Sorry still no photos.
20th July We have now got to Ville Franche, which is a picture post card perfect waterside harbour village, in the same sort of way as Foye is. The only big news is that Sienna, had her first go at swimming a few days ago, with out armbands, she managed to swim a couple of meters before going under. she did this three days before her third birthday, which is earlier than the other girls.
21st July
Anchoring in Ville Franche bay is quite strange,as it is so crowded, there are two cruise liners, and about 100 motor boats plus a few yachts. Around six o'clock the liners have disappeared, and the 99 of the motor boats have gone, leaving an nice quiet anchorage.
We are having a nice quiet dinner, when a huge firework goes off near by,which makes me jump out of my skin as it was so unexpected. There then follows a spectacular fireworks display that wakes the girls and echo's all around the steep walls of the anchorage, we have prime seats without even realising its going to happen.
22nd July
Big wind, boats dragging anchor, we are sitting at anchor, but have a huge ugly red steel trimaran, with very pointy bows behind. We move the boat, and spend a few anxious moments as the anchor windlass fails to work, at the critical moment. A quick rummage around fuses and very little understanding of the french technical terms does help very much, we miss the Trimaran and another cruiser by a couple off feet. A little close for comfort, but manage to re-anchor.
We totally run out of Gas a few days ago. Not even the BBQ works, the spare tank Jim and Graine swapped from a big one to a small one when they were out,(thanks guys) lasts for approximately one kettle full.
I then spend ages trying to find gas, which the guide book assures me is readily available, except when we need it. After a cold few meals moral is getting Rather low. I nip ashore and get take away pizza. It tastes great.
24th
We get gas,at last, but the gas adaptor breaks, I am beginning to loose my cool. Need to sail to the next port about 10nm away.It is around Cap Ferrat It is called Beaulieu. We have a great anchorage,and a lovely day if quite wind day at anchor, the wind is forecast to be light from the west at night so we are well protected.
We see the Maltease Falcon sail by with all her sails up which is a great sight, she then rolls all her sails and joins us in the bay with a whole host of other boats. The wind dies off and I am just about to put a few prawns on our now gassed up bbq, when the wind swings to the east, and starts to build very rapidly to 25-30 knots, we like all the other boats are on a lee shore and its starting to get dark.Boats start to move some voluntary, the one next to us drags anchor. Time to go. So we end up going back round Cap Ferrat in huge seas and wind, the light house looks very different at night, arrive back in Ville Franche about midnight. So anyway thats our first night passage.
26th.
Up at 5am, up anchor 5.30 just as the first light is rising,(How the girls sleep through the windlass, especially Imy as it is right next to her bed, I don't know) and motor out towards Corsica, 95 nm miles away. Beautiful sunrise, just Sophie and I awake, flat calm sea, no wind.
10.30 Dolphins, 5 of them including a baby, swimming around the boat, I am not sure who is most excited Sophie, me or the girls. These are the first Dolphins of our voyage and it is a great moment. All of use up on the trampoline bouncing around looking at these great creatures. We see a further 7 dolphin on the trip across. A great day. The trip itself takes just under 13 hours, and for the last four hours we have great wind, and cruise as 8.5 knots. This is our first real big trip when you loose total view of the land, and it is a relief to see land where it should be and then come into the anchorage at Calvi.
A Gaffer called,Annelise with and English ensign and Falmouth registration is anchored right in front of us, they have some fags flying, Imogen get the flag book out, and deciphers the flags as saying 8 today.
27th July
We meet team Gaffer Annelise at the harbour office and agree our boats must be very different and say lets meet up later.
That afternoon a new set of flags go up on the Gaffer, spelling COME4T. So we go over and meet the Paul, Jo, their kids Anna13 , Josh 12 and Maddy(just 8). We all have a great time on the gaffer, and learn allot about how she is rigged and all the sails that they can use. The boat has that loverly cosy feeling that our rather plastic caravan just does have. The insides we built with wood from a Methodist church, so we were sitting on former pews and the hand rails were former alter rails.
Later they all come back to our boat and I think Paul & Jo were quite surprised at our layout and set up, as it was so different and they had never been on a catamaran. Young Josh goes up the mast and changes the mast head light for us, as both Sophie and I do not have a head for heights.
