CANNES

On our sail to Cannes, we managed to set the gennaker and had a very nice but short sail in light winds.
Cannes is remarkable.  It is the height of the film festival and so there are thousands of business  types and hangers on milling around.  Most of them have their mandatory lanyard with photo ID which allows them entree into the marketing areas and also the food and drinks that are laid on for them

party dressed wannabes waiting for the stars to arrive

The shopping seems endless and the prices are sky high. It seems incredible that pair of men’s shoes could cost $2500.  We spent the days wandering around looking at the shops, looking at the red carpet where the stars walk up and down, walking up to the old tower on the hill, doing the washing, waiting for Kym Kardashian (whose giant motor yacht was opposite), to come out onto the deck and generally looking in awe at some of the largest pleasure ships we had ever seen. 

looking across the Cannes marina

The display of conspicuous consumption really does beg the question “What global financial crisis?”.  At night, the big ships glowed with mood lighting and some thumped on partying to the next day.

NICE

We left Cannes and motored all of the way to Nice in perfectly calm seas.  The huge motor yachts moored in the bays outside of Juan les Pins and Antibes were an extension of the incredible displays of affluence in Cannes.  

The Port of Nice is quite small, but still had a few big boats including Mirabella III (she is a  mere 136 feet long).

We had seen the extensive housing development along the bay but the Nice port was compact, underdeveloped and rustic.  It was only when we caught the bus and went into the Centre Ville that we realised just how large and majestic this city is.

The city is centred on the Plaza Massena which is surrounded by kilometres of shopping streets.  The main street, Avenue Jean Medecin is wide, and in one area, covered with a porticoed verandah. 

sculptures in Nice

It was not hard to imagine the bedecked socialites of the 19th century strolling the boulevard with a parasol on their wrist and a thorough gentleman beside them.





Later we caught a bus to the Musee Marc Chagall and was enthralled by his history and the religious and rustic themes of his art works.  Another bus brought us back right to the yacht where we found a gift;  a copy of the 'Old man and the sea' resting on our door-  Martin and Merrilee had arrived.


Next morning M & M came to the boat and we set off together for San Remo.

SANTA LUCIA

After a foul last night in St Tropez, we left the marina and headed for Santa Lucia hoping to outrun the rain and wind. We managed to sail 3 miles at 4 – 5 knots on a close reach though whenever we tacked we seemed to be heading further out.

leaving port

We finally gave in to the fickle wind and motored into Santa Lucia. The rain began again in earnest once we moored.  After a quick visit to the local coffee shop we loaded up with a baguette, vegies and beer and once again retreated to the boat.

ST TROPEZ

Approaching St Tropez

Eventually we rounded the Cap De St Tropez, and, after some confusion at the Marina acceuil we moored up and went for the usual exploration around town.  St Tropez, although past its belle epoque, is still a huge tourist mecca.  Thousands of people were wandering along the quai and up and down the little side streets.


We stumbled into a gallery that had a retrospective exhibition of Charles Dufresne, an early 20th C naive painter.  We thought we would look upstairs at the small permanent collection. Wow! There were Vuillards, Bonnards, Matisses, Signacs and Seurats to name a few. There were some simply beautiful works. 

It appears that all of the artists stayed in St Tropez at some time during their careers.


 
As we prepared another lovely tea, more and more sailboats and 100’ long power yachts motored in to stay for the night.  St Tropez is still a bit of a watering hole for the conspicuously affluent.

We are once more sitting in the port waiting for for Easterly gales to abate.  Right now, it;s off to the local market on the quai.

LE LAVANDOU

Sail boats near Ile de Porquerolles

Out of Toulon the wind was nearly on our nose as we motorsailed across the bay. We were consistently  getting 7 knots and the sea was lumpy but fair. The swell was running about  a metre on our starboard bow. When we got to Iles de Porquerolles, we turned off the motor and sailed across the bay still at 7 knots.  It was a public holiday (Ascension)  and there was a race going on in the bay with over 50 sailboats milling around. David played  ‘bowman’ for a while, keeping an eye on crossing traffic and relaying information to the helm as the genoa is large and blocks out a very large area of the forward view.
Our last tack was towards Iles de Hyeres, a renowned nudist colony.  David suggested we should tack when we could see the light shining off bare bottoms, but we ignored that.  Finally we motored into Le Lavandou.

This is a very beautiful tourist town.  It appears that the local council is very proud of it's appearance with very little rubbish visible and virtually no dog poo on the streets. The esplanade is decorated with colourful gardens with many Australian native plants in flower.









The beach, which seemed to stretch for miles and miles, was golden and covered in sunbathers.

The other side of the esplanade was wall to wall shopping, dining and people watching.  Dozens of people, young and old played petanque in the beautiful manicured  strip between the main shopping strip and the marina.



























