MAY 2003

H started to draw small pictures of our time on the boat. These she used to draw in pencil in the diary, not every day, but most days. We have included them here for your amusement.

Sunday, May 11th 2003 – Cheshire to Nice

Well, today is the day, it’s finally arrived. We are packed, and we depart from Liverpool Airport with 5 bags! Destination Nice. Our baggage is well overweight! We will stay in the Excelsior Hotel in Nice tonight.

Flew over Paris on the way! Saw Notre Dame and the Seine – Ah Paris c’est belle.

Paris from the air. Kind of!

Monday 12th May 2003

Travel on SNCF 1st class, to the town of Arles (not Ales!! We made that mistake by getting on the wrong train!) and H has her first French conversation with 2 nice ladies sitting opposite us.

We get a cab to the middle of nowhere – Le Sambuc. Hotel ‘Longo Mai’. The only thing open in town is one bar, so we have a drink there. I found this place on the internet, can you believe? (Yes back in 2003, finding things on the internet was completely different from what it is in 2026.)

The frogs (the small amphibian thing with long legs that sits in ponds, not the people) are noisy tonight – what a racket! It must be all the paddy fields. (They grow Camargue rice here.)

Tuesday 13th May 2003 Port Napoleon – Free berthing for 2 weeks

TODAY IS THE BIG DAY!

We get packed up at 8:30 and leave the hotel to travel to the boat by cab and ferry and on to Port Napoleon, where our new boat has been delivered to and commissioned by our UK agent. We arrive at the marina and do the short walk from the entrance to the pontoon, our hearts racing at what we are about to see and do. – There she is! She looks beautiful, and she’s ours.

Our brand new boat is sitting there in the water, gently bobbing about, tethered to the pontoon. What a sight. Our heart does swell with pride that all the months of planning and hard work, being apart for weeks on end, have finally come to this. No house, no jobs, just a flat in Tenerife and a beautiful boat in the Med ready for our adventure…

Steve and Chris are the two guys from the UK who will hand the boat over to us. They take us out on a short sail. We are nervous as hell as we stand in the cockpit and look up at the height of the mast and the size of the sails. The Pippin 20 was tiny compared to this. We must be mad…

Very soon, our driver Lee from ‘Transriviera’, a transport company, delivers our stuff for the boat! It’s chaos as we end up with a mountain of marine stuff from cushions, plates, bouys, life jackets, outboard motors and a dinghy, all manner of stuff that we will need to make our one year aboard comfortable and safe.

12 boxes of stuff, 2 anchors, a guitar, cushions, 2 bikes, poles, etc all over the pontoon. We get two free weeks here to get ourselves sorted out.

We all toast ‘Stargazer’ with some champagne before Lee, Steve and Chris leave us alone. We get our first night on the boat with our blankets and perfectly ironed bedding.

Dinner tonight: Pasta sauce with peppers.

Wednesday 14th May 2003 Port Napoleon

Our first morning after a really windy night on board Stargazer, it’s still windy as we try out our new bikes and cycle to the nearby town of Port St. Louis. The bikes will be lashed to the side of the boat on the deck. It will be interesting to see how we do with that at sea. We have seen many boats do it, so….

Back at Stargazer, we apply her graphics, her name and her SSR number, attach flags and get her ready for the sea. A quiet day pottering around on the boat, exploring her many cupboards and storage spaces. It’s all very exciting.

Dinner tonight: Local sausage with potatoes.

Thursday 15th May 2003 Port Napoleon

We wake up today to much less wind; it’s dropped significantly, so we decide to take her out to sea on our own. Nervously!

Once we are clear of the marina entrance we get the sails up, but there is no wind. We are going nowhere under sail. We get the engine back on and make our way back to the marina. We have tried out the GPS, the autopilot and all her toys. H does her first berthing of our new boat, Del is on deck with lines ready, and she does a perfect berthing, backed in. It’s easier that way around to get in and off the boat.

Dinner tonight: Salmon Tagliatelle

Friday 16th May 2003 Port Napoleon

It’s a nice day today, so we get the spray dodgers attached, and Del washes her. She gleams in the sunlight and looks fabulous. We are staying in the marina today, so it’s back on the bikes and cycle into town for some essentials, a baguette and wine!

Today, we mount H’s brass clock that she was presented with when she left ‘This Morning‘. It’s mounted in the cabin inside all the time. It looks great.

Dinner tonight: Pesto

Saturday 17th May 2003 Port Napoleon

It’s raining this morning! But not for long. We have a play around with our tender, a small dinghy with an outboard motor and emergency oars. Who needs the gym?

