Port Miou to St Tropez

Marseille to St Tropez by Alistair!

After leaving Marseille, we felt a little bit alone- after all we had seen more of our friends and relative in the past fortnight, than we had seen for a while. But all the same, it was good to be under way again, and have the boat ( and bed ) back to ourselves.
By that I mean that when we have guests, the girls sleep with us, and its now getting to be a bit crowded.
We did not go far the first day, only about 15 miles to an anchorage called Port Miou, which is a very narrow, reasonably deep and long winding bay. In French it is called a “calanque”



Port Miou from the cliffs

The sides of the calanque are very high with quite a lot of trees, and paths through the trees, which made an excellent play ground for the girls.





The girls like to gather things, in this case sticks.
The anchorage in Port Miou turned out to be laid moorings, and anchoring was prohibited. The idea was to hook up to a mooring buoy, and then get the inflatable launched and take a line ashore to a ring in the rocks. This was all new to us, but we eventually managed, (with help from one of the marina staff)



The inner part of the harbour has a continuous (rickety) boardwalk around it, with boats tied up, bow and stern.





The next morning, after a long lie-in, we could hear a bit of commotion out in the harbour. It turned out to be a kind of underwater “Voar Redd-Up”, with divers picking up seabed debris, and folk in small boats taking the rubbish ashore, to yet another squad who were loading up skips, trucks, vans etc. It was a community effort, and very well attended. The high attendance may also have been due to a very large barbecue lunch being laid on.



Rowing practice

Later in the day we headed into the town of Cassis, an allegedly short 25 min. walk. Not when you have steep hills, a hot day and two small grumpy girls to cajole along.
The promise of an ice cream or a drink usually helps them on, and before we knew it, we were in fact in Cassis. It is a compact tourist town/harbour, very picturesque and busy.



On the way back, we came upon a swarm of bees, which was really the highlight of the day as far as the girls were concerned- Linda did not see it quite that way!



Port Miou, apart from being an unusual natural harbour, was also originally a very large quarry, with stone being shipped throughout the Mediterranean, including to the building of the Suez Canal. The ship loading berths can still be seen, with the quarry face not far away- it would have been a good set-up.







An ambitious project!

Any how, after a night of slightly less swell, we had our usual Sunday morning breakfast - Pancakes - the girls favourite weekly event.
Linda and the girls make the batter, and after my slightly longer lie in bed, I get up to do the cooking. We make them with chocolate, honey, fruit, yogurt,maple syrup, ham and cheese, anything goes! + a pot of fresh coffee, a great way to start the day.
Then a quick tidy up, slip the mooring ropes and off we went.

The next port of call was a town called Bandol.

Not much to say about that place really. It is a nice enough place, with a perfectly good marina, but nothing that enticed us to stop for long. We did see a “Yellow Submarine” though, and Linda made friends with a flock of pigeons.





We also met up with an English couple, Dennis and Sadie, in their very nice yacht “Graceful”.
They are an interesting couple, having sailed to all corners of the world , so we traded information and discussed the summer plans. Turns out we may see them from time to time, as we are generally heading in the same direction.

And coincidentally enough, our plan to go the “Iles de Hyeres” turned out to be also on their agenda, so next day, Tues 27th April, saw us sailing together, the 20 mile hop to anchor in an idyllic bay, “Plage de Argent” in the island of “Porquerolles”
As we sat on deck that warm night, with the sun setting over the trees, the only noise being the surf on the beach, ( and a background croaking of toads ) I again realised just how lucky we were.
We spent two days there, a great place for swimming and walking.





The girls collected a load of interesting bits of small (sea) glass, shells and stones, which was eventually turned into an Iguana/ Lizard by gluing the bits and pieces onto a length of drift wood.



The Iguana has been sent back to Shetland as a “Get Well Iguana” to uncle Hughie.

On Thursday morning, after the daily routine of breakfast, school and clear up the boat, we set sail for the next harbour, a place called “Lavandou”.
We actually did leave the anchorage under sail, although in very light wind. We persevered for a while, until Linda pointed out that we appeared to being overtaken by a drifting log.
That was it- engine on again!!
Alisha is now joining in with the rope handling when we are sailing, especially when lowering the sails, she can do that no bother. A couple of turns around a winch, and she lowers the mainsail no problem.



We had noticed on various occasions a “bloom” on the sea, and today, we got a close up photo, and we think that it is yellow blossom or pollen from some bush or other.



There are always boats to watch out for, occasionally an old square rigger, but more often a commercial ship or motor yacht.



Lavandou was a pleasant enough stop-over, a good marina, still reasonably priced and the town only a few minutes walk.
I should mention that in April or May the marina price’s go from “low season” to “high season”, and for our fairly small boat that could mean anything from £45.00 to £95.00 per night.
Therefore, anchoring is going to be essential, if we are to remain solvent.
We are also aware that once we hit July, it may not even be possible to get a marina berth. So from now and throughout the summer, we will try to anchor most of the time, with visits to marinas for water, fuel and provisions. Its not really any problem, as with a bit of planning we can usually find handy enough anchorages.
Our plan for this year is to get right around Italy, stopping also in Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily, and be in Croatia for July/August. This way we hope to have a cooler summer (it’s a few degrees less up north) and dodge the rush of tourists down south.
To do this, we will have to travel on average 120 miles per week, which means that we generally can not stay to long in any one spot, although there will no doubt be exceptions.
So, with the above and aforementioned in mind, we left Lavandou and headed for the heady heights of Saint Tropez.
Although we have seen plenty of so called “super yachts”, I would say that we are definitely in “silly money” territory now.




As we came into the gulf of Saint Tropez, we saw the last hour of a Classic Yacht Regatta, and very impressive it was too.
There were super yachts coming and going all the time, but is not a big harbour, so there were always a few at anchor.





We obviously anchored, I did not even ask the price to go into the harbour.
We spent a good few hours walking around the harbour area, and to be honest, I see no reason to hurry back.











The girls got an ice-cream, while we saw a lot of people who in turn were watching other people - so that was Saint Tropez!

And that my friends, is my bit for the blog done for the moment.