43:16.9N 6:37.9E

 

13 June Good sail (beat) to St Tropez, join the rich jetset crowd, and see many giant luxury myachts (and cars).

 

Depart Ile de Port-Cros 0545

Arrive St Tropez 1345 35nm

Damp heavy dew and almost misty, then clearing to another scorcher wind NEf2/3 (on the nose, again!)

 

Another early start for Jan and skip.Motor into slight lop, keep close inshore to get a bit of shelter from Ile du Levant. Start with 2 reefs as will be flatsail motoring. Shake out reefs, stop motor and beat up for 5 hours. (Jan now has his ticket for helming all points of sailing on D`fly). Leave bimini up for journey – need the shade. What a nice problem to have. Lots of msuperyacht traffic from noon. Almost missed the entrance as St T looks like a new development from sea – so clean, pretty and immaculate. Get allocated good end berth (stern too with line and warp) Just inside harbour entrance so can see the meggayachts come and go Only 37euros, cheaper than expected.Do the quay walk to peer into the sterns of the meggas. MASSIVE power cables, vases of flowers, crew serving canapés. Some with v noisy music and youngsters, must be awful for the neighbours  Most seem to drop anchor and reverse in, but see diver down – does he fix an extra line when they are in in case it blows? Some anchor out in bay, so their “tenders” pass dropping off passengers/collecting provisions. One tender has 3 300hp Mercury oboards – that does out do the neighbours. Many many red ensigns, quite a few with additions as countries of convenience or posh clubs. (Get bins out after dark to have a good nose on those near us, but no one seen.) All surreal. No sign of recession here. Can’t get the wifi, even with bat that was fired up and successful in Cassis( where the bband was really quick). Do see how many wifi connections the big yachts have- for each deck, the owner, guests, crew, etc etc but all protected. Late evening wander ashore – it`s all bonkers .