French Coast | fram's voyages

Roam's Mediterranean Log 2010 France

19 July 2010

Port St Louis and Navy Service Boatyard

Weather: Sunny, 30C No wind

Another sunny morning, as usual:) We called Navy Service Marina at 09.00 this morning and got a time for stepping our mast at 15.00 today. Dan is busy getting things prepared. We are moored next to a Swedish boat who have very kindly given us advice as to bakeries, laundry, and a warning to get ourselves a mosquito net and bug spray. We did and were grateful for the advice as this place has a lot of mosquitoes which attack as soon as the sun goes down.

Dan spent most of today getting the mast ready. At 14.00 we went over to Navy Service Marina. It is a huge marina and was easy to find due to the profusion of masts, but it was also deceiving because one assumes that all the boats are in the water which they are not. They are all on land except for one quayside wall that fits about 10-15 boats. It was totally full along the wall but we went farther in and found the slip for masting boats and as it was empty, we drove in and tied up. Dan went to the office; they were clueless as to the procedure but gave him details of price; 100 Euros for the first 30 minutes, then 50 Euros for each start of 15 minutes. This is not a winning concept for Dan and his Scottish genes. He was damned if he was going to pay an extra 50 Euros and was bound and determined to step the mast in 30 minutes. He asked about the discount that members of Svensk Kryssare Klubb get as we were told by our club that we were eligible as members for this discount that they had so deftly negotiated with Navy Service. She replied that the discount is only valid if you lift your boat at the same time. Sigh. At 15.00 the crane driver showed up and did not have Roam on his list. He asked us several times about our boat name and we kept repeating Roam, but he wanted it to be whatever name was on his list for 15.00. After much dithering and shifting of feet and checking and re-checking his list then looking at Roam's name, he finally went along with doing our boat. Not the professional service we had read about...

Dan's fingers have never worked so fast as during the next half-hour. The crane did not have a basket to send someone up and affix the VHF antenna and Windex so we had to do it ourselves while the mast was still down over the boat. This was not so easy because the top of the mast head out a good 2 meters behind the boat, and we could only get the boat forward enough to bring the mast head about 25 cm from the quayside so Dan had to reach over the water with tiny screws and try to adjust the Windex so it would be straight. I lined it up along the mast and told Dan to move it left, now a bit right, no a tiny bit more, then we changed places and he did the same while I followed his instructions and we tightened the screws hoping for the best. Then he screwed on the VHF antenna without dropping a single thing. Whew!

The guy who was there to assist was next to useless, he didn't even have any tools with him, so had to borrow from us. There was only one glitch; once the mast was up, the shrouds did not reach down to the attachments on the deck. Dan pulled for all he was worth but couldn't figure out how they could suddenly be 5 cm short. Closer inspection revealed that they had set the mast down on a shackle. A quick lift with the crane, a flip of the shackle and it was solved. We finished within the half hour time span, though Dan was completely covered in sweat. All I had to do was hold the Furlex. They kicked us out of the slip almost before we had all shrouds and stays fastened and I mean just fastened, not tightened or adjusted in any way. We didn't even have time to do a security check to make sure that all halyards were on the right side of the mast, etc.

Our treatment at Navy Service was a far cry from the service we got at Marina Baltica in Germany when we took the mast down. They really knew their business and gave good value for the money, which, by the way, was 78 Euros, and we got to have almost the entire day to do the job. We took Roam back to our slip, and

Dan spent the rest of the day clearing away the wood supports that we used for the mast on the canals. It's a lot of wood that we have to get rid of somehow. I got to work on stocking the boat and storing everything to make Roam sea-worthy. There is a great big supermarket just 50 meters away from our boat, and it has everything we need. Dan is still looking to toss my little herb garden so I have to come up with a good solution to make it sea-worthy!

