Back to anchorage for the night

Mor Toad / Moy Toad
David and Jocelyn Fawcett
Mon 3 Jun 2019 16:07
43:16.95N
5:18.22E

Alex Dan and children have left to return by train to London and David and Peter arrived just after lunch. We left last nights beautiful anchorage ( to be reported on in an update to follow shortly)  at 8.30 this morning ( after an early morning swim by 3 of us!) and headed for the Vieux Port Marseille not sure whether we could get a berth or not after trying to contact them several times by email and an odd inconclusive phone call yesterday!! Even on entering the marina we had difficulty in raising them so just parked ourselves on a pontoon belonging to Societies Nautique Marseille. Very full harbour ferries going in and out,  rowing boats practicing and other yachts manoevering. David went ashore to find the Capitainere to see if we could stay the night. Answer yes stay where we were and they’d ring if available space! Very odd as early in season and supposedly 40 visitors berths! 

So we had a late breakfast Alex and co packed up, the washing machine was put into action and more Harry Potter read ! David then went out to do some food shopping and once he was back the rest of us went for a wander. Well the place was an onslaught on the senses after 4 nights st anchor. The following from the pilot book sums it up ‘more than any other town along the coast Marseille is a Travellers town rather than a tourist town.  It is a noisy. frenetic, crowded, bustling and busy. The traffic clogs the old streets,  yachts and fishing boats clog  the old harbour,  it fairly hums  with life and that life is uniquely coloured by the Marseillaise themselves !’

So D and I decided providing new crew happy that we would return to last nights anchorage for peace and quiet and woo hoo  I get another swim:-) 2 lots of washing dried plenty of provisions on board and new crew happy to go so David went back to the office said we were leaving and we didn’t get charged a euro in spite of having filled the tanks with water and used their electricity. 

So here we are back at anchor pleasant evening and all good. Tomorrow we start to head across the Golfe de Lyon heading to Barcelona.