Sunday 24 May 2015

La Ciotat to Ile de Porquerolles

With a good nights rest, we set off the weather forecast was calling for 3-4 Beaufort scale, blowing from the west.. Raised anchor and set off, hoisted my main, put out the genoa (2 reefs this time, getting cheeky), rigged my preventer and waited for the wind...  It never got the memo. After 3-4NM under way, there was a hint of wind and so I killed the engine and was tearing along at 3kts.. After about 30 mins of this I stowed my genoa and motored..
Good Morning from La Ciotat

Farewell Grand Plage, La Ciotat

Where's the wind?

Flying Fyn smoking me while I was sailing(kind of)

DOH!
 We were just about to enter the gulf of Toulon, when Flying Fyn stopped.. The had slipped a fanbelt for the engine cooling. We had to wait first, for the motor to cool down so Mike could get at the alternator and then a quick fix..  The forecast for the swells was for 0.5-1.5m -*WRRRRRONG*..  They were a hefty 2m, poor Mike all the while was down below working on the engine. After about 2 hrs, we were off again. The rest of the trip was uneventful..
Arriving at Porquerolles
 We anchored on the right with the other boats. Anchoring this time took me 3 attempts, first time I was too close, to Flying Fyn, and it did not set(sea weed), 2nd attempt, right distance, wrong bit of floor. A kind crew memeber of a big yatch, came aboard and spotted where to drop the anchor, with his help I was done and ready for the night...

Ready for the night..
Mike and Michelle came to pick me up and we went ashore. They then told me what happened.. We walked over to the marina/town and had tapas and some wine. We all agreed this place is awesome and we will spend a day walking around.. After a good night rest, I got the baker out of bed to make me some fresh bread bread.


Marseilles to La Ciotat

With the winds finally dying down, we were off...  The winds were from the W/SW, undocking was straight forward, I managed to get my fenders stowed and sails up by the time I left the harbour entry. I was a really good day's sail with winds between 15-20 kts off the stern, with the swells - could not have asked for better, cruising speeds were 5.5-7.5kts. I'm still only sailing with a hint of sails(my main is on the 2nd reef and the genoa was on the 4th reef).
Farewell Marseilles

Chateau d'Iff

Flying Fyn hoisting sails

Flying Fyn under way

Rescue services practicing
 Shortly after we passed Fiol, we saw the rescue services hoisting a man off the rescue boat - guess they were practicing.
The Callanques

Fleet on the horizon
 In the horizon, you can just make out a fleet of boats - it was the wooden boats, that were in Marseille Harbour. The leat boat flew past the picture I took was not in focus(I got to get the hang of the photo thing on the moving boat)
Flying Fyn with Sormiou just ahead

Nice boat

Flying Fyn

They are catching me up


Smoked by an old girl
 This old girl smoked me.. I was doing about 6.5kts.. I only had a hint of sails though..
Entering La Ciotat Grand Plage


Shortly after we anchored, two water bombers were practicing and we got to see them in action, with a few low flyovers.. 

Overall a very enjoyable day's sailing, and a good night's anchoring. The winds were forecast for up to 30kts from the N, and there was no swell..  That was till 03H30, the following morning, the wind had swung to the east and the swell from the south... This time, I had secured the boom (and stopped my vang chewing my mast), put the paint can in the aft lazarette, so other than the rocking of the boat, *NO* loud squeaking/rattling noises, so a good night's sleep was had...
 

Friday 22 May 2015

Marseilles, waiting for the wind

We spent the last two days in Marselleis, waiting on the wind. On the night of our arrival after a quick shower, we went out for a meal and i tried the local speciality, Bouliabaisse, a fish broth..

On Wed we went to see Saint Victor's Abbey, a 5th century church, which is France's oldest church. We also discovered a bakery, renouned for Navettes - these are boat shaped cookies, which are a local speciality. The bakery has been on that site since 1781. On the 2 February, the bishop will bless the first batch of Navettes. The cookies, are boat shaped, which legend has brought the 3 Marys to Staint Marie de la Mer.