22 July 2010

Port St Louis, France

Weather: Sunny, 32C Wind: Beaufort 2-3 SW

Today dawned sunny and hot as usual, we got up early to catch a ride with our neighboring sailboat to a marine store. Bertrand and Veronique were the first Frenchmen we have met that speak English and they had so much useful information for us! First of all, a mistral is in the works and supposed to be a big one, coming down the Rhone sometime on Sunday but forecasts are now saying it will come Friday or Saturday. They also helped us finding a good marine store which is at Navy Service where they keep their boat. They were taking their boat out of the water for the year. It goes in for 3 weeks every summer when they sail along the coast on their summer vacation. At the end of the 3 weeks they have it taken out of the water and put up on land and then drive back to Paris where they live. Dan went along with Bertrand in his boat to the crane slip at Navy Service while I went in the car with Veronique and her daughter Clemence. We had to revise our opinion of Navy Service a tad, as they seemed to be much more professional in taking out boats and putting them in their cradles. It was very well done.

The marine store wasn't the best, but it was cheap and we got the 30 meters of anchor chain we need for the Med. They very kindly drove us back to our boat with the chain as it weighed well over 40 kg. Once back at the boat, I have to confess I was very itchy to get away and sail to Marseille where we are meeting up with Caroline on Monday. What with the mistral coming, and there's no telling how long it will last, my argument was to go now while the weather is good. Dan felt that we were not sea-worthy yet; he hasn't got the electronic charts all downloaded and synced with the GPS puck and AIS. Nelson is not all re-trimmed yet either. In the end, Dan couldn’t withstand my impatience any longer so around 11.30 we left our slip, motored down the channel out to the Golfe de Fos with a short stop at Navy Service to drop off all our wood from the mast supports at Bertrand's boat. He has a friend who can use it. Also got rid of all the old oil from the oil changes Dan has done on our trip down the canals. There was a nice southerly wind and once we got out of the Golfe we could set the sails and sail the rest of the way to Marseille. It was only 27 NM and the wind was about Beaufort 4 so took only a few hours. Felt wonderful to turn off the engine and sail again, listening to the slapping of the waves on Roam's hull. As everyone here uses the Beaufort scale for wind, it is what I will use. Here is the scale, so you will understand:

Beaufort 0 - Calm water (like a mirror), less than 1 km windspeed

Beaufort 1 - Light air (ripples ), 1-5 km windspeed

Beaufort 2 - Light breeze (wavelets, still short not breaking), 4-6 km windspeed

Beaufort 3 - Gentle breeze (crests begin to break), 7-10 km windspeed

Beaufort 4 - Moderate breeze (moderate waves, white caps), 11-16 km windspeed

Beaufort 5 - Fresh breeze (moderate waves, white caps, some spray) 17-21 km windspeed

Beaufort 6 - Strong breeze (large waves, white foam crests, some spray) 22-27 km windspeed

Beaufort 7 - Near gale (sea heaps up, white foam blowing in streaks), 28-33 km windspeed

Beaufort 8 - Gale (edge of crests breaking into spindrift, foam blown in wel-marked streaks) 34-40 km windspeed

Beaufort 9 - Severe gale (High waves with tumbling crests, spray may affect visibility), 41-47 km windspeed

Beaufort 10 - Storm, 48-55 km windspeed

Beaufort 11 - Violent storm, 56-63 km windspeeöd

Beaufort 12 - Hurricane, more than 64 km windspeed

Our course of 90 degrees, due East put us on a nice reach that we kept all the way to the entrance of the Vieux Port in central Marseille which is guarded by two very impressive fortresses; St Jean and St Nicholas. Motored into the marina and were met by a guy in a dinghy who escorted us to our slip. This was a pleasant surprise as the French have not shown themselves to be overly service-minded. Now we are here safe and sound and will spend the next few days getting Roam ship-shape and experience our first mistral. We both have a feeling that it is not going to be more than a normal Skånsk "måttlig vind".

Marseille is a huge city with a very mixed population. It was established by the ancient Greeks so I suppose that's not surprising. We took a walk around the harbor and saw tons of restaurants all serving entrecote and/or bouillabase. There's a big market that's open every day but Sunday, but it's more Mideast than European, with lots of hallal meat shops, spices and nuts for sale, besides the usual fruits and vegetables.