Our first sailing friends for the kids.
The other bright side, is that Calvi is a great place, which we were just not expecting it but the town is lovely much less glitzy than the French mainland, a Little more real,and there is a huge long beach, the water is crystal clear and is about 26 degrees which is warmer than the air in the UK I am reliably informed.
28th July
More flags to read, CULATERWB C U Later WB(Windbelle) and the Gaffer is off around the Island of Corsica the other way, so we may see them at the bottom.
The only slight issue is that we seem to be expecting big wind from the west for the next few days.Most of the places we want to go are exposed to the west so we will have to see.
Team Belles
Christmas in the Caribbean
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Back in the water july 13 to 18th
Back sailing again.
So last time you heard from us we were hanging from a crane and had just been saved by Uncle Anthony and Antoinette, with a two day refresher on land. It was so nice to catch up with them and introduce them to all of the girls, the girls in turn fell in love with Oscar the new Black Lab. Tallulah decided she liked it so much at A&A's that she wanted to abandon ship and stay there for the rest of her life. There is a saying you can take the girl out of St Tropez but you can take the spirit of St Tropez out of the girl which suites Tallulah very much.
We got back to the yard to find Windbelle afloat. Barney Amanda, Annouscha, and baby Jack (only 8 weeks old were due to join us that evening at about 7pm so it was a pretty close run thing.)
Anyway poor Barney and gang found themselves stuck on the motorway from the airport, with a forest fire raging near by, in the end the motorway was closed and all surrounding roads were closed. Barney and gang were forced to seek refugue in a hotel at 4am. Making a quick hop down from London into a longer journey than the Caribbean.
Next day it was blowing a full scale Mistral, ie very windy, we decided to go anyway as the wind was going to be behind us and we would soon be in the lee of the gulf of Hyers. We had a pretty exciting ride with all the kids on board, young Jack quite happily focused on food from Amanda and our girls were thrilled to have Annouscha to mother. As we sailed into the gulf between the isle of Porquerolles, we had 27knots of wind behind us, and suddenly we were in a dead calm, which was all quite strange. We found a great anchorage at Bormes, and got ready for a celebration.
On the 6th July it was Annouscha's second birthday and our first full birthday on board. We had balloons, a cake and presents gallor!
Annouscha got really messy with her cake. Barney and I tucked into the 5 litre boxof Rose to further add to the party.
Final story from a great visit, was when all the children were playing hush little bunnies on the trampoline, it was all going with alot of bouncing when it was noticed that Annouscha, had left a little something on the netting. Lesson learnt, don't let 2 year olds trampoline without a nappy. The trampoline was then renamed the poop deck.
We did a final sail to St Tropez where we said good bye to our newest cousin Jack and Annouscha, as sadly they had to go back to England.
That evening the wind began to build and we moved up the Bay of St Tropez to anchor just outside Port Grimaud. This brought back many fond memories from when we both stayed with the Clatworthy's. In retrospect the parents were extremely genourous and we were extremely spoilt.
Any way the wind continued to build into a full Mistral. Slowly other boats from outside St Tropez started to join us. Many went into one of the marinas but we stayed out. the wind built to a good 30 knots, in the gusts we got 40kts. the foame was wisked off the top of the waves. After one day clinging onto our anchor we all settled down for the blow, as usual kids were oblivious playing animal hospital, while I couldn't sleep. Anyway after three days of wind it stopped, thank god. The good thing was we now have much more confidence in our anchoring and our decision process ... until the nex time.
So we finally get to shore and what am I faced with but the port Grimaud market. Sophie looks at the market as ideal training ground for the three girls. I now understand what the Terrorist training camps are like. Sophie marches the three girls into the market, and then proceeds to train them in the art of shopping. At every hand bag, basket or shoe stall they all spend time looking at all the stuff, when it comes to a useful stall like fruit or veg or even soft cheese they all walk on by, leaving me to do the groceries.
Then James and George and the boys came to visit for the day, we had a great sail, and James managed to race a brand new 50 ft yacht whos owner was out to show his secretary how fast he was.Enough to say that James won the race and was acknoledged by the opposition.