Inside St Victor's Abbey
Looking up at Notre Same de La Garde

Inside the church, this once was used a military observation post.. The shots below are taken from the Rue des Catalans.

Looking at Friol, Ille de Iffe, from the war memorial, on a coastal road leaving Marseille from the south
The wind was whipping up some swell and lots of whitecaps, it got up to 43kts..
Looking at friol further south on the coastal raod
Time to turn around, just after Anse de l'Oriol.

The highest wind recorded.
They were housing a regatta for these old girls..
View from Fort St Jean
By Thurs night the wind had died down

Fort St Jean

Panoramic shot from Note Same de La garde
Another shot looking South

Panoramic shot taken on Rue des Catalans
On the way back to the boat after having birthday drinks with Mike.

Wednesday 20 May 2015

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..

Sunday 17 May 2015

Idle time at Port St Louis du Rhone

Still at Port Saint Louis and the wind is howling... It hasn't been too bad, up till 22h00, yesterday, the wind only got up to 45kts.. 

While we were eating lunch, a river boat was entering the locks, the wind was slowing he mixing of the water significantly and there was a tiny standing wave on the boundary.

Locks opening up
This photo was taken while having lunch - the the wind was strong enough to slow the mixing of the water..
Notice how much the Black mast in the distance is leaning 

The leaning mast belongs to this 60ft racing sled.

I took the above pictures to show how much the wind was blowing, it was only peaking at 35kts by this time... We finished our late lunch and as we had no major boat stuff to do (due to weather) we decided to go and see the bull taunting taking which was part of the festival of the Carmargue. 

So at 15H00 we bought our tickets expecting some serious bull taunting and we were pleasantly surprised.. There was folk dancing taking place..
Folk dancing
After the folk dancing stopped, a lady started singing an opera piece and the Cowboy was doing his bit..
Opera singer and Cowboy


After he singer was done and took her bow, we were treated to even more equestrian display by Cowboys/girls.






 After they had put on a display, we got to the bull taunting...


Giddy up, where those hoomans..

His behind you..

Arrg, gonna git you...

 This sport more so than others, the participants are extremely driven to excellence, any mediocre performance, quickly gets the corrective actions necessary.. One guy was just a bit too slow which resulted in the bull providing said correction, the taunter limped off with a torn shirt and a limp..
With one afternoon's taunting over it was on to the awards ceremony for the taunter who performed the best.. This was kicked off by the marching band..  


The victor collects his award
The aim of this activity as we have observed is for a taunter to attempt to remove a ribbon/piece of string from the horns of a rather pissed off bull with a metallic comb like thing without getting gored by the pissed off bull - we concurred that this individual did deserve he first prize - he was by far the most aggressive of the taunters, he narrowly avoided getting gored yet he collected the most ribbons/pieces of strings.

After the award ceremony we thought we were done for the day and wondered behind the arena to listed to some Gypsy music.

 Band warming up..

After one song, they promptly stopped playing and we were ushered back to the arena for some more something... We were treated to some further display of fine horsemanship. 
Rounding up he bulls (taunters were done with them)



These two girls made it look rather too easy. After this display, a rider would go to the far end of the arena, collect a bouquet of flowers and two other riders (too lazy to go to the far end of the arena) would attempt to take the flowers from the rider, go figure..

Steal he flowers from you mate

Close but no cigar..

After that display, the horses and the bulls were herded into the arena and the Cowboys/girls separated the animals, and herded them around the stadium. 



 After a few laps of herding the animals they put them away..

Putting ones toys away when done playing.. 
Further toying with the bulls..

After the animals were put away, it was back down to the band and we were treated to music.  After having a couple of pizzas and some good wine it was time for home



On the whole we had a really enjoyable day, despite the fact that the wind was howling and we were still at PSL... Tomorrow we will go to Port Nap as we have a date with a cherry picker to fix Flying Fynn's main sail furler and hopefully Tuesday we set off...