One Life ...

Beautiful weather this morning and absolutely no wind. Today would be the day to go exploring on land. Not too far from where we are anchored is a little village up in the hills named Borme Les Mimosa. In January and February the little yellow Mimosa flowers are in bloom. It took us about an hour and a half to walk there. Some of it up hill. It was hot but we were prepared with our water bottle and lunch! We stopped for a little cooling air con in the organic supermarket. We enjoyed looking around this quaint little village. Checking out the boutique shops, ornate gardens and what remains of the castle. We took a different route down, once again taking a quick respite from the heat in any shop we passed. The evening was spent watching the clouds from the boat before going ashore to see a French play in an outdoor amphitheatre. Next we headed towards the music. This time it was 2 men singing Frank Sinatra and popular French songs.

We were treated to some excellent singing and contemporary dance for our evening entertainment. The standing ovation was thoroughly deserved. The journey back along the beach to find the little boat seemed darker than usual. But as always the short row from shore gave plenty of opportunity for star gazing. Bed was calling at 1am. Swimming around the boat, which is anchored on a sandy bottom, revealed a few small rays and lots of flat fish. The water seemed slightly cooler today but it has been warmer than most years with a temperature of about 26 degrees. Shopping done, siesta complete followed by a cool ocean dip and then it was time to cook on our Cobb! We had bought a pizza and some BBQ skewers for dinner. The Cobb is like a BBQ with a a lid and the base stays cool so it can stand on the boat. The food was delicious! We are early as we had a long walk into Le Lavandou for the evening entertainment. On the main stage we had South American salsa which we listened to for a while before...

The friendly dolphin came between our boat and our neighbour before disappearing back out to sea. The Yacht Club of Saint Tropez had a live concert in the afternoon with fantastic singers. We listened from the tender close to the beach. It got so hot we watched from in the water where we danced with our little tender to some great songs. Our last evening in Saint Tropez was spent people watching, window shopping in Gucci and Louis Vuitton. We were tempted to a meal of cavier but some of the prices were upwards of 5000 Euros and Christine had forgotten to bring her money. A quiet night at anchor followed by an early start. We caught the sunrise as we left the Gulf of Saint Tropez. There was no wind forecast but we had some excellent sailing until about 11am. Then no wind at all, so motored into Cavaliere Sur Mer and dropped anchor. We walked approx 2 miles along the beach to the centre of Cavaliere Sur Mer. It was pretty busy, full of restaurants and a couple of beach wear shops. We wa...

We were reunited with our friend in Borme but this time he had our other friend onboard. He had left his wife at home and come away for a short sailing trip. We went over to see them, discussed tomorrow's weather and the sailing destination then stayed for the rest of the evening. We were due to go to shore as the band Aioli were playing. However, the rain came ... We never made it and assume the outside concert was abandoned. The wind had moved during the night to the northwest. It was fairly strong but perfect to speed us along to Saint Tropez. Carried along by the wind we flew, sometimes at 7 knots which is a bit too fast for our little boat. The wind dropped completely at lunchtime and then returned from the south west. Another great direction for our destination. We arrived in record time, welcomed by streams of super yachts leaving Saint Tropez. There was one that dwarfed the others and we saw a monster of a sailing boat too. It made the normally large yachts look like toys! ...

Fireworks! A great display over Le Lavandou for all to see. The morning began beautifully. A dip in the ocean followed by breakfast and a short trip ashore. By the time we had finished completing our laundry the wind had increased a fair amount and was blowing onshore. We were rocking and pitching far too much for comfort so we decided it was time to leave. The boat anchored next to us followed suit. He went into the marina to avoid the short chop but we battled upwind to seek protection from Cap Negre once again. The music scene this evening was a little quiet so we lay on deck counting shooting stars. Next the large catamaran ahead of us started to crank up the volume to Madness! We danced on deck to 'One Step Beyond' whilst 3 people on the catamaran danced in synch to their party tunes. A truly entertaining evening shared with the thousands of stars that dotted the clear night sky and 3 crazy dancing divas. We woke in the morning to another, less violent storm. The party ca...