Now we are sitting outside Cinq on cinq,(Club55) where my parents apparently came a courting, before it was trendy, the water is great colour that you only find in fun and expensive places. We are anchored next to a boat 200 feet long, so while we have been a big boat in various ports here we are a mear match stick on the ocean. The only good thing is despite all the moneyetc, we are on the the same bit of sea, in the same sun and we have built a better sand castle than our neighbours in th 200 foot boat.
Today is the 14 of July so lots of Fireworks are due. We managed to find a big space right outside St Tropez, only after a while does it dawn on me that the only boat near by is the Fireworks barge itself, no wonder we had the place all to ourselves. Without a second thought we move a little further away.
The St Tr0pez fireworks were great, we let the girls stay up until to watch them at 10.20pm, its a great feeling all of us sitting on the net at the front watching these fireworks go off in a beautiful barmy night, this is what we wanted when we set out and restores our faith in what we are doing after all the wind and engineeering problems, you just can't buy evenings like this. any way after St tropez Fireworks we have St Maxime across the bay one minute later, the girls say St Maxime were much more spectular, but all over rather quickly which reminds me that Olly has a house in St Maxime.
Imogen has become the biggest book worm on the planet, it takes her 2 days to read a famous five, and we are running out of books. Sophie is so woried that we are going to let imy read her store of Jilly Cooper books. I am not sure I am ready for the questions that are bound to follow yet. Well actually for at least another 10 years!
So Sunday we depart St Tropez and motor to Agay, when Karen and Philip MC kindly call to invite us to Karens ?0 birthday party at a chateau above Cannes, we drop everything and get on a train to Cannes and have a great time dancing to all Philips old vinal LPs. with all his media loveies, actually the setting was great and the mac's were most hospitipal, the girls had a greatime and Sienna started the dancing with the Dancing Queen by Abba. We satyed on the Macs floor which meant that they had 5 gooseberries sitting down stairs. There were not many other 14 ers there as Karen had crafterly arranged for her 50th Birthday to be on the Gallon weekend. How you do that with 50 years forsight is somehting only the water widows will understand. But it was bloody crafty,and I did catch Philip looking longingly out to sea once or twice.
Wednesday 18 July, Sienna's 3rd birthday, the boat was dressed over all in Kath Kitson Flags and ballooons(.In athe boat looks like an ad for CK, so kath if you are reading this I am ready to do a deal.) Being a boat birthday we had to have it somewhere special so we are off Cannes, Nestled between two islands, called Iles de Lerins, which is where the man with the iron mask was actually imprisoned for many years. The water is crystal clear and there are rocks and sand around. The Siennas brithday presents were great, with, all the usuals like a doctors set and a puzzels, but also a snorkle , flippers, lilo, with a fish viewing window, and a ringo. Everybody had a go in the ringo, only the boat was not fast enough for Daddy to get planing, the girls loved it and mom hates it and made more noise than than all three girls put together.
Being british we had to do the cake thing, so see photo. We had a great mermaid and all sang happy brithday.
In the evening we went to a little restuarant with a view ovr the water towards Cannes, we were one of only two tables and had a great time. See Photo. On the way back we sang happy birthday at the tops of our voices right through the anchorage.
thursday 19th.
Today was one of those magic moments Tallulah put on her mask and snorkle and for the first time saw fish in the sea, It a may be a little moment for you and me, but for her it has changed the meaning of swimming. I do have to say that at the same time she managed to drink quite allot of sea water so the challenge is to stop her talking with a snorkle in her mouth. For those of you that know her this is a big challenge.
.
So last time you heard from us we were hanging from a crane and had just been saved by Uncle Anthony and Antoinette, with a two day refresher on land. It was so nice to catch up with them and introduce them to all of the girls, the girls in turn fell in love with Oscar the new Black Lab. Tallulah decided she liked it so much at A&A's that she wanted to abandon ship and stay there for the rest of her life. There is a saying you can take the girl out of St Tropez but you can take the spirit of St Tropez out of the girl which suites Tallulah very much.
We got back to the yard to find Windbelle afloat. Barney Amanda, Annouscha, and baby Jack (only 8 weeks old were due to join us that evening at about 7pm so it was a pretty close run thing.)
Anyway poor Barney and gang found themselves stuck on the motorway from the airport, with a forest fire raging near by, in the end the motorway was closed and all surrounding roads were closed. Barney and gang were forced to seek refugue in a hotel at 4am. Making a quick hop down from London into a longer journey than the Caribbean.