31 July 2010

Well, just like we thought, the Mistral was nothing new in weather to us, coming from Swedish Skåne. It was very gusty though and the gusts were really strong.

Caroline arrived in Marseille on Monday evening 26/7. Dan and I walked to the train station, Marseille St. Charles to meet her bus from the airport. She looked lovely and it was a joy to see her again. She was still wearing the leg brace for her injured knee but walking perfectly normal again. We all took the Metro from the train station to Vieux Port and then walked the remaining few hundred meters to the boat. I wanted to carry her, but she wouldn't hear of it. After cocktails of champagne and pate de fois gras to celebrate her engagement to Peter and to celebrate being together again, we went out to dinner to have Bouillabaisse and Entrecote, since that seems to be one of Marseille's claims to fame. I had carefully checked out all the restaurants in the neighborhood and this one seemed to have everything and also looked like it had good ambiance. We ordered the menu as that is always the freshest that they have for the day. Dan chose fish soup, Caroline chose Moules Marinier, and I ordered deep fried seafood. Dan's fish soup was a thick very shellfishy tasting broth that was brown in color and opaque with no fish or seafood in it. My dish was deep-fried tiny ansjovies with no sauce or dip but with both head and tails attached. Caroline's dish was the only success. Hers tasted divine. For mains Dan had entrecote with mushrooms that tasted almost entirely of the mushrooms and not fresh mushrooms, more like dried porcini mushrooms (very pungent). Caroline had bouillabase which was basically Dan's soup with some big chunks of fish including skin. I had duck with potatoes and ratatouille which was really good. So 2 dishes out of 6 were a success.

The next morning it was blowing Beaufort 6 so we decided that Caroline should see Marseille before sailing off. We spent the morning doing the market and the main sights. In the afternoon we took one of the tour boats out to Iles de Frioul. It was still very windy as a new mistral came through and the waves were still very large from the past days' mistral. Even the big tour boat had a hard time negotiating the big waves across the channel. The Iles de Frioul are impressive as they are made up mostly of limestone but as no trees grow there, only bushes, it is rather barren. There is a big marina and some restaurants along the waterfront with the most ridiculous prices. A very small (1.5 dl) juice cost 2.50 Euro.There's not much to do besides walk around the cliffs and swim. We went to 2 beaches for swims and did a lot of walking and took pictures of the waves breaking against the cliffs. We took the boat back at 17.00 (takes 20 minutes), did some grocery shopping for dinner and took showers to wash off the salt water from our swim. The water here is very salty and sticky.

We had dinner on the boat and that night we all got bitten alive by mosquitoes. On the 28th, the sun was shining and it was already hot at 08.00. We checked the weather report which forecast winds of 2-3 Beaufort from South. This was perfect for us as we were sailing east and the south wind would put us on a reach all the way to Cassis. We motored out of the harbor and out past the Iles de Frioul and rounded the southern tip of Marseille by taking a very narrow channel between the mainland and the island of Ile Maire. The depth goes down to 2 meters and is so clear you can see every grain of sand.

When we came through the channel we raised the sails and headed off for Cassis. The sailing was divine, just the way one dreams it should be in the Med; deep blue water, high cliffs, sunshine, 35C and a gentle wind pushing us along at a comfortable pace. We were all working on our tans. Dan and I both have shorts marks from our weeks on the canals. Meaning we are lily-white from our hips to just above our knees. Naturally, I got burned after just 30 minutes of sun so had to put my sundress on. Caroline already had a good tan from her summer in Malmö. Along the coast this area features something called calanques which are fjords that are very deep and supposed to be great for anchoring and swimming. We sailed into every calanque thinking to anchor and swim. But the first 3 were much wider and shorter than we thought and too deep for us to anchor. Also, there were katabatic winds swooping down and causing us to heel over. Nevertheless, the calanques were very impressive as the cliff walls are so high and the water so blue. We would go all the way around, then come about and sail off to the next. The 4th one was called Port Miou and it was really gorgeous. It was very long and narrow but had shallower water next to the walls. This is where they quarried the yellow rock (limestone) which is so prevalent here and used it to build the Suez Canal. There are landing areas in the wall for ships to load up on rock; probably crushed to gravel, and you can see the markings left from harvesting the rock in the rock face.

