Having arrived in Sainte Maxime on Saturday afternoon (17^th)and booked in for three nights, we were allocated a space on the end of the pontoon.  That seemed very convenient until the Mistral started to blow on Sunday.  It rained very heavily on Sunday morning and we had to erect the tent very quickly so that we could have breakfast in the cockpit.

By the time we returned from our afternoon trip to Saint Tropez on Sunday afternoon the wind began to blow strongly and we had to rush and take the tent down again to prevent it being torn away.  The strong winds continued to increase during the night giving us a rocky night with howling gusts from time to time. A small consolation was the beautiful sunset over the harbour entrance on Sunday evening.

On Monday, we received a visit from my sister Sarah and husband Mick who, with a couple of friends (John & Brenda)from Norfolk, had been attending a wedding in Provence at the weekend. We all enjoyed a very typical French lunch in the old part of town.  A brief visit to the beach resulted in us being sand-blasted so we all returned to Eliza B for tea and a slice of La Tarte Tropezienne (which Elizabeth and I finished off for breakfast the following day).

The photos show the wind-swept four of us and Monkey recording his visit to our yacht in Sainte Maxime.  (‘Monkey’ is the mascot of the Staff Office of Norfolk Constabulary and enjoys being smuggled in travelling suitcases to different corners of the globe.)

During the late Monday afternoon, the strong winds returned and we recorded gusts of 41 knots over the mast – in the relative shelter of the harbour – resulting in another restless night checking the warps and furling sails.  However, on Tuesday morning we awoke to a beautiful calm sunny morning and we topped up with fuel before leaving Sainte Maxime mid-morning.  Our plan was to reach the Isle de Porquerolles ready for another visit from Tony and Michèle (they with the beautiful house and swimming-pool at Taradeau – where we visited earlier In the year).  We motor-sailed for the first two hours and then decided to sail when we turned toward the destination.  After three hours sailing we realised that we were not making sufficient progress and resorted to the engine to make our course good.  Unfortunately we had not planned for the adverse tide which was reducing our speed by 20%.  This meant it took us a further three hours to reach the port, during which time we saw another beautiful sunset (except that the port was a full hour beyond the rocks shown in the photo!)

With the Navigating Officer busy spotting the numerous yellow buoys in the bay– there was no moon-light to assist -  and the helmsman following instructions and carefully avoiding them, we safely found a berth in the harbour and were helped tying up by some friendly and helpful ‘Brits’.  It had been a long day and included some unplanned ‘night sailing’  - but we survived.

Tony and Michèle arrived on the noon ferry and we sailed to a nearby bay where we anchored for lunch and a quick swim before motoring across to Port Cros, the next island, for the night. 

    
On arrival we could see that all the mooring buoys were taken and it appeared that the pontoons were also full.  However, a small space was identified and we managed to squeeze our way between two boats to find a peaceful berth on the visitors pontoon.   After a short walk in the woods, we enjoyed a set meal in the ‘white’ restaurant on the harbour frontage. Next morning we returned to Porquerolles but this time we explored the south side of the island and chose a different bay to anchor for lunch and swimming.  We then motored back to the harbour in time for Tony and Michèle to catch the – very crowded – 16:30 ferry.

Friday 23^rd was our 39^th wedding anniversary and, appropriately, we spent a quiet day anchoring in (yet another) new bay for lunch and swimming.  In the evening we celebrated with a very nice dinner at Villa Sainte Anne, restaurant in the Porquerolles main square.

On Saturday 24^th, we left at 09:20 – an early start for us – to make the long journey to Cassis.  There was not enough wind to sail but we enjoyed listening to Leslie Caron on the French music channel talking about her career and playing suitable music.  This pleasant day was brought to an unnecessary end when Cassis advised us that they were ‘complet; desole’ so we decided to try the nearby calanque (a sort of mini-fiord in the rocks) which, the almanac advised, had over 400 spaces on pontoons and buoys.  However, our first attempt took us into a calanque which only had ‘no anchoring’ buoys and this confused us even more.  Eventually we discovered the correct calanque with (hidden round the corner) hundreds of boats and (fortunately) some spaces. 

This was called Calanque Port Miou, Ville de Cassis and we were allocated a berth on the pontoon (to the right of the yellow yacht) by the very helpful Capitain.  The scenery is very dramatic and has been created partly by geology but also by the working in the past century as a source of limestone.

The left picture shows the seaward view, with the open sea hidden out to the left at the end, and the right a view looking inland (up the calanque) showing the beautiful and dramatic scenery – and also what a safe haven it is from unfriendly seas.

The meteo for Sunday include a threat of a possible storm on Sunday afternoon so we decided to defer the last step of our return to Port Napoleon to Monday and spend the day walking into Cassis and enjoying a relaxing Sunday lunch.  A short rainstorm with a few claps of thunder arrived during the afternoon to justify our decision.  We  enjoyed our lunch and the walk around the pretty harbour where we had been at the start of our Mediterranean adventure.

Ron & Elizabeth HOWARD

Eliza B,  Moody 36 (1998)

+ 44 7768 816 579

+ 33 (0)6 11 66 79 08

http://blog.mailasail.com/elizab