Next day it was blowing a full scale Mistral, ie very windy, we decided to go anyway as the wind was going to be behind us and we would soon be in the lee of the gulf of Hyers. We had a pretty exciting ride with all the kids on board, young Jack quite happily focused on food from Amanda and our girls were thrilled to have Annouscha to mother. As we sailed into the gulf between the isle of Porquerolles, we had 27knots of wind behind us, and suddenly we were in a dead calm, which was all quite strange. We found a great anchorage at Bormes, and got ready for a celebration.
On the 6th July it was Annouscha's second birthday and our first full birthday on board. We had balloons, a cake and presents gallor!
Annouscha got really messy with her cake. Barney and I tucked into the 5 litre boxof Rose to further add to the party.
Final story from a great visit, was when all the children were playing hush little bunnies on the trampoline, it was all going with alot of bouncing when it was noticed that Annouscha, had left a little something on the netting. Lesson learnt, don't let 2 year olds trampoline without a nappy. The trampoline was then renamed the poop deck.
We did a final sail to St Tropez where we said good bye to our newest cousin Jack and Annouscha, as sadly they had to go back to England.
That evening the wind began to build and we moved up the Bay of St Tropez to anchor just outside Port Grimaud. This brought back many fond memories from when we both stayed with the Clatworthy's. In retrospect the parents were extremely genourous and we were extremely spoilt.
Any way the wind continued to build into a full Mistral. Slowly other boats from outside St Tropez started to join us. Many went into one of the marinas but we stayed out. the wind built to a good 30 knots, in the gusts we got 40kts. the foame was wisked off the top of the waves. After one day clinging onto our anchor we all settled down for the blow, as usual kids were oblivious playing animal hospital, while I couldn't sleep. Anyway after three days of wind it stopped, thank god. The good thing was we now have much more confidence in our anchoring and our decision process ... until the nex time.
So we finally get to shore and what am I faced with but the port Grimaud market. Sophie looks at the market as ideal training ground for the three girls. I now understand what the Terrorist training camps are like. Sophie marches the three girls into the market, and then proceeds to train them in the art of shopping. At every hand bag, basket or shoe stall they all spend time looking at all the stuff, when it comes to a useful stall like fruit or veg or even soft cheese they all walk on by, leaving me to do the groceries.
Then James and George and the boys came to visit for the day, we had a great sail, and James managed to race a brand new 50 ft yacht whos owner was out to show his secretary how fast he was.Enough to say that James won the race and was acknoledged by the opposition.
Now we are sitting outside Cinq on cinq,(Club55) where my parents apparently came a courting, before it was trendy, the water is great colour that you only find in fun and expensive places. We are anchored next to a boat 200 feet long, so while we have been a big boat in various ports here we are a mear match stick on the ocean. The only good thing is despite all the moneyetc, we are on the the same bit of sea, in the same sun and we have built a better sand castle than our neighbours in th 200 foot boat.
Today is the 14 of July so lots of Fireworks are due. We managed to find a big space right outside St Tropez, only after a while does it dawn on me that the only boat near by is the Fireworks barge itself, no wonder we had the place all to ourselves. Without a second thought we move a little further away.
The St Tr0pez fireworks were great, we let the girls stay up until to watch them at 10.20pm, its a great feeling all of us sitting on the net at the front watching these fireworks go off in a beautiful barmy night, this is what we wanted when we set out and restores our faith in what we are doing after all the wind and engineeering problems, you just can't buy evenings like this. any way after St tropez Fireworks we have St Maxime across the bay one minute later, the girls say St Maxime were much more spectular, but all over rather quickly which reminds me that Olly has a house in St Maxime.
Imogen has become the biggest book worm on the planet, it takes her 2 days to read a famous five, and we are running out of books. Sophie is so woried that we are going to let imy read her store of Jilly Cooper books. I am not sure I am ready for the questions that are bound to follow yet. Well actually for at least another 10 years!