After filling up with water at the lifeguard station, we went in the tender to snorkel at the rocks at the end of Cap Negre. There was a variety of fish of different colours, some tiny juvenile blue ones to multicoloured wrasse. The afternoon was spent sitting under a cloudy sky reading and appreciating being slightly cooler. The sky grew blacker and blacker throughout the afternoon. The forecast had warned that there could be thunder storms and we were about to take a direct hit. The wind began to increase and the rain started. We took everything inside so it didn't get wet and then we experienced a monster of a storm! The boat was at anchor and laid on its side by the force of the gusts which were phenomenal. We soon became soaked and very cold. Most boats dragged their anchors and were forced to head out to sea away from the rocks. As the storm continued we started to move too. In all only about 10 metres but we started the engine and prepared to take to sea. The gusts continued...

Lots of very late nights for us. Everywhere we seem to stop there is a live concert in the evening. By the time we get back to the boat it is in the early hours so we have succumbed to afternoon siestas. The moon is now full which is great for guiding our way back in the dark. We are moving quite quickly to avoid the Easterly wind, that is unusual for this time of year. It is normally a sea breeze from the SW or a Mistral from the NW that is pretty fierce. We had a great sail from Embiez to La Badine. The winds were light but the weather and sea conditions wonderful. La Badine allowed us to explore 150 ancient amphoreas (Sorry about the spelling - wine jars) that the  archaeology department reconstructed to represent a 2nd century ship wreck. We couldn't find them at first but realised we were snorkelling on the wrong side of Point Bouvet. After a couple of nights in the La Badine anchorage we left for Borme and La Lavandou. The wind shifted to a SE direction which meant we could t...

A quick trip to the supermarket before it got too hot. We actually managed to find French mustard this time which seems to be in short supply. The daily swim was followed by paddle board practise. None of us did particularly well. It seems the slightest ripple caused each of us take a swim! In the afternoon we took advantage of the sea breeze and headed to our next destination -Isle des Embiez. It all started fairly well with a gentle upwind sail out of the bay. The wind decided not to play fair and disappeared however it left rather unfriendly steep waves behind. We rolled and rolled and then we rolled some more. The engine was required to enable us to make progress in the right direction as 0.0 knots was getting a little tedious.  The wind appeared again and travelling at 6.3 knots we were over powered in the gusts. On arrival the island was busy with boats. We headed a little way away from our favoured anchorage. Soon the sun was setting and at Embiez sunsets are always spectacular....

After another long journey through the night Christine arrived in Marseille. She didn't have to face another bus journey as she was chauffer driven from the airport by our friend. After a delicious lunch on his boat we caught the bus back to our home port. The evening was spent in engine repair mode. All looked good but now it was getting dark so a further inspection was required in the morning. Engine repaired at last and it was time to launch! As there was little wind and plenty of helpers this was easy. We were now floating once again and sailed off towards the horizon! Our first stop was a little bay just south of Carry Le Rouet. Very quiant and a good opportunity to dive into to the crystal clear and very warm Mediterranean Sea. Christine took our friend's paddle board for a quick outing before aperitif time arrived! A quiet night at anchor before an early start the next day. We had discovered that in Bandol ( a nearby village on the coast) there would be a liv...

An evening departure from Bournemouth by coach and an early morning flight from Gatwick = a mix of short naps and dreary eyes. At the airport ..."Sorry Sir, your bag is too big. It is oversize baggage, take it over there to drop it off," said the airport assistant. Carrying my 'oversize' little orange inflatable boat was very heavy and very awkward! I was glad it was now with the baggage handling crew. There was a lot of people at the airport, most of them in the Pret coffee queue. Flight great, landing great, heat in France not so great. Bus in France left on time with a slight delay for 2 teenagers who seemed to be missing one essential item - money to pay! Shopping - tick. I was quite surprised by the empty shelves. When Christine and I visited other European countries earlier in the year, all were fully stocked. Eventually I arrived at the boat to find what looked like a huge black burn down the side. As I got closer I could see it was oil. In the rush of leaving ...