A bit more on the Cannes storm.
When it had stopped raining and the wind had stopped blowing and the swell was really setting into the marina we decided to get off our swingy boat and go for a look. Ali posted a lot of pictures of the waves etc so I wont duplicate them! The pontoons aren't piled in Cannes marina and all the boats were swinging and bashing around, some had very little fenders and were smashing against the hard concrete. We felt very sorry for the people who owned them as it would be awful to be away from your boat in a storm and come back to it all bashed. We thought it was raining until we realised that it was spray coming over the harbour and across the town, we apparently had missed the worst of it waves had been coming in over the promenade about 30 feet high I say apparently again as someone told us that and you know how people like to exaggerate! There was a van which had been entirely lifted and thrown onto a fence so there must have been a fair bit of water!
Kaylee didn't have a hood so she used our shopping bag to keep her head dry.
We could only feel very very bad for the person who owned this catamaran anchored in the bay South of the marina. It was being lifted about 8 to 10 feet at times I certainly wouldn't have liked to be on it!
After a walk around we decided to eat out and got pulled into a restaurant called Fagricoule by this lady standing behind me. We generally try not to be pulled into places but she wasn't the kind of person you say no to! We were a little scared the food would be crap but it was really good, Ali and I had 3 course menu's for 16 Euros very reasonable for good food in France! She certainly entertained us the whole way through our meal, no matter what we said or asked she replied with"Your Welcome." Little monkey Kaylee was saying your welcome over and over by the time we left and I had to keep telling her not to be cheeky. At the end of the meal she came with a special shot for me and Ali, "a secret recipe with added ginseng to keep you going if you know what I mean!" It was a really good meal and since we only eat tea out occasionally a real treat.
Kaylee tried her hand at a little photography during the meal too.
The next day we headed in the opposite direction along the beach front to see what damage had been done and boy was the place wrecked..... which is bad enough but when you consider it was only a few days until the Cannes Film Festival and the whole place had been done up with stalls, beach landings for Super yachts, stages and they were nearly all smashed up!
There were lots of diggers trying to fix the beaches up and get rid of all the mud and weed the waves had washed up.
That is one big mound of muck!
This is one of the many beachfront restaurants/cafes/bars which had all entirely filled with dirty muddy sand. They were removing all the flooring, tables everything.
Don't think Mr Clooney will be coming ashore here unless some serious repairs are done!
Angelina Jolie?
Ali spotted this pair of sparkly cowboy boots that really appealed to him, shame about the price oh and the fact that they are ladies boots!
Even the bus station is cashing in on the festival.
This one must be a boat that never leaves the harbour there is so much stuff on deck, it is a wonder it all made it through the storm!
On our last day in Cannes we went up to the museum in the Fort which overlooks the town.
It had a display of musical instrument from all around the world which was the main reason but the whole place is certainly worth a visit.
Most of the permanent pieces in the museum are from one man's personal collection (can't remember his name) He travelled the world collecting tribal wear etc in the 19th century (or early 20th cant quite remember that either...) Any way here is a small selection of pics and you will see why it was a museum that actually held the girls interest for oh about 15 minutes rather than 10....
And now for some of the instruments.
Included in the ticket price was a trip to the top of the tower this is a picture off the harbour and the isles Honorat and St Margaret in the distance. They are supposed to be great for swimming in between as it is really sandy and shallow, loads of people recommended them but we weren't going to hang around for good weather so later that day we motored on past.
As we left the harbour we noticed the end of the breakwater had taken a fair old pounding too.
It looked like a flat calm day and we thought we would just motor on to Monaco or Menton, it was calm, not a breath of air would fill Ali's gennaker no matter which way he pointed the boat, but the sea well it was the rolliest swell we had encountered in a while (but seem to have encountered again a couple of times in the last few weeks) The girls called it spew calm....
We motored on as far as Monaco called them up to see if they had a place (depending on price) but they said no, we did wonder if they could see us and thought 'No way ees zat scruffy leetle yacht coming eento zees arbor' There were helicopters flying around to the helipads at the marina every few minutes and it was a bit of a relief really to have to carry on to Menton.
A couple of shots of Monaco from the sea.
Menton turned out to be a lovely town, we went into Menton Vieux Port saw no one so just tied up in front of the Capitanerie. The next day it took three attempts to get anyone to take any money from us and it turned out to be the cheapest place we had been in for a while and with free internet too. The girls were delighted to be able to get onto Barbie.com once more, and needless to say Ali and I were busy listening to Shetland Radio and blogging etc
Monaco
Whilst Menton is a lovely little town with an old quarter, the usual churches and shops etc we had a yearning to see Monaco. The buses all along the coast of France are only 1 Euro for each stage so we travelled in style!
