St. Tropez to Macinaggio

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May 11, Wednesday

Our first real sail will be an overnight to Corsica. We finish our boat provisioning, fuel up the boat and depart around 4pm. Winds about 10 knots, we put up a reefed main and Genoa, but soon found the winds out of ;the Golfe to be blowing 20-25 from the West.

Within one hour, we scampered to get the main down and reefed the Genoa. We set up the jacklines and tethers. Everyone got their foul weather gear on and life vests. With the wind and the waves we got wet immediately. We were still sailing average 7 knots and did so most of the evening and into the night. The winds were mostly behind us and the following seas made holding our course difficult. Shifts were required, but Ken seemed to stay available as it was so rough and this was our crew’s first sail with the boat. Overnights are tough in perfect conditions and this was a good test.


Just a bit of fun…


 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, 11:30, after a long night, we arrived at a lovely cove where we anchored for a lunch of Hopel-popel. I am sure I have spelled that incorrectly, but it is fried potatoes, sausage and then beaten eggs cooked into the mix. I always tend to embellish the dish to what my refrigerator holds, but it is a hearty meal after a hard night.

 

After lunch, Ken and Mike reflaked the hastily dropped main from the night before and Alan washed the dishes off the back of the boat. Our evening destination for Thursday night would be Ile Rousse. We were able to continue to sail with Genoa only and arrived at 6:30 pm.

This picture is not in order. It is of Macinaggio Marina our stop after Ile Rousse.

Ile Rousse has a very small marina and we were concerned with the maximum depth of 6 ft. We got a berth 3 boats from the Jetty and did not seem to have any issue. Getting out might be difficult as it would require a hard to port turn to miss the other side of the jetty.
In the morning we took turns with our boat shower, did sink laundry, hanging it out on the lifelines, washed the deck, sprayed off the hull salt and paid the Capitanarie his 20 Euro’s. He explained that the toilets were open, but no water yet because it was too early in the season!

The village is lovely and on Friday, we wandered the small market, and surroundings. Ken was in search of a newspaper and Page and Alan were on a mission for a Super Marche. I marveled at the sight of them as they returned to the boat. Alan had taken my back pack and it was so heavy with bottles of all sorts of wines and ports! They had picked up Ahi Tuna at the market along with wonderful fresh veggies and fruit. They could have used a pack horse with all they were carrying.

So far, with the exception of the rain as we were leaving Port Napoleon last week, the weather has been stupendous. Clear blue skies, warm breezes, and wonderful cool nights.

We would leave Ile Rousse around 2:45 to motor to St. Florent. About a 3 hour motor. (again, no real useful wind). We arrived in St. Florent around 6:30 Friday evening. Of course, the Captinare is closed for the evening, and we discovered the Toilettes were under construction. Everyone says too early in the season yet for all facilities to be open. St. Florent has a large marina with approximately 250 berths just for the transient boater. Mike, Ken and I wandered around to get a glass of wine and found Wi-Fi at a local bar and caught up on some email. Friday was a wonderful evening. We ate our dinner outside, feasting on Ahi Tuna, Fresh beans, Couscous and salad. And the never ending (it seems) great wine and port to end the evening.


Ile Rousse berth


Seems you can play Bridge anywhere!

Saturday, our morning routine today was coffee/croissants, a stop at the Capitanare to pay for the night (47 Euro’s), and then a quick walk for ice and beer at the Spar market. Being Saturday, the Spar closes at noon and we want to depart by 11:30 or so. We purchased 4 bags of ice and beer for the road. I even think Page and Alan bought MORE wine along with 2 Cooked chickens! We left port exactly 11:30 and head-off to Macinaggio. This will require a trip past Giralia Rock. We again, motored most of the way up to the Rock and looked forward to using a Genoa on the way down the East side of Corsica to Macinaggio.

Week Two – St. Tropez, Crew and Departure to Corsica

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Beautiful St. Tropez!


St. Tropez Bell Tower


Ken at his “portable” office. Printer, scanner, computer, internet…what else would he want?…maybe a rum and coke!