Here we could tie up to bouys laid out about 30 meters from the walls on either side of the calanque and there were rings in the cliff wall meant for a stern or bowline we guessed, but couldn't really figure out how to approach as there were already other boats tied up to the bouys beside. Just as we were scratching our heads wondering what to do, a man in a dinghy appeared out of nowhere and told us to give him our bowline which he took and put through the bouy, then he took our stern line back to the rock wall where there were iron rings to put the lines through. We had to use our anchor line though as needed a really long line that could double back to the boat. The wind came up while we were working on this and something that should never happen, happened. The bowline slipped off the cleat on the boat and we were suddenly loose and being blown by a sudden gust towards the boat downwind of us. It was my fault as I was the one that put the loop on the cleat and didn't notice in the hubbub that it was not looped over the cleat properly. But the harbormaster in the dinghy picked it up and looped it back through the bouy as I looped the end around the cleat, the right way this time. He was very patient with us and just stuck by us, helping us along until we were moored safely. It's a lovely way to moor as there is much more space between the boats so feels a bit more private. Our stern line is attached to an old wall where young people like to jump and dive from the top. It's about 5 meters high.

We had intended to just stay for lunch, but it was so nice and peaceful that we decided to spend the night and go to Cassis next day. We went swimming in the clear sparkling water. Dan got out the ladder for the bathing platform that almost fell off in Travemunde and with Caroline's help got it back on with all 4 screws that had to be screwed in from underneath while treading water. They tied each screw to a string and then put a loop on it which went around Dan's thumb, just in case he dropped it. We did the same thing with the wrench and his leatherman. The water was still quite cold from the mistral. The movement of the waves causes the surface water to move off and the deeper colder water is forced to the top. The water temperature was probably around 17-18C. When he got too cold to work, Caroline and I got in and with Caroline's nimble fingers we managed to get the rest of the screws in place and remove the string around each one. Now we have a proper ladder which makes getting in and out of the water much easier. We lazed about the boat for the rest of the afternoon, had tea and cookies and discussed wedding plans. Our last swim of the day was just before cocktails so around 19.30. We all rinsed with our fresh water shower bag which is tied to the mast. The sun had warmed it to about 37C so felt like a real shower. Caroline and I put on our new sun dresses that we bought at the market in Marseille and we sat in the cockpit with Gin & Tonics, Iced Tea, and hors d'oeuvres. It felt very luxurious. Once the sun had disappeared behind the high walls of the calanque, we made dinner. Tonight it was tournedos with sautéed mushrooms and salad. Since we had such an honored guest on board, we opened one of our Chateauneuf de Pape bottles. It was divine:) After dinner we sat up late talking and playing MIG (sort of like trivial pursuit).

Next morning, 29th, we put on our bathing suits and Caro and I tied our sarongs around our heads and used our flipflops as paddles and all swam in to shore and took a walk around the calanque. It was much longer than we thought, about 800 meters to the end, walking along a narrow dock that followed the cliff wall. We rounded the end of the calanque and then walked up the other side as far as the harbor master's to get a weather report. Another mistral was scheduled for the day, but only the day. Caroline has to leave tomorrow night so we had a little conference to decide what to do, brave the mistral and sail to Toulon where she can take a train to Marseille and then bus to airport, or stay here and either sail super early tomorrow morning to Toulon so she can catch the afternoon train, or stay here and go to Cassis tomorrow where she can take a train from there. After much dithering we decided that it would be nicest to stay here tonight. None of us was eager to stay in a city harbor again after Marseille. We checked the train timetable and saw that the train stops at Cassis on its way from Toulon to Marseille so we will go to Cassis tomorrow after breakfast, have lunch there and then put Caroline on the train. This meant that we had the whole afternoon to laze about and swim and read our books. Heaven! We noticed a lot of fish swimming about the boat. Not to worry Kimmie, they were like aquarium fish; small and very pretty blues, grays, combinations of silver and white, really lovely. We threw bread in the water and they would wait for it to sink a bit then swim up and snatch it.