So Sunday we depart St Tropez and motor to Agay, when Karen and Philip MC kindly call to invite us to Karens ?0 birthday party at a chateau above Cannes, we drop everything and get on a train to Cannes and have a great time dancing to all Philips old vinal LPs. with all his media loveies, actually the setting was great and the mac's were most hospitipal, the girls had a greatime and Sienna started the dancing with the Dancing Queen by Abba. We satyed on the Macs floor which meant that they had 5 gooseberries sitting down stairs. There were not many other 14 ers there as Karen had crafterly arranged for her 50th Birthday to be on the Gallon weekend. How you do that with 50 years forsight is somehting only the water widows will understand. But it was bloody crafty,and I did catch Philip looking longingly out to sea once or twice.
Wednesday 18 July, Sienna's 3rd birthday, the boat was dressed over all in Kath Kitson Flags and ballooons(.In athe boat looks like an ad for CK, so kath if you are reading this I am ready to do a deal.) Being a boat birthday we had to have it somewhere special so we are off Cannes, Nestled between two islands, called Iles de Lerins, which is where the man with the iron mask was actually imprisoned for many years. The water is crystal clear and there are rocks and sand around. The Siennas brithday presents were great, with, all the usuals like a doctors set and a puzzels, but also a snorkle , flippers, lilo, with a fish viewing window, and a ringo. Everybody had a go in the ringo, only the boat was not fast enough for Daddy to get planing, the girls loved it and mom hates it and made more noise than than all three girls put together.
Being british we had to do the cake thing, so see photo. We had a great mermaid and all sang happy brithday.
In the evening we went to a little restuarant with a view ovr the water towards Cannes, we were one of only two tables and had a great time. See Photo. On the way back we sang happy birthday at the tops of our voices right through the anchorage.
thursday 19th.
Today was one of those magic moments Tallulah put on her mask and snorkle and for the first time saw fish in the sea, It a may be a little moment for you and me, but for her it has changed the meaning of swimming. I do have to say that at the same time she managed to drink quite allot of sea water so the challenge is to stop her talking with a snorkle in her mouth. For those of you that know her this is a big challenge.
.
Monday, July 2, 2007
A boat with no engine and no water. 22 june
22 June 07
So we have been out of harbour for 2 days, day one was a long motor sail of 42.7 nautical miles which we did in about 6 hours, the wind was very light so we had to motor sail some of the way. I put out two fishing lines and all I caught was the other line which then spun themselves into such a knot that I had to cut it away. (Putting the bits in the bin for all you Eco warriors.) I then put out the one good line which jumped out of the water and caught the ensign. We then arrived at the recomended anchorage, which was a small fishing village/ harbour, so small in fact that their wasn't room to swing a sardine, so we popped around the corner to a lovely bay called Verdon which was overlooked by a Red and white light house.
A quick dinghy ride ashore for a swim and a beer,, or oringina for the kids, then a calm night, which was a bit of a supprise as we were the only boat there except for a few pedlos.
Next moring the famous five from the belle set off on a big adventure to walk along the rocks to the light house, luckily there were red and white painted signs on the rocks to show you the way. Imy thought the light house looked just like the one in Demons Rocks of th famous five.
Then we had a rather boistrous sail down to the Iles du Frioul,(about 2 miles South West of Marsellies) which is where the Count of Montecristo is meant to have been kept captive. Any way the wind was about 15-20 knots and was almost dead astern, we managed to keep the boat going at about 8.5 knots the whole way with a few burst of 10. The waves were about 5-7 feet high and the boat managed to surf down a good few, it was very hard not to head up ten degrees and get it going much faster but the Christopher Columbus in me made me stay on course.
Anyway we arrive at this Iles much quicker than expected ( when you out at sea you don't really see how fast you are going but the moment you get close to port or expecially land which has big rocks ready to crush you boat things happen very quickly) and get ready to anchor in this little cove, where it is still blowing 20 plus knots, for some reason we just can't get the hook to bight, may be because we are so high sided, then the starboard gear lever gives out, and we are back down to our usual one engine, except there are rocks all around the kids are fractios and so am I.
Sophie just wants to got home. Then we find that we can"t get the anchor up although we can't get it to bight. Not much sense there??????
So we go round the conrner to the little harbour and the man called a capitanarie or habour master to you and me, comes out to greet us, we try to fit into our berth but with only one engine, and a strong wind can't get there, so we get the pride of place on the big mooring in the center of the habour, normally a spot reserved for super yachts like Lasry Elisons or Roman Ambramovich.