May 6, 2011

Today is a new day and it is wonderful out. The Monaco Marine is busy putting boats in the water and preparing others for the season, so it is already noisy. Yesterday, we worked most of the day; I rode the bike to the Geant, the local big Super Market. Again hoping that I will have a working refrig by Friday. In the afternoon, Jean Paul came to measure the boat for ORC rating. Ken had to help move the boat into the wind and doing so, Jean Paul allowed the boat stern to hit the concrete wall resulting in the first “boo-boo” of the season. Ken just wanted to cry. I believe that I can touch it up with reasonable success and I told Ken most people will look at it and think it is bird poop!


Evening at Guy & Renee’s.

When we were done with the measuring, we were picked up at the shipyard by Guy to go to his house for dinner. Guy and Renee have been wonderful friends this past year and are coming to sail with us next year. They spent 4 years in the Caribbean with their first sailboat. Guy now has a Sly 42 racing boat. Very expensive, all carbon fiber, made in Italy. Cachou is the name of the boat. He does very well around here with the regattas. Dinner was wonderful and very filling. Renee practiced her English and I practiced my French. It seems more and more I understand what is being said, but still cannot reply correctly. Oh, well….Ken and I slept very sound last night after the great dinner served with plenty of wine.

My plans today are to finally have a working refrigerator, one load of laundry, touchup the “nick”, more sealant around the mast, last bit of stowing in the Transom, get the Volvo engine working again, and then motor to St. Tropez where we will stay until Mike, Page and Alan arrive Monday. Some of the best made plans work, and others do not. We expected quiet sea’s in the morning which is typical, but instead, it was windy straight-off.


St. Tropez from the Golfe

We were still experiencing some “hiccups” with the refrig but knew that we still had to program the set-points, so we pushed on with our plans. Around 10am we started the motor and let it run for about ½ hour. All seemed good. We wanted to arrive to St. Tropez before noon and get our slip. Patrick was there and was “on-call” if we had any motor issues leaving the jetty. We spent one hour out in the Golfe de St. Tropez, motoring about to make sure all was well. Our arrival at St. Tropez was clean, with one stop at the diesel dock, and then finally in our appointed spot. Ken has me doing the driving now and he does the lines. A bit unnerving, but after a full season of the canals (I did most of the driving); I think I can handle this.

Dinner Saturday night was on Dolce Vita, Boris and Valerie’s motor yacht. They are our previous landlords of our St. Tropez Apartment. We have become good friends and look forward to many visits with them in the future. Boris teased me on my French and Valerie worked on her English. It was a good time with entirely too much food. By the second course we thought we were done and yet we had at least 3 more to go! Boris and Valerie bought our boat bikes from us. We did not want to haul them around this summer and most definitely did not want to take them across the Atlantic. We still have our bikes in Key West if we needed them.

Sunday, (Happy Mothers Day). Great sunny day with small projects to do. My first was to see Zou Zou at the Fish Market. He helped us with our fish needs for the party last year

Monday we are expecting Mike O’Connor to arrive around 4pm. He is a friend of Niki’s and has sailed with us in Chicago and Key West. This was a last minute opportunity for him to join us. When he arrived in Key West to sail, he skate-boarded from the airport to our rented house there. We did not know how he would arrive in St. Tropez, but found he conformed to the normal, bus from the Nice Airport. Ken and I had been out on the Golfe du St. Tropez calibrating some instruments and when we came in to dock we found Mike waiting for us. Next to arrive would be Page and Alan Spain. Page is a lifelong friend of mine. Through the years after our families early days at Devils lake where both families had cottages for many summers, we had maintained communication. Page and I had not seen each other with the exception of 3 years ago in California wine country. This meant a sailing trip with countless memories and stories of when we were children and all the mischief we got into. Ken and the guys would just have to put up with our “filling” in the lost years on this trip. Page was 5 and I was 10 at our last memories of Devils Lake.

Page and Alan arrived later than expected, but after our “reunion” everyone settled into their prospective areas in the boat. I fixed a light meal for everyone as it was late and we retired after a bit of wine and relaxation.

Tuesday morning, Ken, Mike and Alan motored the boat back to Monaco marine for another attempt at the refrig problem. Page and I went to St. Tropez famous market. We thought we would have to find something to do for only a few short hours and the market can certainly entertain you for that long. We soon found that the boys were in for a long repair day and would not return until late afternoon, early evening. So, Page and I took off for the sights and sounds of St. Tropez.

Cemeteries in France are amazing and I have many times said that to be buried in St. Tropez Cemetery that has the citadel above and the Golfe below would be the way to go! We hiked around the Citadel, wandered the old towne streets, had coffee’s, wine, beer, a sandwich, and finally, the boat returned.