Next morning we slept late, had a leisurely breakfast and then pulled in our lines and headed off for Cassis which is just out of the calanque and around the bend. About 2 nautical miles. Dan was happy not to have to haul the anchor up; all we had to do was drop our lines, reel them in and motor away.

We were very pleasantly surprised when we reached Cassis, it is the cutest town we've ever seen, waterfront packed with restaurants and cafés. All the facades are painted in yellow, pink, white with another color for the shutters. Lots of boats were in the harbor and it was hard to find a place to moor. We tried calling the harbor master on the VHF radio, channel 9, but no answer. After tooling about for awhile we found a place to tie up. 30 minutes later the harbormaster came out in his dinghy and yelled at us saying "you are not allowed to just moor anywhere, you must contact us" We told him that he didn't answer when we called in VHF. He just shrugged his shoulders and asked how long we would stay. We decided to stay the night as there seemed to be so much to see.

Caroline and I went to a cafe for some cafe au lait and to absorb the atmosphere. Dan joined us when he was finished getting the boat lines adjusted. We took a walk around the harbor and looked at all the little fishing boats. These were also painted happy colors and kept in prime condition. There were lots of shops selling Provence ceramics, clothes, and lavender products. By noon it was time for Caroline to get her things together and make her way to the train station which was up a very steep hill and about 4 km away. We went to the taxi stand but while there were about 4 taxis standing there, there were no drivers.... Hmmmm. We waited for a bit but still no one came, so we called the tel number on the first taxi's door. He answered and said he would come in 10 minutes or so. We know what this means when a Frenchman says it. So I told him "Non, non! venez maintenant!!" He muttered, but showed up in just a couple minutes. He'd been having lunch at the cafe next door.

It was very sad to say good-bye to Caroline, had such a wonderful time with her. We made a lot of progress with the wedding plans and set guidelines and a list of to-do's that she will work on when she gets home. So felt we had a very productive wedding conference:) The train to Marseille was horribly crowded and the poor thing had to crunch in with all the other people trying to get onto the train so can imagine her ride was not very comfortable. It took about 30 minutes.

Dan and I went back to the boat, got our swimming things and took off for the beach. It's about a 10 minute walk and you can choose to lie on the rocks and swim from there or go to the sand beach. We chose the rocks. The water was freezing cold, almost too cold to swim around in. But with the heat we worked up walking back from the train station, it felt good to cool off. We stayed the night in Cassis and enjoyed the sound of the street musicians that went from restaurant to restaurant to play for the guests. Decided that Cassis is definately a place to come back to one day. Left next morning bright and early for the Porquerolles which are about 30 NM from Cassis. The wind didn't come up until about 12.00 and it was a light wind but we could sail for a while till it died down and then we had to motor for a while. It was like that the whole way. So I would say we sailed about half of the way. The Porquerolles are just off Toulon and a collection of about 3 islands with beautiful coast line. When we got there, boats were anchored everywhere along the north side of the main island so we went in slowly and found an opening where we had plenty of space to anchor in 4 meters water depth with a bottom of grass and sand. The water was incredibly clear. Went for a swim as soon as we were anchored and it was divine. Warm water here, about 23C. Spent a very peaceful evening.

Today is 1 August. We are going to Toulon to pick up our friends Lars and Lotta Rydvall who will sail with us for a couple days. The weather continues to be sunny and hot with light winds that come and go.

