Western Europe has been savaged over the weekend by Xynthia, an Atlantic storm that has claimed over 50 lives, 45 of them in France. More than a million French homes are without electricity.

A posting on www.forumvoile.com, from an owner with a boat in Les Sables d’Olonne, reported ‘pontoons A and B have been torn from their pilings and ended up at pontoon C, G is now on land. Two boats are impaled on pilings, several boats have sunk, many were dismasted.’

Xynthia was the same storm responsible for the heavy rains that caused devastating mud slides in Madeira last weekend.