We will sleep well tonight.
So how are the girls getting on during the sailing, well it is early days yet, so far they either fight like cats anbd dogs or play cats and dogs. When the wind gets up luckily the boats doesn't get too rolly but they do get a bit quiet and often go to sleep. But the good news is that no one has chucked up YET!!!!
Finally remind me to tell you about the nudest beach and the people who lived in the flats near out old berth.
24 June.
So we left Port Friol under only one engine, but all is calm, and we can achieve about 5 knots with our one good engine. We head on towards Port Miou, which is a very narrow inlet with cliffs all around. It looks to busy so we keep going for another 3 hrs, and then descide to return to the bay of Cassis, where there is a beach. The moment we drop our anchor the sea breaze kicks in , we of course our now on a lee shore with rocks behind, the anchor drags, but then holds. After a short but cold swim we descide to move on, well that is us except the anchor which is now firmly wedged under a rock, to far for me to dive down to. I wizz arouns the other boats at anchor to see if anybody has diving kit, but no. Afer much effort by Sophie and I we get it up (the anchor)but a lesson is learnt. We go back to Port Miou which now looks quite welcoming and settle in for the night. But not without a few added moments, first we went for a walk, in the hills at the end of the gully, Imy descided to go off piste and got stuck right near the ridge of a very steep hill, it took a human chain of myself and Sophie, with a very long stick for Imy to grab to recover her.
Secondly as we were enjouying our first rum of the trip and gazzing up at the hundred foot high, cliffs that we about 20 feet behind the boat,a sudden cry, followed by a plop and some local kid had jump off the cliff and lived, which was quickerly follwed by 3 of his mates.
26th June
We are now sitting in Toulon, well actually across the bay of Toulon in Port Pin Roland. This is a place where the big boats are done up ready for the summer season. We are a mere pathetic blip on the ocean compared to the boats in here. One of the boats is about 130 feet long and is coloured gold, another is called Wedge One, (Is this Ian Romans secret photo boat???) suffice to say that both go over 40 knots, and drink more fuel per hour than I will beer in my life time. The other thing when I look outside is the wind, you can't see it but you can sure as hell hear and fell it, we are in the grips of a full blown Mistrael, 30 plus knots so Tim Peterseat your heart out.The other reason we are in port is because the transmistion has gone which is a real bummer, so we hav to sit heree for 7 days watch the boat be lifted out and then pay a huge bill for no visable difference, except both engines will work as they should..
1 July
Now no longer sitting in the water but out of the water on a crane, about 15 feet in the air, have spent several days here in the middle of the yard, with much dust and noise all around. The kids take it all in their stride and have been doing school worketc. Sophie and I are loosing it as everything is dirty and very noisy and getting the kids off and on the boat is like climbing everrest. Whats more its hot and we have no running water. So every time you want a pee or the girls want a pee you have to climb down off the boat, or it all dribbles out of the holes in the bottom of the boat. At bit like caravaning or camping I guess but I am not sure I would ever choose to do it for a holiday.
2nd July.
Have been saved buy Uncle in St Tropez, and have gone to stay with him. Also had a quick sneek viewing of Stephen's Villa for those that know him and its very nice. Girls think that bing ON a house with real grass and a swimming pool is great.
Uncle Barny is comming to stay tomorrow with 8 week old baby and 2 yr old, to hope we are back in the water other wise we will have two rather stressy mums, 5 kids under 7 and not a bit of water in sight on a boat 47 feet long. Barney and i will no doubt have to resourt to the Rose for a day or too.
Will attach photos soon.
(Anyway about the nudist beach, well, there we al were (fully clothed, even Tallulah) on the beach when an old chap walks up, he was probably about 65/70, he had nothing on at all except a baseball cap. The girls didn't seem to bat an eyelid, but I didn't understand why if he was on a nudist beach he wore a baseball cap, afterall, if I was him I would be far more worried about other areas of my body getting sun burnt.
Second story is about the people who lived in the flat behind us in port Camarge, most of them were renters, and we could see diectly into their rooms. Well one group of four 2 men and 2 women aways wore black vests and black thongs, even Granny Valerie (my mother) was witness to this, However one day they all came out topless without their black vest to reveal a very sunburnt body with a 4 identical v inprint, I guess you had to be there but Mum and Sophie et their nickers laughing.)
