Tangled Anchors and St Tropez ..... Sept 2010

Busy St Tropez waterfront

08 - 13 September 2010


After our stormy previous night at Cap d'Antibes, the anchorage at Theoule sur Mer was calm and peaceful. We had a catamaran anchor a little closer than we would have liked and we seemed to swing in strange directions but there was little wind and we kept far enough apart. The following morning we went ashore to the small attractive town for a walk, buy fresh bread and relax having our daily cafe au lait. It was a pleasant laidback place and an enjoyable short stopover. The seabreeze was filling in from the southeast making it a little choppy in the anchorage, so we decided to use the wind and keep heading west.

Sometimes however, this cruising life is not that easy. We could not lift our anchor, Mark had to snorkel down to see what the problem was. The catamarans anchor was wrapped around our chain and we needed them to raise their anchor and free it. Sounds easy enough but they were not onboard, they had already left their boat before we had gone ashore and Mark noticed they had put their anchor light on which suggestd they would not return until after dark. We were going nowhere in the foreseeable future. The seabreeze built to 20 knots, we bounced up and down, and kept waiting. Around 8pm and very close to dark we saw their dinghy coming back and called them over, thankfully they spoke enough English to understand us and lifted their anchor, freeing our chain at last. We stayed another night!

Where are we again???

We had an uneventful departure the following morning and headed west towards St Tropez. The winds were light so we motored waiting for the sea breeze to fill in. Then when it did arrive we got 20 knots from the south west, not south east. We motored the rest of the way, bashing into the short chop, covering the boat in saltwater - once again. We reached the shelter of the Bay of St Tropez and anchored just before St Tropez town in Anse des Canebiers. We had found Baracca again, so after anchoring we dropped the dinghy and joined them for a very well earned happy hour, we sat exchanging war stories from the past few days for several hours, always good therapy.

Next day we dinghied ashore and followed a reasonably well marked coastal path about 20 minutes around to St Tropez. I guess I was expecting somewhere very glitzy, but besides the marina which held several large power boats along the immediate waterfront it seemed a normal, well looked after, small French town. It was touristy, but that is to be expected, there were several artists set up along the waterfront selling their paintings, a great morning outdoor market set a couple of blocks inland from the marina - packing up as we arrived (sadly for me, happily for Mark!!) , and just loads of little alleyways and lanes with some very exclusive shops and some rather normal ones to. It had a laidback, end of season feel to it and we enjoyed several hours exploring.

St Tropez Bay, over the rooftops

After spending all day in town, we had dinner onboard with Baracca, we would part company here again but maybe catch up with them again in the Balearic Islands. Next day we were due another wind change, another infamous mistral was blowing and it might just clip us with northwesterly winds so we headed right up the end of the Bay of St Tropez and anchored off Plage de Grimaud, a long beach with a large camping ground at one end and some rather grim looking block buildings at the other.

Thankfully the wind didn't build too much and we had a peaceful night. Next morning we checked the weather, once again. There was a weather window on the back of the mistral to sail down to the Balearics so we decided to move further west along the coast to Anse de Gau which would be a convenient jumping off point to head south. We sailed most of the way in reasonably flat water and arrived in the anchorage early evening.

Cafe au lait in St Tropez

This was our 50th anchorage for this season and it was rather a lovely spot, just 3 other yachts, a handful of houses hidden in the trees and a lovely bay. I had my first and last swim in France, it was actually quite warm still. We had an early dinner, checked the weather, yet again, and decided to leave at 4am for our 220 mile passage down to Menorca.

We were expecting lumpy seas once away from land but were hoping to catch the last of the northwest winds as they calmed down to push us on our way south. We awoke at 2am, Balvenie rolling in the wake of a passing ship, so we got up, lifted anchor and headed south. It was time to say au revior to France, we had expected to stay longer and although we certainly enjoyed our stops the inclement weather was wearing us down, it was just so changeable and that makes life very tiring onboard. It was also getting colder, an extra duvet was coming out on occassion at night - time to head south!!

