15th to 22nd September
Sealion
Richard Martin
Wed 22 Sep 2010 21:10
Since the arrival of
Bob we have been quite busy and not really been anywhere with good WIFI so
updating the blog has gone to the back burner.
With the exception
of yesterday we have had some good sailing. Mainly 8 to 15 knots of wind. As
always on the nose, but as we haven't been trying to go far we have had some
good up wind sailing. Alison slowly getting used to living at a twenty degree
angle. The new/larger Genoa seems to be performing well in these low/medium
winds, the boat seeming to reach 6/7knots speed quite
easily.
From Nice airport we
sailed pass the Islands off Cannes to the bay of Agay for lunch and then on to
St Raphael were we got a spot in the old Port. Behind us on the harbour wall was
another boat from Lymington - A Linsen 50 'Sequel'. The owner being the sister
of some people we sailed with on Rally Portugal - what a small world. We had a
chance to visit the 'Templar' church which had great views of the town and
bay.
The following day we
had a good beat up to St Tropez where we spent two nights exploring the town and
doing some of the coastal walks - in front of some very smart Villas
etc.
From St Tropez we
had a good sail pass Cap Camaret and onward to the Island of Porquerolle. Whilst
the wind was good we did have some rain - the first we have really suffered
during the day this summer. We again decided to stay two nights so we could
do some more of the lovely walks on the Island. We went over to the South
side of the Island and the north along the rocky cliff paths with their
wonderful views across to the Island of Cros. The second night we were joined by
three other boas from Lymington. Roanda, Mystic Dragon & Solanje. We knew
Bob & Mandy from Roanda were going to be in the area and had tentatively
agreed to meet but didn't realize he had arranged with others to be in the
area. We ended up with 9 of us in a local restaurant after
numerous aperitifs first.
Monday we all set
off for another great sail pulling into a very sheltered bay below the
Island on Bregacon - upon which sits the French President's official summer
Palace. David Cameron was a guest here two weeks ago when his Father was taken
ill/died while on holiday in Toulon. After a lunch and a swim we set sail again
for the relatively short trip to Port Cros. Having arrived late afternoon we
went ashore in the tender and climbed to the castle right at the top of the
hill. The views were stunning - The mountains of Provence in the West (past
Toulon) and all the coastline stretching towards St Tropez in the
East.
Tuesday we had
planned to go to Hyeres marina so Bob could walk to the airport just down the
road but they had a regatta on and no room for visitors. We duly headed to
Toulon instead. The weather was again rather rainy but still
warm.
We decided as we
were in Toulon to hire a car today. With the car we dropped Bob off at the
airport then headed off to Marseille and Port Napoleon to pick up our car.
Having got our car we then went in convoy to Port Bormes were we are going
to leave the boat for the winter. Having dropped our car off we headed back to
the boat in Toulon. (450 kilometres of driving today). Anyway we are set up now
to put the boat to bed in a few days time for the winter.
Pictures;
43 Bob &
alison with St Raphael in background
50 Bob our
cabin boy happy in his cabin
57 St Tropez from
the sea
58 Porquerolle
on the South side
65 The
Lymington Team
68 Bregancon -
Sarkosy's Presidential Palace
69 Royal
Lymingtons South of France Branch