1 August 2010

N 43 07.064 E 05 55.809

Toulon, France

Weather: Sunny clear day, 30C

We started the day in Ile de Porqueroles at our anchorage. Went for a lovely morning swim. We had a very good anchorage with a good bit of space away from the other boats. And there were lots of them! This is a very popular place at this time of year. Even with the mistral blowing, everyone anchors. The sand provides very good holding. We are still using our Danforth as feels very safe with this big anchor:) We had a very sweet sail to Toulon where we are picking up our friends Lars and Lotta Rydvall. Once we were moored at the city marina, we took a walk on the dock and saw that "Thursday's Girl" was moored farther down on the same dock. We stopped and said hello and they invited us onboard for a beer and chat. Couldn't stay too long though as we were expecting Lars and Lotta at any time and had to get Roam ready for her guests:)

They arrived around 19.00 carrying masses of champagne, wine and cheese. We celebrated our reunion with champagne and then had a dinner of chippolatta with couscous and salad. It is wonderful to see them again and we look forward to 3 days of sailing before we have to drop them back at their car here in Toulon.

4 August 2010

N 43 06.419 E 06 21.770

Anchorage in a bay at Anse de Gau

Weather: Sunny, hot 32C, wind about Beaufort 3 from SW

We left Toulon with Lars and Lotta after a morning of marketing and grocery shopping. It was a sunny day with a stiff breeze so had a fast passage over to Ile de Porqueroles. We found an anchorage that gave us some protection from the wind, not a lot but with the sand bottom we had good holding. After a while though, Lotta noticed that we seemed to be anchored in a bouyed-off area. Quite rightly, 2 guys in a zodiac soon came speeding up to us informing us that we were in an emergency exit zone from the shore so we had to move forward, which was even closer to shore so more protected. Though it was windy, the sun was hot so went for a swim once we were settled. It took some doing to get Lotta to lower herself into the water but she finally let go of the ladder and did a few laps around the boat with me. Meanwhile, Lars took the mask and snorkel and swam out to check on the anchor. More champagne for cocktails:) Dinner was steak and salad.

Next day, 3rd August, we had planned to move to another island, but the wind had picked up so decided to stay put. After a breakfast of yoghurt with chopped melon, honey and musli, brioche and coffee, Lars blew up the dinghy and rowed first Lotta in to land and then came back for me. Dan stayed with the boat. Lars was a real hero as it was a good 500m between the boat and the shore and he had to do it 4 times. Once the 3 of us were on land, we walked along the shore, they swam, I took pictures of them and then we walked in to the town. The walk was about a km, maybe less but was so pretty with tall pine trees lining the road which was a dirt road along houses all lined with bougainvillea. The town was a bustling tourist town with stands all along the road side selling jewelry, flipflops, sarongs, hats, sunglasses and of course lots of food. We stopped at a lovely restaurant to rest our feet and drink a glass of Rosé. Felt very decadent and lovely:) Lars rowed the dinghy back to the boat around 14.00 while Lotta and I swam behind him. We had a late lunch of Shrimp salad (on our recipe page). We spent the rest of the afternoon lounging in the cockpit and watching several boats go adrift with dragging anchors and all the drama ensuing as people on other boats called to the dragging boats to alert them, help rescue errant dinghies and untangle crossed anchor lines. It was very entertaining. Towards evening the wind finally started to slowly diminish so Dan and Lars pulled up our anchor and I steered us through the labyrinth of anchored boats out into the sound between the Porqueroles and the mainland and we made the short jump over to Hyéres where Lars and Lotta could take the train to Toulon next day. Once moored, which was no easy thing as the first harbor was full so had to go to the 3rd one along the line of marinas, Lars and Lotta took us out for dinner. We went to a place called "The Yacht Club" where we all enjoyed Mussels. Even Dan ordered them!

Lars and Lotta left this morning right after breakfast by taxi to the train to Toulon to their car and continued their journey back to Sweden. It was a wonderful few days and we hope they enjoyed it enough to come back and visit us again. Dan and I left Hyéres and just sailed up the coast to the east. When we came to Anse de Gau, it looked like a lovely anchorage with several boats already there so sniggled our way in and dropped our anchor. Went swimming and then spent the entire afternoon trying to rig up some kind of sun protecting shade over the cockpit. We tried everything from my Orange umbrellas, good but only gives shade to a very small area, the blue tent, not bad but dark and makes alot of noise from the wind, to our white canvas but nothing was really perfect. They all have faults, like keeping out air, letting in too much sun or making too much noise... back to the drawing board I guess.