The Monaco Grand Prix was taking place a week later so there were signs every where for it.
Ali and the girls in the gardens leading down to the casino.
Preparations for the grand prix being put into place right in front of the casino
The casino, obviously we weren't dressed to get in and kids aren't allowed.
Some of the posh cars outside the casino with lots of other tourists wandering around.
The casino from the other side, a very ornate building.
Close up of one of the panels on the building.
This statue is supposed to be Adam and Eve.
For the girls the best bit of Monaco was this grassy slope they found to roll down, only after they had finished did we notice the don't walk on the grass sign.
Even the shopping mall is a bit posh!
I don't think this one needs a caption.
We were going to leave the next day but we ran out of our cube gas nd it was Sunday so we had to stay, we met in with this nice couple Claude and Claude on their boat who actually gave Ali a lift to get some gas but by then the urge to sail had worn off plus they have kids who were playing with our girls and it would have been a shame to tear them away.
When the family had left to go up to their home in the mountains the girls decided to help ALi clean some things around the boat.
Kaylee set about cleaning the fenders whilst Alisha polished 'daddy's chimney.'
We went for a last walk around the promenade, the girls took their bikes, Kaylee got a few funny looks because she decided to cycle in a fairy dress.
The Saga of the By the Wind Sailors
On the day we sailed (motored slowly being thrown around by the swell) from Cannes to Menton it wasn't long until everyone had gone to sleep even Alistair as he gets so frustrated everytime we have to put the engine on he usually retreats to the cabin. At least he hasn't started drowning his sorrows yet as it seems we need the motor for a part of each day now.....
Anyway, I was hanging over the side with my eyes peeled looking for dolphins/sharks/anything at all really when I started seeing little things floating in the water and didn't know what they were. I thought they looked a little like condoms but obviously they couldn't be as there were thousands of them. After a while my curiosity got the better of them and I decided to catch one with the girls net. It was quite easy to reach the sea from the side of the boat as it was pitching and rolling so much in the swell every now and then I came quite close to the water. When I got one I stuck my hand in to get it and came across a rubbery feeling object which I obviously dropped immediately because of what I had origionally thought they were! After looking at it though I reassured myself it definitely was not a condom and had a closer look. It was a down the wind sailor which Ihad seen in one of the girls wildlife books. They are small jelly fish with a sail on top and small tentacles hanging down.
Now I was brimming with excitement of the new discovery and just had to wake up Kaylee to show her. She was as amazed as I and we spent an hour catching sailors, I would cach them then she would pick them out of the net. Kaylee was dying to show Alisha who was sleeping under the spray hood but Alisha just looked at the one being dangled inches from her face, turned over and went back to sleep. Kaylee then ventured down to our cabin with a juicy specimen to show Ali funnily enough he wasn't very impressed either especially when she dropped it..... I got out the pilot book as I remembered it had sealife information and was surprised that it said the tentacles of the by the wind sailor give you a nasty sting, the 'Collins Sea Spotter' hadn't mentioned this at all. I felt no stinging but Kaylee mysteriously started to feel it in her fingers after she heard about the stinging. The pilot book (by Rod Heikell - sailing guru and probable millionaire from pilot book authoring) also rather pretentiously says that these are his favourite floating jelly fish as the curved 'sail' enables them to sail a little up wind and not just be pushed around like all the others - deary me!
The expert jellyfisherwoman!
A closer look.
Another close up, unfortunately by the time we had extracted them from the net we had ripped most of the tentacles off......
A few days later we were travelling from Loano to Genoa we saw this small plane spraying the water.
Then we were motoring through millions of dead looking by the wind sailors.
Just one of the pools of dead jellyfish we ploughed through.
We think that the plane had been spraying the jelly fish to kill or just dissolve them and stop them coming ashore onto the riviera beaches. Jellyfishocide! Maybe they do sting after all.....
Since then we have found that they are just everywhere and would probably accumulate in their billions after a storm like the one there was in that area. Even if the Italians are killing them there is certainly no threat to the species! The girls are getting rather bored of spotting them now just like the swimming crabs of North Western Spain which only lasted as an amusement for about 2 days too! We are hoping to see more than just jelly fish on our travels around the Med!
We are currently in Corsica, Port Toga in Bastia and will be continuing to head South tomorrow.
