For the last 10 days Spellbinder has been in the port de plaisance in Ouistreham.  From 12-14 June I used her as a ‘floating HQ’ while running a battlefield tour of Normandy with my work colleagues.  Ouistreham is well positioned, being adjacent to the D Day beaches and not far from a lot of the actions which followed as the Allies attempted to break out of the beachheads and liberate the rest of France, before heading further east. For the cognoscenti, we explored Sword and Juno beaches (British and Canadian-led respectively), Hillman fort and the approach on Caen, then Omaha (US) and the adjacent and remarkable Colleville-sur-Mer cemetery (opening scene of Saving Private Ryan) and then finally the actions which lead up to the closure of the Falaise pocket, and the German counter attack at Mortain.  We finished in the excellent museum at Bayeux, and also took time to visit Pegasus Bridge and its museum.  The daughter of the owner of the café next to the bridge in June 1944 (Madame Gondrée) still runs it, and seeing my British uniform offered me and my driver some extra cake to go with our tea…

Entertaining allied officers on board

I took the opportunity to entertain the command group and also some British and German officers we had invited to accompany us.  The weather was fine and we also found and put up the bimini, which gave us some good shade from the sun.  Perhaps it will next be used in tropical climes…

The Command Group

Bimini in situ