Cruising info for Theoule sur Mer, St Tropez and Anse de Gau:-
Anchorages -
Theoule sur Mer - 43 30.711N 06 56.412E 14m some weed. Escaped southerly swell, but choppy in afternoon southeast seabreeze
St Tropez: Anse des Canebiers - 43 16.187N 06 39.687E 13.5m sand, roll from passing boats heading into marina
St Tropez: Plage de Grimaud - 43 16.502N 06 35.375E 11.5m sand, again roll from boats going into the other marina!
Anse de Gau - 43 06.433N 06 21.855E 5.9m sand
Communications - GYMSIM and Malta Vodafone had signals everywhere. WIFI: The camping ground at Plage de Grimaud had a pay site but it wouldn't accept my credit card. Anse de Gau managed to pick up an unlocked site, not easy but got weather down. Rest of time chewed up many more dollars using NZ Vodafone dongle on roaming.
Ashore - Theoule sur Mer is a small town with everything you need. Free wifi at pizza cafe on roundabout (road going inland from beach), bakery there too. St Tropez had nothing at the anchorages but everything in town. Good supermarket behind western end of marina, great bakery and market looked very good. Two coffees were 8E, did see one cafe charged 7E each!!. Didnt go ashore in Anse de Gau but didnt look to have anything.
Formalities - None anywhere in France

Frances Fickle Weather ..... Sept 2010



Streets of Antibes


07 September 2010

With the arrival of September and the further west we were travelling the weather was getting more and more changeable. We were checking the weather daily, sometimes more than once if we could, and a low was heading our way. It was due to pass over during the night - they never arrive during the day - and we were forecast heavy rain and winds of around 25 knots from the east. We joined a procession of yachts, superyachts and large motor cruisers back across to Cap d"Antibes. We returned to our previous anchorage at Abri de L'Olivette, found a 7m hole in the undulating seabed surrounded by 4.5m walls, and made sure the anchor was nicely buried. Most of the larger vessels headed just a little further north outside the marina, and out of our way!

Went went ashore and had an easy walk across the peninsular to the old town of Antibes. The huge marina that couldn't accommodate us is right by the town. If you wanted to winter over in France and could find a berth this would be a great place for the winter months. We wandered through the rabbit warren of little lanes, found the market square, checked out the busy waterfront area and then made our way back over the peninsular to the very upmarket suburb of Gallice-Juan-les-Pins. It was time to do as everyone else was, find a suitable streetside cafe and enjoy an aperitif - so we did just that.

Antibes

It was a short walk back to the dinghy, and we were back onboard for dinner, the skies were clear, maybe the front would miss us. At 4am I awoke and tried to convince myself that the flashes I could see were from the lighthouse and the rumbles I could hear were planes approaching Nice airport. Sadly I knew better, within a couple of minutes we were both up, full wet weather gear on (maybe first time since Auckland-Fiji!!!), GPS and chartplotter fired up and engine on. Within 5 minutes of me waking we went from 10 knots out of the east to being slammed by over 45 knots from the west - we had no immediate protection from the west - and probably the heaviest horizontal rain and hail ever experienced. Yachts all around were dragging, there was zero visibility except for during the flashes of lightening. We held fast in our well chosen 7m hole, but I was watching our position the entire time and Mark was on the helm taking the strain off the anchor. I guess the worst of it was over in maybe 40 minutes, it felt like hours. We had one large power boat drag to within about 5 metres, there was no way we could have got out of his way, we waited to take the hit. Luckily they managed to move forward and clear from us just in time. Eventually the cell above passed, wind switched to where it was supposed to be and calmed to a manageable 25knots, the rain and hail stopped, and we finally remembered to breathe!


Statues in St Tropez

Dawn finally arrived, we could see the end of the heavy band of cloud, blue sky in the far distance. The was a fair amount of carnage around, the Coast Guard were towing stranded boats out of the shallows into deeper water, another large power boat that had ended up anchoring next to us left - showing us a huge gauge out of her bow, a very large beautiful 5 spreader superyacht had dragged across the bay and ended up right in the middle of the mussel farms. It took several hours of diving by the crew to free it, Mussel Farm owners standing by no doubt adding up the damages bill.