When it had stopped raining and the wind had stopped blowing and the swell was really setting into the marina we decided to get off our swingy boat and go for a look. Ali posted a lot of pictures of the waves etc so I wont duplicate them! The pontoons aren't piled in Cannes marina and all the boats were swinging and bashing around, some had very little fenders and were smashing against the hard concrete. We felt very sorry for the people who owned them as it would be awful to be away from your boat in a storm and come back to it all bashed. We thought it was raining until we realised that it was spray coming over the harbour and across the town, we apparently had missed the worst of it waves had been coming in over the promenade about 30 feet high I say apparently again as someone told us that and you know how people like to exaggerate! There was a van which had been entirely lifted and thrown onto a fence so there must have been a fair bit of water!
Kaylee didn't have a hood so she used our shopping bag to keep her head dry.
We could only feel very very bad for the person who owned this catamaran anchored in the bay South of the marina. It was being lifted about 8 to 10 feet at times I certainly wouldn't have liked to be on it!
After a walk around we decided to eat out and got pulled into a restaurant called Fagricoule by this lady standing behind me. We generally try not to be pulled into places but she wasn't the kind of person you say no to! We were a little scared the food would be crap but it was really good, Ali and I had 3 course menu's for 16 Euros very reasonable for good food in France! She certainly entertained us the whole way through our meal, no matter what we said or asked she replied with"Your Welcome." Little monkey Kaylee was saying your welcome over and over by the time we left and I had to keep telling her not to be cheeky. At the end of the meal she came with a special shot for me and Ali, "a secret recipe with added ginseng to keep you going if you know what I mean!" It was a really good meal and since we only eat tea out occasionally a real treat.
Kaylee tried her hand at a little photography during the meal too.
The next day we headed in the opposite direction along the beach front to see what damage had been done and boy was the place wrecked..... which is bad enough but when you consider it was only a few days until the Cannes Film Festival and the whole place had been done up with stalls, beach landings for Super yachts, stages and they were nearly all smashed up!
There were lots of diggers trying to fix the beaches up and get rid of all the mud and weed the waves had washed up.
That is one big mound of muck!
This is one of the many beachfront restaurants/cafes/bars which had all entirely filled with dirty muddy sand. They were removing all the flooring, tables everything.
Don't think Mr Clooney will be coming ashore here unless some serious repairs are done!
Angelina Jolie?
Ali spotted this pair of sparkly cowboy boots that really appealed to him, shame about the price oh and the fact that they are ladies boots!
Even the bus station is cashing in on the festival.
This one must be a boat that never leaves the harbour there is so much stuff on deck, it is a wonder it all made it through the storm!
On our last day in Cannes we went up to the museum in the Fort which overlooks the town.
It had a display of musical instrument from all around the world which was the main reason but the whole place is certainly worth a visit.
Most of the permanent pieces in the museum are from one man's personal collection (can't remember his name) He travelled the world collecting tribal wear etc in the 19th century (or early 20th cant quite remember that either...) Any way here is a small selection of pics and you will see why it was a museum that actually held the girls interest for oh about 15 minutes rather than 10....
And now for some of the instruments.
Included in the ticket price was a trip to the top of the tower this is a picture off the harbour and the isles Honorat and St Margaret in the distance. They are supposed to be great for swimming in between as it is really sandy and shallow, loads of people recommended them but we weren't going to hang around for good weather so later that day we motored on past.
As we left the harbour we noticed the end of the breakwater had taken a fair old pounding too.
It looked like a flat calm day and we thought we would just motor on to Monaco or Menton, it was calm, not a breath of air would fill Ali's gennaker no matter which way he pointed the boat, but the sea well it was the rolliest swell we had encountered in a while (but seem to have encountered again a couple of times in the last few weeks) The girls called it spew calm....
We motored on as far as Monaco called them up to see if they had a place (depending on price) but they said no, we did wonder if they could see us and thought 'No way ees zat scruffy leetle yacht coming eento zees arbor' There were helicopters flying around to the helipads at the marina every few minutes and it was a bit of a relief really to have to carry on to Menton.
A couple of shots of Monaco from the sea.
Menton turned out to be a lovely town, we went into Menton Vieux Port saw no one so just tied up in front of the Capitanerie. The next day it took three attempts to get anyone to take any money from us and it turned out to be the cheapest place we had been in for a while and with free internet too. The girls were delighted to be able to get onto Barbie.com once more, and needless to say Ali and I were busy listening to Shetland Radio and blogging etc
Monaco
Whilst Menton is a lovely little town with an old quarter, the usual churches and shops etc we had a yearning to see Monaco. The buses all along the coast of France are only 1 Euro for each stage so we travelled in style!