HOW DID I EVER HAVE TIME TO WORK?
Anybody who has spent a bit of time off, will recognize this feeling. I don't work I don't commute, and yet I have never been more busy. Evey day, I have a list of things to do, like today was buy a new plug for the shore cable, but as you wonder through the boat yard to the chandlers you can't help get distracted, I will just watch them put that 150ft yacht in the water, or how come there is a brand new 505 hull in the corner of the yard, and what time is happy hour at the equivilant of the square rigger. Then its back to the boat to do home schooling sort of thing, which takes hours then its lunch whih you prepare youself instead of going to a canteen , then washing up, then a visit to the beach for daily sand castle routine, then kids supper, then kids showers, then our suppur more washing up, check the weather, bed sleep. Some times we even have enough time for sailing.) So I am really confused about where the time has all gone. Before we set off everybody said you need lots of books, well first I am bad at reading but despite no television I still have no time.
So we have been out of harbour for 2 days, day one was a long motor sail of 42.7 nautical miles which we did in about 6 hours, the wind was very light so we had to motor sail some of the way. I put out two fishing lines and all I caught was the other line which then spun themselves into such a knot that I had to cut it away. (Putting the bits in the bin for all you Eco warriors.) I then put out the one good line which jumped out of the water and caught the ensign. We then arrived at the recomended anchorage, which was a small fishing village/ harbour, so small in fact that their wasn't room to swing a sardine, so we popped around the corner to a lovely bay called Verdon which was overlooked by a Red and white light house.
A quick dinghy ride ashore for a swim and a beer,, or oringina for the kids, then a calm night, which was a bit of a supprise as we were the only boat there except for a few pedlos.
Next moring the famous five from the belle set off on a big adventure to walk along the rocks to the light house, luckily there were red and white painted signs on the rocks to show you the way. Imy thought the light house looked just like the one in Demons Rocks of th famous five.
Then we had a rather boistrous sail down to the Iles du Frioul,(about 2 miles South West of Marsellies) which is where the Count of Montecristo is meant to have been kept captive. Any way the wind was about 15-20 knots and was almost dead astern, we managed to keep the boat going at about 8.5 knots the whole way with a few burst of 10. The waves were about 5-7 feet high and the boat managed to surf down a good few, it was very hard not to head up ten degrees and get it going much faster but the Christopher Columbus in me made me stay on course.
Anyway we arrive at this Iles much quicker than expected ( when you out at sea you don't really see how fast you are going but the moment you get close to port or expecially land which has big rocks ready to crush you boat things happen very quickly) and get ready to anchor in this little cove, where it is still blowing 20 plus knots, for some reason we just can't get the hook to bight, may be because we are so high sided, then the starboard gear lever gives out, and we are back down to our usual one engine, except there are rocks all around the kids are fractios and so am I.
Sophie just wants to got home. Then we find that we can"t get the anchor up although we can't get it to bight. Not much sense there??????
So we go round the conrner to the little harbour and the man called a capitanarie or habour master to you and me, comes out to greet us, we try to fit into our berth but with only one engine, and a strong wind can't get there, so we get the pride of place on the big mooring in the center of the habour, normally a spot reserved for super yachts like Lasry Elisons or Roman Ambramovich.
We will sleep well tonight.
So how are the girls getting on during the sailing, well it is early days yet, so far they either fight like cats anbd dogs or play cats and dogs. When the wind gets up luckily the boats doesn't get too rolly but they do get a bit quiet and often go to sleep. But the good news is that no one has chucked up YET!!!!
Finally remind me to tell you about the nudest beach and the people who lived in the flats near out old berth.
24 June.
So we left Port Friol under only one engine, but all is calm, and we can achieve about 5 knots with our one good engine. We head on towards Port Miou, which is a very narrow inlet with cliffs all around. It looks to busy so we keep going for another 3 hrs, and then descide to return to the bay of Cassis, where there is a beach. The moment we drop our anchor the sea breaze kicks in , we of course our now on a lee shore with rocks behind, the anchor drags, but then holds. After a short but cold swim we descide to move on, well that is us except the anchor which is now firmly wedged under a rock, to far for me to dive down to. I wizz arouns the other boats at anchor to see if anybody has diving kit, but no. Afer much effort by Sophie and I we get it up (the anchor)but a lesson is learnt. We go back to Port Miou which now looks quite welcoming and settle in for the night. But not without a few added moments, first we went for a walk, in the hills at the end of the gully, Imy descided to go off piste and got stuck right near the ridge of a very steep hill, it took a human chain of myself and Sophie, with a very long stick for Imy to grab to recover her.