We had survived unscathed, but wished Antibes Marina hadn't turned us away, we really don't need experiences like this to enrich our life!!! The winds died, the sun came out and we moved on. It was just 11 miles to our next anchorage at Theoule sur Mer, we motored across, dropped anchor and went to sleep.

Cruising info for here on previous posting - Chocolate Croissants on the French Riviera

Chocolate Croissants on the French Riviera..... Sept 2010

Cute French village of Mons

02 - 05 September 2010


Another day, another country. As we pulled out of the marina in Monaco we lowered our well worn Indonesian Courtesy flag that had now served as our Monaco Flag (I'm sure Prince Albert would be very proud of sharing the same flag as Indonesia albeit a tad more square than the rectangular Indonesian version but once up the yard arm and flapping away, who would spot the difference !!) and hoisted the French tricolour. It was only 9 miles to our first anchorage on the French Riviera, we pulled into the deep bay of Villefranche before lunch, set our anchor in the weedy seabed and set about ensuring Balvenie was shipshape.

We were expecting my cousin Neil and his wife Barbara to join us for a couple of nights, they were our first med visitors way back in Turkey and were coming back, this time with the latest addition to their family, Sparkie their 2 year old Shetland sheepdog, our first dog onboard. They had been hiking up in the Italian Dolomites and were in desparate need of some warmth and sunshine, we were hoping the French Riviera would provide just that. After successfully finding somewhere safe and free to park their Landcruiser full of all their camping equipment, it was everyone in the dinghy and onboard, Sparkie wasn't to sure about it at first but adapted to being a boat dog in no time at all. We had done several improvements to Balvenie since their last stay and it was great to have such positive comments from them on all our new canvas work and cabin top paint job, both had been long and hard winter projects

High in the hills behind Nice

We had a great couple of nights with them onboard, we spent a whole day out touring, first heading north along the coast next along the promenade in Nice, just a few miles north of Villefranche. Then we headed inland and up into the hills, passing through some lovely little typically French villages, stopping along the way at one for our first French cafe au lait.

We kept going higher and higher, clinging to tiny roads that their Landcruiser hardly fitted on, winding down through gorges and ravines and up the other sides. Breathtaking scenery surrounded us in all directions. Eventually we stopped at the small village of Mons, we sat and watched the local men play boules in the village square while we enjoyed our picnic lunch. The vista back down towards the coast was spectacular, the village was very cute with narrow lanes, little arty shops, stone houses, flowering bourgainvillea - all very French and very beautiful.


Fattening us up in France

Back down to sealevel and Villefranche, successfully securing another free parking spot for the night. It was time for dinner out ashore, we wandered through the lanes behind the waterfront and found a great Italian (shame on us!!) restaurant and had a lovely meal under the stars. Next morning it was fresh croissants, pastries and baguette for breakfast. This was one of the bonuses of having a dog on board, it is necessary to have an early morning walk ashore that just happens to pass by the boulangarie for all those delectable goodies!! Sadly Neil and Barbara needed to start heading back to London so only stayed 2 nights but it was great to see them again, and we appreciated our touring inland with them.

It was Saturday afternoon and Marks new sunglasses were ready in San Remo so we had quite an excursion to collect them. Dinghy ashore, walk to train station, train to Monaco, change onto train to Ventimilgia, find bus to San Remo, collect glasses and then reverse all the above. Except for a 45 minute wait in Ventimilgia (long enough in Ventimilgia) on the return it all went very smoothly. Mark is now the proud owner of a new pair of presciption, polarised sunglasses at great expense, his 4th pair in 6 years of cruising - I am trying to work out how to attach them permanently to his head!!!

Mons, in the hills behind Nice

Back in Villefranche we had had Kiwi yacht Baracca arrive and anchor next to us. We last saw Maurice and Heather from Christchurch in Croatia last year so we stopped by and had a catch up with them, great to see them again. Unfortunately a swell was now creeping into the anchorage and we were lying beam on to it, it was rather an uncomfortable night and we were pleased our visitors had been lucky with flat seas.