We had dinner plans that night to eat at the Strand with everyone including Guy and Renee. It is still a bit early in the season for tourists, so we had the entire restaurant to ourselves for most of the night. It is an enchanting restaurant that had large canopy trees granting shade and atmosphere. It was a fun night and everyone soon fell into light conversation of sailing adventures and life stories.

Mike took this picture, but he is here with us!

We’re off! May 3rd. Port Napoleon to Cogolin

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2011 Sailing the Mediterranean

April 27
Our adventure never starts the day you begin your journal. Our adventure started way back when, but I will skip all that and take you to the place I am today. As Ken and I sit in the cockpit with computers in our lap and the last pour of a cheap Dieux Papes wine.


Sunset at Port Napoleon

We have been in Port napoleon slowly re-rigging Grateful Red, cleaning from top to bottom and re-directing our storage spaces on the boat. You know what they say about “valuable real-estate” , everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Well, after 2+ days of slowly rigging the boat, cleaning, sorting, and all the last minute repairs. By Saturday night, we both were able to sit on our own settee, eat popcorn, and do our personal stuff.

We arrived to Port Napoleon on Thursday mid-day. Found the boat in the water,but no mast yet. This is something we did anticipate so not worries. The boat was filthy after a winter on the hard. Most repairs went very well and I was pleased to find my wine glass holders and extra shelf in the pantry finally was completed. (I have asked for this for several years). One thing that needs to be completed is the installation of the new compressor for the refrigerator. Without this, we deal with difficult food storage and always looking for ice. Very difficult in the med to find good ice qtys. Ken brought the compressor over in checked baggage, a task that had some risks with Air France. But when we arrived in Marseilles, the bag with the compressor was there also! Now, to get it installed and working! We wait for Monday when it is scheduled to be done.

April 29
Friday, Ken and the rigger worked all day after the mast was set. I set off for the Grocery store and knowing we did not have a refrigerator, and the car for only one day, was cautious of what I purchased. If the refrigerator is up and running on Monday, I will bike into Port St. Louis and get some perishables that are more tempting for dinner menu.

April 30
Saturday. My job, after hosing down the deck of the boat, and removing the winters dust and grim, was to return the rental car to Martigues. This was researched earlier using the local Tourist office and was scheduled so that I could take the local bus back. It would be a 1 hour bus ride then I would get a taxi to Port Napoleon. The local Tourist office gave me times of the buses, location between the rental office and the station, and assured me it would be an easy task. They were not aware as I found out that the Martigues Europcar office had moved to Port du Bouc and was Not near a bus stop. In the end, as my phone was almost at 0 charge, I found the new office, bought a sub and a beer at a next door outdoor cafe, waited until the office reopened at 2pm, called a taxi from Port Napoleon, got the price of 50 euro’s (about 40 more than a bus ride) and found that I returned home about one hour later than the bus would have taken. My taxi driver was pleased to add my fare to his return from the Marseilles airport. He was kind and only charged me 30 instead of 50 euro’s. Ken says that this is because he felt pity for my miserable morning and that in his eyes I was cute!

The remainder of the day was glorious as the boat was sparkling, the projects were moving along and our plans for leaving Tuesday were looking good. Only one additional hiccup in the day was my visit to the ladies room at Josephine’s (Port Napoleons only restaurant). The stall I went into had a major flaw that I did not realize until too late. When I was finished and preparing to leave my stall, I realized that the door handle was missing and I was locked in. I waited for several minutes thinking that this was certainly insulted to injury. Luckily, an English speaking woman entered the bathroom and responded to my pleas and let me out. The handle was still intact from the outside so she could open the door. I left quickly, but now wonder how many others might have gotten locked in the same stall until someone repaired it.

Well, looking forward to tomorrow.

Much better today. Slept until 8:30, got up and promptly started more projects. Things to do today. Organize and stow racing sails, (three tied on the deck), 3 spinnakers, inventory all crew jackets and bibs. (sending some home due to lack of use). We have the bikes in their bags on the deck along the lifelines, but we think we will see if someone is interested in buying them from us. We gave 4 extra fenders to a lovely Dutch couple a few boats away. They were in the Chandlery looking at some and Ken offered in exchange for a glass of wine we will share tomorrow night.