Secondly as we were enjouying our first rum of the trip and gazzing up at the hundred foot high, cliffs that we about 20 feet behind the boat,a sudden cry, followed by a plop and some local kid had jump off the cliff and lived, which was quickerly follwed by 3 of his mates.
26th June
We are now sitting in Toulon, well actually across the bay of Toulon in Port Pin Roland. This is a place where the big boats are done up ready for the summer season. We are a mere pathetic blip on the ocean compared to the boats in here. One of the boats is about 130 feet long and is coloured gold, another is called Wedge One, (Is this Ian Romans secret photo boat???) suffice to say that both go over 40 knots, and drink more fuel per hour than I will beer in my life time. The other thing when I look outside is the wind, you can't see it but you can sure as hell hear and fell it, we are in the grips of a full blown Mistrael, 30 plus knots so Tim Peterseat your heart out.The other reason we are in port is because the transmistion has gone which is a real bummer, so we hav to sit heree for 7 days watch the boat be lifted out and then pay a huge bill for no visable difference, except both engines will work as they should..
1 July
Now no longer sitting in the water but out of the water on a crane, about 15 feet in the air, have spent several days here in the middle of the yard, with much dust and noise all around. The kids take it all in their stride and have been doing school worketc. Sophie and I are loosing it as everything is dirty and very noisy and getting the kids off and on the boat is like climbing everrest. Whats more its hot and we have no running water. So every time you want a pee or the girls want a pee you have to climb down off the boat, or it all dribbles out of the holes in the bottom of the boat. At bit like caravaning or camping I guess but I am not sure I would ever choose to do it for a holiday.
2nd July.
Have been saved buy Uncle in St Tropez, and have gone to stay with him. Also had a quick sneek viewing of Stephen's Villa for those that know him and its very nice. Girls think that bing ON a house with real grass and a swimming pool is great.
Uncle Barny is comming to stay tomorrow with 8 week old baby and 2 yr old, to hope we are back in the water other wise we will have two rather stressy mums, 5 kids under 7 and not a bit of water in sight on a boat 47 feet long. Barney and i will no doubt have to resourt to the Rose for a day or too.
Will attach photos soon.
(Anyway about the nudist beach, well, there we al were (fully clothed, even Tallulah) on the beach when an old chap walks up, he was probably about 65/70, he had nothing on at all except a baseball cap. The girls didn't seem to bat an eyelid, but I didn't understand why if he was on a nudist beach he wore a baseball cap, afterall, if I was him I would be far more worried about other areas of my body getting sun burnt.
Second story is about the people who lived in the flat behind us in port Camarge, most of them were renters, and we could see diectly into their rooms. Well one group of four 2 men and 2 women aways wore black vests and black thongs, even Granny Valerie (my mother) was witness to this, However one day they all came out topless without their black vest to reveal a very sunburnt body with a 4 identical v inprint, I guess you had to be there but Mum and Sophie et their nickers laughing.)
HOW DID I EVER HAVE TIME TO WORK?
Anybody who has spent a bit of time off, will recognize this feeling. I don't work I don't commute, and yet I have never been more busy. Evey day, I have a list of things to do, like today was buy a new plug for the shore cable, but as you wonder through the boat yard to the chandlers you can't help get distracted, I will just watch them put that 150ft yacht in the water, or how come there is a brand new 505 hull in the corner of the yard, and what time is happy hour at the equivilant of the square rigger. Then its back to the boat to do home schooling sort of thing, which takes hours then its lunch whih you prepare youself instead of going to a canteen , then washing up, then a visit to the beach for daily sand castle routine, then kids supper, then kids showers, then our suppur more washing up, check the weather, bed sleep. Some times we even have enough time for sailing.) So I am really confused about where the time has all gone. Before we set off everybody said you need lots of books, well first I am bad at reading but despite no television I still have no time.
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