We have been here almost a full week now in Port Nepolean, we can stay another week if we want, but we have done all we can. We think we are ready to set off, so we lash up the boat for our departure tomorrow to Ile du Frioul (Port du Frioul), bikes, tender, and outboard have all been tried and tested. Let’s go!

Dinner tonight: Steak, mushrooms and courgettes.

Sunday 18th May 2003 Port Napoleon to Pt du Frioul. 21 miles (18 euros)

We will now keep track of our distances each day and the cost of our marina stays.

It’s a lovely day for our first proper sail to our first destination. A light breakfast, and we set sail at 10 am. The wind is perfect for our first day at sea, we get full sail up, which looks massive, but we soon get used to it, and we are moving along at 7 knots and heeling. She feels fantastic!

H gets her bikini on for the first time…!

PORT DU FRIOUL

The wind has picked up quite a bit en route, but we manage our first ‘med mooring’ in a gusty wind, which didn’t go quite well the first time. On the second attempt, we get it right, with a little bit of help from another sailor.

Dinner out tonight as we feel flush; however, we did get stung for 50 euros by the restaurant. We are not feeling so flushed now, but rather drained!

We meet our first 4-legged friend, a rather sweet black Labrador who insists on following us. Not sure if he’s a stray or belongs to someone, but he seems to like us.

Once we are back at the boat, with the wind slightly down in strength, we can hear a noise under the boat. It sounds like chains moving about in the water. A mystery, as we didn’t hear it in Port Napoleon.

Monday 19th May 2003 Port du Frioul

Wow… We woke up this morning to strong winds. It’s howling through the mast, so we decide to stay for a couple of days as the weather forecast is not so good. Force 7-8. Not good, that, not for us newbies anyway.

We get the bikes off the boat and set off for a good cycle up to some local ruins. The views are fantastic with some pretty bays around the island. Del got stung again. (By an insect, not the restaurant).

Today it’s ‘kit pizza’. It was good. (Kit pizza is a pizza base that is pre-made and kept in the chiller at the shops. You spread it out, put your own toppings on and stick it in the oven. Smashing.)

The wind has started blowing really hard now, and with heavy rain, so halfway through the film “Jackie Brown”, we get kitted up and brave the weather to make sure her lines are tied up good and proper. Jesus, how grim!

With the boat secured, we go to bed listening to the wind and the rain.

Tuesday 20th May 2003 Port du Frioul

We have some neighbours moored next to us. A charter boat of Germans who tells us that the winds are building to force 11, one of a hurricane. We feel a bit sorry for them, really, as they have chartered a boat for a week and it looks like they will be stuck here in a windy Port du Frioul.

We put some more ropes on our boat as the wind is snatching against her cleats, and it sounds terrible. We have 7 ropes on in total securing the boat,

Not much to do today, so we take walks on the small island, drink beer, read and help some distressed French sailors with their boat.

There is a supermarket here, but it’s not ideal, but we have plenty of supplies for now. There are more strong winds due tomorrow. You can never have enough rope. We watch the seagulls enjoying the wind. They are a bit mad seagulls.

It will be a noisy night tonight.

Dinner tonight: Chorizo, potatoes, onion and peppers. All cooked up together. Proper boat food.

Wednesday 21st May 2003 Port du Frioul

This morning, the wind is a gale force 8 and has been like that all night, even with the seven lines we are listing hard over in gusts.

Fed up with the noise- the noise of wind can get on your nerves after a while- we decide we can’t take it anymore and take the ferry to Marseille.

We visit the church on the hill. ‘Notre Dame de Grande’, which is quite a hike, the wind whistles through the church eerily. We have a spot of lunch and walk around the town before catching the ferry back to Stargazer.

The ferry back was quite a ride. The strong wind has whipped up the sea, and it’s rough. Massive rollers, people are screaming on the boat, this is the biggest sea We’ve ever been on!

Rough crossing to Marseille for a day out.

The wind is now really fierce; we are healing, and the boat is creaking in and cracking on her lines; in fact, it’s that bad that Del ends up with his dinner and wine on his lap and all over the seat, and this is in the harbour! It will be another long, grim night. Too worrying to concentrate. The hours tick by slowly.

An interesting first week aboard.

Thursday 22nd May 2003 Port du Frioul

After many sleepless nights, we wake up to a calm day, at last. The forecast is for a force 6, decreasing to 4 tomorrow. We decide to spend another night because we are late getting up today. We are tired. So it’s off for a walk up to the local fort.

