Off to Marseille

We are finally off. The weather is fine, the boats are ready, weather is great... 

Looking to port, departure day.

Jack lines for me run around the cockpit

There was a forecast for rain, for the early morning and we got that at 05h30,..

We set off at 09h00, the winds were from the NW gusting up to 20kts, I motored out the channel while Flying Fyn sailed out(not enough space for me to put my sail up. 

Following Flying Fyn

Farewell Port Saint Louis du Rhone

My sail went out quite easily and quickly (or so it felt) and soon, I too was sailing. I only raised my main to the second reef and had my genoa out to 4 reef, even with that amount of sail I was doing between 6.5-9.5 (managed to touch 10..). The winds were gusting up to 20 and the were of the port rear quarter, the swell was from the w-sw. All in all was very plesant sail..  The autohelm surprised me by throwing in another gibe, as I had just thought I had completed one..I was just returning from the cleating off my main, sliding along the seat, when the boom came round and the lines pushed me into the seat.. I then had to watch it for a while, don't like those kinds of surprises. There was just a hint of rain en route.. 

When we arrived in the Gulf of Marseille, the swell picked up(as it does in that area), I too had the motor out the water( I now recognise the sound). The wind died down so fired up the motor, dropped sails, put out fenders and into port. I spoke to the harbour master and they responded in French, I let them know that I did not understand, he just related the same thing... So I entered the harbour

Hello, Vieux Port Marseille

We went to the fuel dock to full up. I got a bit of a shock when I saw how much fuel I had taken on.. My fuel guage told me I had something just shy of 3/4, I put in 160l.. At the time I was under the impression that I had a 190l tank, which  would mean the guage is highly unreliable + the motor motor is a hog.. I checked the boats papers and I have a 250l tank, so I can confirm the gauge is not good, now I just have to figure out if I did have a full tank to start with as there is no easy place to dip tank, or if I got a full tank as per guage readout.

I had to do a med moor this time and the wind had just picked up, was blowing easy 15 gusting 20, off the port side.. So I succefully docked it with no bumps or loud noises from mine or surrounding surrounding boat, which was nice.. I docked exactly where Ryan pulled off the 40kts dock..

Outside CNTL, deja vooo

The weather forecast when we set off, was for Wed and Thursday to be good sailing days, and then Friday till Sunday port time.. By the time we got here, Thursday the weather window had changed, so we will be in Marseille to Friday and continue..