The side streets were filled with even more restaurants and shops.  The housing in the hillside behind was a pleasant variety of modernish houses and bushland.  We went out for tea and ate well. We had a three course meal for $20 which included things like soup from a tureen, fish, rice provencale and a creme caramel for dessert!

 

Side street cafes

Yachts lined up, ready to sail.

The approach to the city.

We had to leave the next day as there was some rough weather brewing.  Even so, we were forced to motor all the way into some fairly solid seas.  For a good part of the journey we had crags and cliffs on our lee and so were not feeling very comfortable.  This was not helped by constant drizzle that made us quite uncomfortable.

Finally we turned the corner towards St Tropez. The seas were still solid but more to the aft .

One of the vagueries of the sea it seems is that the wind is too strong at some times and too weak at others.

TOULON

The next day was a bit of a challenge.  We set out for Toulon early because the forecast was for strong winds later in the day.  By the time we got half way across the bay the winds started lifting.  We furled the genoa and, after another hour, we furled the mainsail to half size.  The wind was coming at 150 or so degrees and so it was a rapid downwind sail.  The swell was coming across the boat on the starboard and so we were getting tossed around a bit.  Some swells touched 2 metres and the wind topped out at 35 knots(yes knots).  Mostly the wind was around 15-20.  Anne was at the helm and did a magnificent job.  On one particularly big wave which caught us broadside, the drinking glasses flew out of their racks and crashed to the floor.  Two broken wine glasses and other s. Damn, it’s back to drinking beer (I still can’t believe that I can buy 2.5 litres of full strength beer for AU$3).

A regatta near the Ile de Porquerolles

During the 4 1/2 hour journey, the boat behaved calmly and without any feeling that it was overloaded.  We now feel a lot more assured that she will look after us in difficult times.   We reduce sail when we are getting over 7 knots of speed over ground and, although it makes for a longer journey, it reduces the forces on sails etc and the twitchiness of helming downwind.

Nevertheless, we still touched 8 knots and across one of the bays which was sheltered from the swell, enjoyed the force of the wind, and sat on 6.5 to 7 knots on the mainsail alone.

After taking the long motor journey across the Baie du Lazaret, we finally moored in Toulon at Darse Vieille.  It took us all of 5 minutes to find the mega shopping centre and do the usual Carrefour/food/Macdo/internet routine,  It seemed that every car in Toulon was travelling down the road one back from the quai, but the pedestrian crossings were good.  Toulon is an unusual place.  Much of it was flattened during WW2 and so the buildings feel fairly 20th C.  It is still the naval base for half of the French fleet and so there are a lot of very large grey ships everywhere.











The port de plaisance is next door to the Corsica/Sardinia ferry terminal and so we were entertained by hundreds of cars streaming on board and then the gigantic ferry boats steaming out.  There were 3 or four arrivals/departures during the day.

We have holed up for Wednesday because the Mistral is blowing even stronger than it did last night.  Here is the forecast for Toulon for Wednesday:

Wed 16 May

CEST WindAvg. Gust

02:00 NW27 kt to 40 kt

05:00 NW 27 kt to 39 kt

08:00 NW 26 kt to 37 kt

11:00 NW 28 kt to 35 kt

14:00 NW 30 kt to 37 kt

17:00 NW 31 kt to 38 kt

20:00 NW 26 kt to 36 kt

23:00 NNW 16 kt to 20 kt

39 knots of wind is  70 kilometres an hour; it’s fairly hard to stand up straight in that sort of wind.  Out on the open sea, you might expect it to blow 10%- 20% more.

Fairly scary to say the least.

LA CIOTAT

On Thursday we took the train to Aix en Provence. The area is well known as the inspiration for many Impressionist and cubist artists and so it seemed a terrific opportunity to do some 'walking in their footsteps'. We found, however, that it's basically a tourist town selling it’s history.  Cezanne's studio was a long way out and most of the artifacts were somewhere else being restored. 
A bit disappointing to say the least.
 

Asparagus by the Kilo!

I also think that you can look into just so many dress shops and then it’s time to go.



So, after a week in Marseille we left, having had a great time enjoyed terrific food and experienced totally different cultures.  
 
We had to rest on Sunday because the wind was so strong.  On Monday, we set sail for La Ciotat.  The first leg was great, with the wind behind us but it eventually it died down and we motored into La Ciotat.  What a port.  A company has taken over the old shipyards and is servicing huge luxury yachts.  Many were stored on land and some were even completely wrapped in plastic to preserve them over winter.

A 'wrapped cruiser'

La Ciotat seemed very quiet; just waiting for the summer tourist season.  The old 'Centre Ville' was empty and although many of the shops were shut it still had a quaint feel about it.

The beautiful harbour entrance

One of the 'big' yachts

We took a bus to the main shopping centre and after much hunting, found an Orange shop to sort out recharging our wireless modem. Anything remotely to do with IT is sooo difficult in France. Bureaucracy wins every time.

MARSEILLE

What a great day!

