Having waited for the Mistrale and its resulting heavy seas to abate, our longest daytime crossing for ages was almost windless with just a little swell left behind.  We had 87nm to do, so were up at just after 4 a.m for a 14 hr passage.  An uneventful day: the ship’s log has only one entry saying “fin whale?” at 1400 hrs.  Roger spotted two (or was it one, twice?) a few hundred metres away, and they/it was huge, with only a tiny fin back towards its tail.  It managed to show off its blowing capabilities for us a few times before disappearing for good.

We had decided it would be a bit more interesting to make landfall in Italy, so headed for the best sounding port over the border – San Remo.  Big mistake.  It is a huge port with the interesting end full of club pontoons and we moored up without spotting the “private pontoon” sign until later.  We got ashore for an exploration and supper with no problem, but found the gate locked when we tried to get back.  We spent a while trying to figure out how to get back to Red Panda – swimming was out of the question in that water.  Eventually I (D) summoned up the courage to climb over the side of the gate structure; no problem, and we were back onboard!  That was quite enough of that place which was also noisy, not very appealing and full of holidaying Brits. So we hot-footed it off in the morning, heading for France and at least we had had a free night.

The old harbour: not even a very pretty view from the boat!