France

Monday, July 13, 1998

Hello from a small bay anchored in the Porquole Islands off the coast of France. Well I guess France won the work cup soccer, as all the boats anchored here have been blowing their horns and making all kinds of racket. We has two great days in Bandol, one extra waiting for a better weather window, It was blowing 25 knots plus so we stayed another day. It is Sunday and part of a three day holiday in France. Every Frenchman must own a boat! It was a great sail moving along downwind at 5 knots dragging two fishing lines.

Headed for San Topez tomorrow. Still getting used to the boat. It is a wonderful downwind machine in 15 to 20 knots of wind, with the autopilot doing all the steering. We seldom do any steering, except to push buttons. Too tired to finish this letter. ---- Next day - Lazing along doing 4.2 knots with both fishing poles out, headed for SanTopaz. We hope the weather stays mild so we can anchor rather than going into an expensive marina. Marinas in this part of France coat more than a hotel in the USA! We plan to go into marina's every few days only to get water and charge up the batteries. Even the anchorages are crowded, there must have been 60 boats in the small cove where we were last night.

Weather hot! difficult today to stay out of the sun and keep from being sunburned. Well the wind is dying down so we may have to motor for the first time. I hate motoring, but it charges the batteries and makes hot showers!

Gotta go motor, or we will be out here all night.

Tuesday, July 14, 1998

Didn't get to send this, so this is the next day; Tuesday 7/14. Rather than motor into San Topez we pulled into a small bay and threw out the anchor. We haven't been able to get a weather report even in French, for a few days, so you might know it, the weather got up during the night, making it uncomfortable. Even a bit of rain, then wind from various angles, and now strong gusts. We are still in the bay resting from a poor night. It is now blazing hot and the beach is full ! It is a beautiful part of the coast and we went for a walk into the nearest village and picked up some bread. We will leave tomorrow, moving east. I am not sure if the last letter I sent titled First Sail actually went out when I sent it several days ago, so I will resend it. I'm now off to launch the dinghy and see if I can get this sent.

Monday, July 20th

We are not sure our E-mail is getting sent on time. When we log on it is usually in some small corner, wherever we can find some kind soul that will unplug his telephone jack and let us plug in for a minute or so. After logging on and getting our E-mail, I send our outgoing mail, but if even one of the digits is in the wrong place, the computer says the mail is not sent. So we really do not know. Would you please let us know! For example we sent the message titled "First Sail" two weeks ago, but the computer says it hasn't gone out yet. Thanks. Also, the last time we sent E-mail we walked 2 miles and were turned down 3 times before a small hotel operator let us use his telephone, and we got only one very small incoming E-mail message!

We leave San Topez early in the morning headed for Villa France, some 40 miles east, very close to Nice where we hope to pick up Ruth's Aunt and and Uncle. San Topez has been great. We anchored in a small bay just outside of the village, took the rubber dinghy into shore and walked a half mile into the village. We visited the old fort on top of the hill, filed with relics and including a section of old pictures of the Allies landing invasion in 1944. It was amazing, I never saw so many ship coming into one coast. We visited the old and new harbors, filled with million dollar yachts. Huge yachts, with several crew members in matching uniforms scurrying around coming into dock while the suntanned ladies sipped. Yes! they are suntanned all over. We enquired about a berth for one night in the marina and were told to check back the next day,. and bring money, 570 FF, which is over $100. We like our anchorage, and the generator keeps the batteries charged so we are fine. When the wind howls, it would be a bit nicer tied unto concrete a concrete pier. We had a great lunch at an outside restaurant along side the marina and watched the people. They are a real show. The village of San Topez is very old with crooked, narrow streets and bougainvillea growing up the sides. The weather is hot every day. The people have a big lunch, and the shops close from 1 to 4, while everyone takes a siesta. There are many artist shops, boutiques and it is just a quaint village. The country side is very abundant with fruit, grapes, and vegetables. A decent wine here in France is not over $2.00/ bottle, everything else seems more expensive than in the USA. It is summer and vacation time here, everywhere you look there is some partially clad body soaking up the sun. I have not worn a pair of long pants since arrival here in France! If one were to go into town wearing long pants, he or she would draw attention.

The bay where we are anchored fills up in the daytime with boats and bodies but in the evening it thins out and we have a bit more space. There is every kind of boat you can imagine, even the French Navy is anchored in the large bay behind us. Last night we sat here and watched a boat from Monaco come into the bay, go up to the front where the water is obviously shallow, and run aground! He eventually got out, then promptly pulled into the little space next to us and just plunked his anchor out. There was tons of room in other places. He was so close, we had to put our fenders over the side, in case he scraped us in the night. I called him a few names, but no problems. As you may have guessed, there is a world of difference in this side of France as compared with the Bay of Lion, where we picked up the boat. Here, the winds are light and the weather mostly pleasant. We get a gentle wind during the day and it dies down at night. When we get weather reports, the wind is still howling and the seas rough, back in Canet en Roussillon. Glad to be out of there!!

Next evening - Friday July 17

We are anchored here in a beautiful bay of Villa Franche. The small village is somewhat like San Topez except it is in a very steep sided Fjord with houses and villas clinging to the steep cliffs. The mountains inland are very steep also. The villages are really very quaint. The small marina is full of old fishing boats. Most of the million dollar yachts are anchored of for the day and leave in the evening for Nice or Antibes, two very large cities with modern marinas. The two cities cover miles. We left San Topez early this morning ( 7 am) because it was 40 miles to Villa Franche and we were expecting very little wind. The wind in fact never got over 13 knots, but is was steady and at a perfect angle, we were often doing 7+ knots, and we arrived at 2 in the afternoon! A really great sail!! Autopilot all the way, except when we had to alter course for a USA aircraft carrier that was picking up speed coming out of Cannes. Really! I have photos. I don't know what they were doing in Cannes, but it sure seems like good duty, if you can get it. We were trucking along crossing the bay when here he comes on a collision course, we eased off and went behind them. I stood there with my mouth open, and wished later that I had called them on the radio just to say hi. I thought at first it was a French ship, but followed the flags up to the top where a USA flag was flying. Just so you will know it is not all the life of the idle rich, tomorrow we load up the laundry into the dingy and head for the nearest laundromat. We have been out a week plus now and still have plenty of water and fuel in our tanks, but we left with some dirty clothes and we need more fresh vegetables. With just the two of us aboard, we could stay out of port for a long long time! The boat was made to carry 10 people, so we have plenty of spare. We are really enjoying the touring and the great great weather. Sorry to hear about all the heat waves and flooding in the USA.

Today is Sunday July 19. We picked up Ruth's Uncle Patrick and Aunt Madeline in Villa Franche on Saturday afternoon. They parked their car, grabbed their bags and wanted to immediately go sailing. So, we left at 4 am, motored out in the dark, and aimed the boat offshore towards the Island of Corsica some 95 miles south east. It is now 1:30 in the afternoon, brilliant sunshine, smooth blue sea, and not a drop of wind. We are motoring with one motor only, averaging 6 knots, with mainsail up, hoping for some wind. We hope to arrive just before dark. It has been a very relaxing day, except for the getting up at 4 AM! But then, it is so smooth, we have all had a nap. The autopilot does all the steering. We see ships in the distance every once in a while, and saw a couple of whales earlier, plus a few Dolphins. The dolphins here are huge, much bigger and more powerful than the ones we see in the Pacific. We are both sorry to be leaving France, especially the Riveria. It is truly the plaground for the rich and beautiful!

I will try to send this E-mail from Corsica. Our present position is 42 degrees - 38 minutes North and 8 degrees - 56 minutes East, and we are moving S/W at 6 knots.