Log 5 August 2010

N 43 06.419 E 06 21.770

Anse de Gau, French Riviera

We are in a lovely anchorage off the French Cote d'Azur, sitting out yet another Mistral. This one is blowing Beaufort 7-8. It started at about 04.00 this morning and is forecast to last until tomorrow morning. Dan and I have talked to some of the other sailors anchored here and they have very kindly given us forecast updates. We were completely clueless yesterday when we sailed into this anchorage planning on just lazing about for a day and enjoying its sandy bottom, clear blue water and high hills surrounding us in 3 directions. We spent the day swimming, reading books and discussing Caroline's wedding. There was barely a breath of wind. Around 19.00 a Frenchman rowed over to us in his dinghy asking if we came all the way from Sweden. We got to talking and he asked if we were confident that our anchor would hold for the coming Mistral. Mistral? what mistral?... He gave us the forecast that a Mistral will start during the night and blow Beaufort 8 from NW all day tomorrow and into the night, decreasing in force on Friday. He also taught us how to read a Mistral cloud system which was very interesting. The Mistral clouds are very long, very high and perfectly white but with little wisps on the sides showing the high speed of the wind. We have had a very hard time reading the clouds here as they move so differently to our weather systems in Scandinavia. Wispy high clouds followed by mackerel sky mean nothing here. They come and go causing no ripple on the surface of the sea. Huge dark thunderheads can loom up over land during the day looking very threatening and then just suddenly disperse or move off in another direction. We observe as much as we can and are gaining experience though so hopefully before too long will be able to understand what's coming. We also were given a VHF channel that broadcasts weather in Provence all day long, every day so have been listening to that too. We have to listen to every single report (basically every 3 minutes) as we can only pick up little bits of information at a time. Our French is getting better though and French sailors have been really nice and helpful and also speak some English so we get by. The French say that this weather is very unusual for the time of year.

Normally, the mistral comes in May and June and is not very strong. The big ones come in the winter. But this summer they have been coming every few days. Since we have been in the Med (2 weeks) we have experienced 4 mistrals, including this one. Mistrals are interesting winds in that they always come from the NW, but are not steady strong winds. They gust very violently at Beaufort 9 for a few minutes causing the rigging to strain and whistle and the boat to lean over and then die down to about Beaufort 4 until the next blast which comes every 3-4 minutes. Sometimes we go about 20 minutes with calm winds and think, "finally, it's blowing itself out" only to get an exceptionally strong gust almost before the words are out of our mouths. We have noticed that we are not the only ones watching and listening to every sound made by other boats during the Mistral.

Last night, we woke up to someone whistling frantically. When we stuck our heads out of our hatch to see what was going on, we saw that one boat had dragged into another boat downwind and the downwind boat was trying to wake up the crew on the drifting boat. As I looked around at the other boats, I could see heads popping out of hatches like prairie dogs in the desert, on almost every single boat. We all watch until we see that they have things well in hand, then the heads disappear into the hatches again. After a couple minutes, the skippers appear on deck to check their own anchor and assure themselves that they will not experience the dreaded anchor-dragging. Dan had already been up earlier when he heard the first gusts of wind whistle through our rigging. He put out more anchor chain and tightened the anchor sail that we made last winter. It keeps us head on into the wind so we don't swing around too much. This is quite important here as so many people anchor out that it gets crowded in these anchorages. Not a good thing if we are swinging all over the place, and being a long-keeled boat, we swing more than short keeled boats. In this anchorage, there are about 30 sailboats and 10 motor cruisers anchored. We have about 20 meters to the nearest boat. We are fine though, we have food and water and plenty of things to do and books to read. The sun is shining, it's about 28C and the water is still nice to swim in even if it is a bit windy. It certainly beats sitting out a storm in Sweden where it's cloudy, wet and cold.

We have also experienced another weather system caused by the clashing of a low pressure zone in the Genoa Bay and a high pressure zone coming off the Pyrenees. The result of this is a very strong West wind, Beaufort 9, that lasted about 24 hours. That even had a few drops of rain with it. We were anchored in the Porquerolles.