It was time to move on again so we lifted anchor and sailed under headsail in rolly seas the 16 miles west along the coast to the headland where Antibes is situated. We had hoped to anchor on the east side of this peninsular in one of the two bays just a short walk from Antibes, but a strong seabreeze had set in from the east and they were totally unsuitable. We decided to try the marina, there was a front due to pass over in a couple of nights so we thought maybe being tied up might be a good option. I called the Antibes Marina, it has 1700 berths plus 170 visitors berths, they turned us away saying they were full.

Balvenie on the French Riviera

We carried on around the headland to the western side and anchored at Abri de L'Olivette, on Cap d'Antibes, well tucked inside the mussel farms, out of the chop from the seabreeze and with just a little. Although we didn't go ashore it looked a lovely area, with very large houses set in well wooded large sections, not a highrise block to be seen.

Next morning the weather was forecast to go around to the south for 24 hours so we motored the short distance across to Ile Ste Marguerite, and anchored on its north side. It sits just a couple of miles south of Cannes and is a peaceful heavily wooded island that is a National Park. We enjoyed a late afternoon walk ashore, all the day tripper boats had returned to Cannes and just a handful of people were left ashore. We visited the large Fort Royal, an impressive site from the anchorage, especially at night, and equaly impressive ashore. It is here that the Man in the Iron Mask was imprisioned in the late 1600's. We walked along several paths through the forest, the scent of pine in the air. We had not been for such a lovely walk in forest since staying with Neil and Barbara in Surrey back in March. This was a great anchorage and shore excursion.

Cruising info for Villefranche, Abri de L'Olivette and Ile Ste Marguerite, French Riviera:-
Anchorages -
Villefranche -  43 42.103N   07 19.103E   11.5m  weed, got rolly on last night
Abri de L'Olivette @ Cap d'Antibes -   43 33.168N   07 07.011E   8m  sand/weed, very undulating
Ile Ste Marguerite - 43 31.590N   07 02.444E   7.5m   sand/weed
Communications - Mobile phones  both GYMSIM and Vodafone Malta worked on SFR or Orange Signal.  Then there is the internet, another country to deal with!!!  Firstly connecting by dongle - a French one is an expensive option.  Need to buy a new dongle (didn't check price), apparantly not compatible with any other country, then Simcard was 69E then think it was 15E for 3 hours connection, all to hard and too expensive.  What we did was top up our NZ Vodafone dongle and used it on roaming just to download the weather and emails, it wasn't cheap either, but NZD60 (about 35E) lasted us our time in France.  However the good news is that there are unlocked sites around in France, so with our external aerial we managed to pickup (with rather alot of effort) signals in both Villefranche and Abri de L'Olivette, not great signals but enough to get weather info down.
Ashore -
Villefranche - is a cute little place (cruiseships do come in, we had two one day so it can get busy!), main shops are all up the hill inland a couple of blocks.  The train station is easy to see from the anchorage.  We tied our dinghy on the concrete wall, plenty of options.
Abri de L'Olivette - Easy walk over to Antibes, probably took around 25 minutes just kept heading in the direction we thought it should be!!  Small minimarket and excellent bakery on the road into Antibes.  Found much shorter way back headed straight along main road which brought us back to very upmarket village by the big marina just north of the anchorage.  Mainly cafes/bars and a casino in village, ATM machine but didn't see a minimarket.see next update as we returned here
Ile Ste Marguerite - A couple of small restaurants ashore maybe open daytime only.  Fort did have charge but we arrived about 5.30pm it was open with no one on door so had a look around, it is quite impressive.  Loads of lovely walking on well marked paths.  Water tap on dock, some smalls boats were filling up jerry jugs.
Formalities - didn't do any in France
Sightseeing - Many cruisers "do" Monaco from here.  Easy train trip, 5.50E return each, half hourly except on Sundays