We put up the jib and on the furler, had a late breakfast, early lunch of fried potatoes, bacon and eggs! After lunch, we started on the new mainsail. Right away we experienced an issue with the new pin at the gooseneck that holds the tack of the main sail to the boom. This being a new sail, came with this shackle. We never dreamed it would not work as it came straight from the sail maker. At first, Ken got the pin to go in with a minimum of effort, but soon realized it would not go all the way. By that time it was too late and the pin was stuck! Utilizing all our tools, and almost all of Ken’s strength, after more than one hour, we finally got the pin back out. We replaced the pin with some spectra line. We were glad we spent the early time to eat as we were well into the afternoon. With the main sail on, we flaked and tied, covered with the canvas cover and gladly had our first rum and coke of the season!!!

We have Monday to complete our tasks before we plan to take off. We hope the compressor will be installed tomorrow in the morning so we will have a refrigerator again. Sailing without could be a hassle. Ice is not available in most ports. We need to figure out fuel, a transom fender, the traveler lines installed, and a various other 100 things before the days end. I have the upholstery covers back on all the settee’s and the V-Berth cushions. We had them stored to protect them from all the racing salt and crew grim. Several years ago, we commissioned a seamstress to make sunbrella fabric interior covers so we could take the nice covers off when we knew we would get the inside of the boat wet. Worked so well!!!

May 3, 2011
Tuesday came and the refrigerator was still an issue as the winds picked up. Ken was nervous to go. I wanted to “hunker” down for a few days and wait for the winds to die. No chance! At 2pm, we paid our bill, said our goodbyes, and as Ken threw the dock lines, I motored out. This is where the fun began! Within 50 meters, I realized that I was not getting forward response from the throttle. With the wind in our back, it was easy not to realize this until too late. No place to pull over or hail for help. We fiddled with the throttle a bit and Ken made the executive decision that with the wind forecast, we could sail all the way to St. Tropez. This also meant that it would be a non-stop sail with only the two of us and no cold beer! We put up the front sail half furled as this was all we needed. Shot down the canal to the Golfe. The minute we were in the shipping channel, the most horrendous rainfall came over us. It gave us little warning, but I managed to pull out some of our foul weather gear and we hobbled through the wind and the rain. The first hour of our 24hour sail was enough adventure for me!

It did settle down and we soon we had our charts, our shift responsibilities, and our options if things did not go our way. First thing was to secure the anchor. Ken has an aversion to getting this done before a big sail due to past history, but for me this was a vital safety check. Of course, I had to go up to the bow in the pouring rain and get the anchor rode and chain attached to the anchor. Without autopilot, we could not do this. This done, the rest was just time and adjusting to the weather and our shifts.

Needless to say, the winds hurled us to our destination. We thought at one point we would stop at the Porquorelles to sleep for a few hours, but when we sailed into the bay area around 1am we thought we should just sail on. With a 6 knot boat speed, we could reach St. Tropez in about 6-7 hours. But as you know, the winds don’t always do what you want. Within on hour, after several hours of averaging 7 knots of boat speed, we dropped down to 3-4. That lasted for several hours and into the morning. Long night, long morning, but there was Bridgette Bardots bronze statue greeting us as we reached the Golfe de St. Tropez.


Bridgette B’s statue on the rock

I call Patrick at Monaco Marine and told him that we had no motor power and we would love to get assistance past the Jetty and into his boatyard for some service work. We decided with our winds and our boat speed, we would not reach the jetty at Cogolin until about 3pm. We had at this time our main and Front sail up. Getting the main down without motor was a trick and I am sure we had some spectators that thought we were “practicing” with a new shiny boat. Ken wanted to “sail” into the marina and I was prettified of the jetties, but reached Patrick at Monaco Marine, and he greeted us halfway and used his skiff as a “brake” as we docked safely. The wind helped us sail into the marina with only our furled front sail.

This evening, I don’t know why I am doing anything like typing, because we both are spent cookies and have bruises and pain everywhere. It is tough for anyone, let alone 2 in their 50’s to sail one hour on, one hour off for 24 hours knowing you don’t have a motor that can keep you from harm. Sailing skill and good winds are our best friends.


Grateful Red at Monaco Marine

Well, anyway, we are in St. Tropez (next village to Monaco Marine) and by Saturday, I will have seen several French friends and will revisit the famous Saturday Market (and see Zu Zu at the fish market)