wetook a few shaky pictures, and then hustled on down out of the wind. However, we still had the ride home to contend with.

Back at the bike rack, we found our bikes blown over, and after unlocking them, and struggling to stay upright we headed downwind, down the path. This was great until we got to a corner, and had to turn towards the wind. Sandy got blown towards a large rock so she walked for a bit with feet sliding on the paved surface as she gamely attempted to keep the bike upright. Finally she was able to saddle up again, and the path turned downwind, so we had a very fast ride back to the bike rentals, where 3 of us turned them in – gratefully. (I’ll bet you guessed, correctly, that Alice kept hers!)

This afternoon The Bob, Sandy and I tried relaxing poolside, but when you see whitecaps on a swimming pool, you know that the breeze is a tad extreme!

The Bob and I are now catching up on our Internet communications, and soon we will share a supper at our place. Tomorrow, René will pick us up and take us to the boat rentals in Narbonne. If the wind persists, I may spend the first day adding docking lines and concrete anchors to ensure that we aren’t participants in a Midi Canal Bumper Boat Spectacular!!!

La Plume, et la Coutourière (My dictionary isn’t clear if this is the Sewer as in “sower”, or Sewer as in “soo-er”. I sure hope I picked the right one