We spent the first part of the morning shifting the depth sonar from the starboard side of the boat to the internal helm.  Now we can see the depth at both the interior and exterior helm and this might help to avoid the occasional grounding.

We then wandered off to the shopping precinct (we started at the Chandlers, of course).  This time we tried La Canebiere.  We went into Gallarie Lafayette, but the empty destockage bins indicated that the sales were over.  Lafayette is a clone of David Jones; even the gear looked the same.  There is a large mall  full of shops alongside, but none of them was special to us.

We went outside, got lost and found the Algerian markets.
Huge slabs of halva and spices and dried herbs in pots filled the shop. The aromas were amazing! 

What a wonderful experience cruising past fruit, vegetable, meat and fish stalls with the most delightful looking produce and with prices that reminded us of Spain last year.  

We found some discount stores with cutlery and then a couple of drapers.  Anne was rapt.

The theatre 'La Criee' (red) in the distance.

We returned to the boat to drop off food and trinkets and then at 7 went to 'La Criee', a nearby live performance theatre.

We watched a dance performance by the 'Ballet National de Marseille', 'Moving Target', that explored concepts of sanity, normality, conformity and gender.

It had some quite spectacular effects. A mirror the size of the stage was lowered to an angle that allowed you to see the floor where  dancers performed.  Their movements made them appear to be jumping into the air, falling and flying.




Huge images of women were projected onto the screen which appeared to be on the floor.  A male dancer then interacted with the reflection as though it was his fantasy.  The whole performance was quite captivating.

It was first performed in 1996 and I reckon has been doing the rounds since then.  It had been at La Criee twice before.  There were about 1000 people in the audience including many 10 year olds on an evening 'school' type excursion. The scenes of partial nudity didn't phase them at all.

As we walked home, admiring the floodlit ancient fortresses through the maze of masts and the old multi story housing abutting each other, we reflected that this day was one of the most stimulating that we had experienced so far.




We fell into bed and woke at 8 the next day; 2 hours after our normal wake up.

CARRO

Off we went across the Golfe de Fos.
We were heading South East and that’s exactly where the wind was blowing.  On top of that, huge cargo boats thundered up and down the channels we were crossing.  Finally, we turned on the cast Iron genny and got to Carro in quick time.

This is a wonderful little fishing port.  It has room for 200 very small boats and, it seems, one visitor’s space.

our dinner

Tuna @ $20E kg

We stayed a day, wandered around the port to buy fish, have a crepe and coffee and returned to Austral.

The locals playing petanque

The town is quaint and doesn't have the 'touristy' feel like so many others along the coast. Shops are small and streets are named after local heroes.

  
Anne sewed and I restored the mast wiring system. I had taken the TV masthead amplifier home and guessed how to repair to it, as it might have have a lightning strike. Once installed, lo and behold, real French TV.  Now we were able to follow the french elections on 15 channels.  I also threaded the new anemometer cable through the headlining ready to instal the unit when we get to Marseille.

With our boat safely moored at the pier we waited to set off the next morning for Marseille.

the 'Austral (on the right)

The hills above Marseille on the horizon

PORT ST LOUIS DE RHONE

Avignon to Port St Louis De Rhone, was our last inland leg, and in hindsight difficult and disappointing.

The weather really dented our spirits and for much of the journey prevented us from totally immersing ourselves in the culture and atmosphere of the the towns we passed through. The trip from Avignon through Arles was hard, with strong currents, waves and head winds and the occasional glimpse of sun peeping through grey clouds in a fairly empty landscape.


The one consolation was making friends and enjoying the company of fellow sailors. Brits,Tim and Georgina, had a memorable dinner with us on 'Austral' on our last night in Port St Louis De Rhone. Hopefully we can continue to keep in touch once we go our separate ways.



Dinner was even more enjoyable with these two  French wines - smooth and very drinkable.




Once through the last lock at the Rhone mouth we moored at the St Louis De Rhone marina and made preparations to put the mast back on the boat. The thought of having sails again was exciting and at the same time stressful as we had no idea of the condition of our mast and whether  it would go back on, problem free.

leaving St Louis De Rhone

We left St Louis De Rhone the next morning and reached 'Navy Service', a massive shipyard of 1000s of yachts on 'the hard', and set about readying the mast. Our mast and rigging had mostly survived being stored for the 11 months, although a few pieces of equipment had been pilfered. Fortunately, the local workshops had parts we could use. Our main sail and genoa were given to the local sailmaker to make some small repairs and were ready to rig after the mast was stepped.

lifting the mast from it's stand

guiding the mast

setting it in place

With amazing skill 3 men picked up our mast and with David's help, guided it onto the mast base. The shrouds and stays were put in place, tightened and we were nearly ready to sail.

We decided to return for the night to the the St Louis De Rhone marina, sleep happy in the thought that all was well, ready to set of the next morning.










At last the 'Austral' was back as it should be...........