Despite the fact that we get a lot of these winds, we are very pleased to see that our Danforth anchor is holding us beautifully with no drag whatsoever. Its size (15 kg, what a 40-foot boat would normally have) is out of all proportion to our boat but we feel confident about anchoring now and enjoy it much more than staying in harbors. The most important thing now is to have food and water on board so we don't have to go in. For the first few days we have lots of fresh meat, fish and vegetables, but after 4 days I have to start digging into my food stores under the sofas. Last night's dinner was canned ratatouille with linguine. The ratatouille is French made and really good! I add some of my herbs from my little herb garden and some parmesan cheese and it's a feast. I have canned ham from Denmark, canned pea soup from Holland, and all kinds of canned cassoulets and confiture de canard from France.

7 August 2010

N 43 15.970 E 06 35.099

Marines de Cogelin, St Tropez Gulf

We had a brilliant sail yesterday from our anchorage at Anse du Gau to St. Tropez. The mistral blew itself out sometime in the early hours of the morning, it was a beautiful sunny day, 28C, and we had southwest winds of about Beaufort 2-3. We were able to sail all the way to an anchorage just outside St. Tropez harbor. As we sailed up the coast towards St. Tropez we passed a very long beach that was full of huge and small boats anchored a few hundred meters off. Judging by all the helicopters hovering above, we figured this must be where the rich and famous come to play at this time of year. We thought that was a place we would NOT want to be right now and were happy that we were sailing blissfully by. But the bliss only lasted a little while because around 18.30, the boats all started lifting anchor and motoring at full speed back to St Tropez. It was as if a hornet's nest suddenly got kicked and they all came swarming out. The boats were of such size that they threw up an enormous wake causing us to rock and roll violently. Then the jet-skis and inflatables came through riding on the big waves and flying up in the air. You could hear the passengers sceaming with delight. Several helicopters with photographer company names written on the side, would fly low right behind some boats to take photographs not 20 meters from the stern of the ships. So I guess this is how they get those blurry telephoto shots of celebrities in Nu tidning and Bild, girls. The din was deafening. Dan and I watched in awe as we were passed by at least 200 boats/ships. We decided to go straight for an anchorage and forget going into the harbour as it was most likely a zoo in there. The anchorage was great, lots of space, not too many boats and about 5 m deep (N 43 16.076 E 06 39.724). We were warned by our pilot book that it could get a bit rocky in there when the boats go by to and from St Tropez harbor, but it was pretty late when we came in so did not experience much rockiness until this morning when everyone started leaving the harbor to go to the beaches. Then we couldn't stand it, everything in the boat started rolling and sliding and crashing around. So we lifted anchor and decided to head into a marina where we can prepare for our crossing to Corsica tomorrow, weather permitting of course. We took a swing in to St Tropez harbor just to look and even at this time of day 12.00 when most boats are out at the beaches, it was like grand central station with boats coming and going, and they were huge. Roam must have looked like an insect to them:) Inside the harbor, the longest boats were about 150 feet. Outside the harbour the really big cruisers, 200 feet and upwards, were anchored and used their tendors to go to and fro. We swung around and headed happily out of that rat's nest.

We are presently in Marines de Cogolin. It was at this marina that we took Liberty out of the water for scraping, painting and repairing in 1976. It's a very nice marina with all the amenities and very well maintained. Dan has torn the entire cockpit apart, all lockers are emptied and filling the cockpit space. I'm not sure what he is doing but am sure it is very important so I am trying to stay out of the way. He's probably doing what I'm doing, stowing and re-arranging things to get to easily. I have lots to do to get ready for our first 24-hour crossing tomorrow. All the cupboards have to made tight and ship-shape so things don't go crashing around, food has to be prepared so I don't have spend too much time down below, in case it's rough, and I will check that we have water to last us a while as we expect to do alot of anchoring in bays as we travel around Corsica. All the water we use so far has been drinking water, which makes things very easy. Hope it continues that way as do not know how we will get our tank clean if we have to take on non-potable water.