The Monaco Grand Prix was taking place a week later so there were signs every where for it.
Ali and the girls in the gardens leading down to the casino.
Preparations for the grand prix being put into place right in front of the casino
The casino, obviously we weren't dressed to get in and kids aren't allowed.
Some of the posh cars outside the casino with lots of other tourists wandering around.
The casino from the other side, a very ornate building.
Close up of one of the panels on the building.
This statue is supposed to be Adam and Eve.
For the girls the best bit of Monaco was this grassy slope they found to roll down, only after they had finished did we notice the don't walk on the grass sign.
Even the shopping mall is a bit posh!
I don't think this one needs a caption.
We were going to leave the next day but we ran out of our cube gas nd it was Sunday so we had to stay, we met in with this nice couple Claude and Claude on their boat who actually gave Ali a lift to get some gas but by then the urge to sail had worn off plus they have kids who were playing with our girls and it would have been a shame to tear them away.
When the family had left to go up to their home in the mountains the girls decided to help ALi clean some things around the boat.
Kaylee set about cleaning the fenders whilst Alisha polished 'daddy's chimney.'
We went for a last walk around the promenade, the girls took their bikes, Kaylee got a few funny looks because she decided to cycle in a fairy dress.
The Saga of the By the Wind Sailors
On the day we sailed (motored slowly being thrown around by the swell) from Cannes to Menton it wasn't long until everyone had gone to sleep even Alistair as he gets so frustrated everytime we have to put the engine on he usually retreats to the cabin. At least he hasn't started drowning his sorrows yet as it seems we need the motor for a part of each day now.....
Anyway, I was hanging over the side with my eyes peeled looking for dolphins/sharks/anything at all really when I started seeing little things floating in the water and didn't know what they were. I thought they looked a little like condoms but obviously they couldn't be as there were thousands of them. After a while my curiosity got the better of them and I decided to catch one with the girls net. It was quite easy to reach the sea from the side of the boat as it was pitching and rolling so much in the swell every now and then I came quite close to the water. When I got one I stuck my hand in to get it and came across a rubbery feeling object which I obviously dropped immediately because of what I had origionally thought they were! After looking at it though I reassured myself it definitely was not a condom and had a closer look. It was a down the wind sailor which Ihad seen in one of the girls wildlife books. They are small jelly fish with a sail on top and small tentacles hanging down.
Now I was brimming with excitement of the new discovery and just had to wake up Kaylee to show her. She was as amazed as I and we spent an hour catching sailors, I would cach them then she would pick them out of the net. Kaylee was dying to show Alisha who was sleeping under the spray hood but Alisha just looked at the one being dangled inches from her face, turned over and went back to sleep. Kaylee then ventured down to our cabin with a juicy specimen to show Ali funnily enough he wasn't very impressed either especially when she dropped it..... I got out the pilot book as I remembered it had sealife information and was surprised that it said the tentacles of the by the wind sailor give you a nasty sting, the 'Collins Sea Spotter' hadn't mentioned this at all. I felt no stinging but Kaylee mysteriously started to feel it in her fingers after she heard about the stinging. The pilot book (by Rod Heikell - sailing guru and probable millionaire from pilot book authoring) also rather pretentiously says that these are his favourite floating jelly fish as the curved 'sail' enables them to sail a little up wind and not just be pushed around like all the others - deary me!
The expert jellyfisherwoman!
A closer look.
Another close up, unfortunately by the time we had extracted them from the net we had ripped most of the tentacles off......
A few days later we were travelling from Loano to Genoa we saw this small plane spraying the water.
Then we were motoring through millions of dead looking by the wind sailors.
Just one of the pools of dead jellyfish we ploughed through.
We think that the plane had been spraying the jelly fish to kill or just dissolve them and stop them coming ashore onto the riviera beaches. Jellyfishocide! Maybe they do sting after all.....
Since then we have found that they are just everywhere and would probably accumulate in their billions after a storm like the one there was in that area. Even if the Italians are killing them there is certainly no threat to the species! The girls are getting rather bored of spotting them now just like the swimming crabs of North Western Spain which only lasted as an amusement for about 2 days too! We are hoping to see more than just jelly fish on our travels around the Med!
We are currently in Corsica, Port Toga in Bastia and will be continuing to head South tomorrow.
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