While we are up there, the wind starts to build again (Del gets seagull shit on his clean t-shirt). Back down on the boat, the wind quickly changes again to a force 9, and the water is very choppy. After asking for help, we decide to try to make for the corner of the marina for a bit of peace. We are very exposed where we are; we are getting the full force of the wind and the sea.

We are doing this move across the marina in a force 9. A French guy very kindly offers to helm while we do the ropes. All this while the boat heels and spray is flying off the water, and H now has stomach cramps! We make it to safety and the boat is more stable, though the wind is still violent over here. When is it going to stop!?

No wind protection as our boat strains against a force 9.

Our new wind indicator has had enough of the wind and packs up! Great!

Dinner tonight: Pesto

Friday, 23rd May 2003, Port du Frioul to Bandol. 20 miles (15 euros)

Today there is no wind…!

After breakfast on the deck, in the heat, we cast off and set sail for Bandol. We have to motor most of the way as the wind has dropped. It seems its feast or famine with the wind around here.

Another ‘Med mooring’ in Bandol, this one slightly smoother with only half the amount of shouting at each as the last one. We think we are getting the hang of this! The marina and town are nice, 15.50 euros for the night, excellent.

After a rather large dinner of chicken, garlic, courgettes, onions and potatoes, we have a zip around on the dinghy and even out into the bay – what fun! The letters of the name are starting to fall off the dighy!

Saturday, 24th May 2003, Bandol

Wake up to a little bit of wind; the boat is hitting the pontoon. We’re a bit scared about the wind so we stay another day. Sailors being scared of wind… Is that good or bad? After we pay for the night, the wind settles down, and it turns into a rather lovely day.

We now need to do some laundry, so we spend a few hours getting that done. Everyone has to do it.

Once the laundry has been done and lunch has been had, we fall asleep in the cockpit under the afternoon sun to be woken by customs men wanting to see documents.

We eat out tonight. Well, it is Saturday. Del has moules, H has pork and lentils

Toulon tomorrow. Hopefully.

Sunday, 25th May 2003, Bandol to Port de Hyères. 28 miles

We set sail for Toulon in a very swelly sea. The storms have gone, leaving us with a rather large rolling sea, with swells that are about 2m high. STARGAZER is surfing, and it was quite challenging to weather them. By the time we reached Toulon, the sea had calmed, and we decided to push on as it was still early. 

We decide to move on to a realistic destination of Port de Hyères. We arrive at 4:30 after our longest sail yet. The capitainerie directed us to berth 1353. After a hunt around, we found it, it was the width of the boat with an inch to spare!

A discussion broke out on board along the lines of ‘you think I’m backing the boat into that?’, but H did it; we were that close that the bikes were catching either side on the other boats. We get covered in chain gunk.

A very tight squeeze!

Dinner tonight: Pork, lentils and mushrooms on board.

Monday, 26th May 2003, Port de Hyères. 13.10 euros

Despite going to bed with no wind, we are woken up by the sound of the boat hitting the concrete block of the pontoon; a vicious wind has blown up again, and it looks like, yet again, our front mooring line isn’t tight enough. So we kit up and go outside. It’s 3:40 am and there is a force 8 wind blowing, rain and lightning. (This isn’t how we imagined Med cruising!)

Kitted out for the storm…

We retire to bed, then 20 minutes later, H is back on deck again, moving fenders around the boat. Nice.

The weather forecasters have chickened out of forecasting tomorrow’s weather, so who knows what will happen. We want to push on to Lavandou, just 19 miles away, but the sea is moderate with strong howling winds.

Dinner tonight: Gnocchi and sauce, salad with our 2 euro rose wine.

Tuesday, 27th May 2003, Port de Hyères to Le Lavandou. 14 miles. 22.50 euros

We set off today for Le Lavandou. It seems like there’s either too much wind or none at all, and today was the latter, so we tried to sail for a while but abandoned it for the motor.

Arrived at Le Lavandou at lunchtime, so we tie up for an hour or so until the capitainerie office opens. The French like their long lunches!

We are allocated a berth, but it was our worst parking yet, very near a bridge with no control in reverse and hitting a stray chain on our keel (we think). Despite all this, the place is beautiful and charming – lovely shops, a clean marina, and people are playing petanque. The nicest place yet.

We got a chicken from a takeaway called “Poulet à Go-Go” and had a big chicken feast on board. After dinner, we take a walk on the beach, but watch for those jellyfish! Our first proper sighting of scary ones, that we saw this morning on the way here – they are the sailing type of jellyfish, close hauling across our stern!

Watch out!!

Wednesday, 28th May 2003, Le Lavandou to St. Tropez. 25 miles. 25 euros

A nice morning as we set off from Le Lavandou at 11 after some engine checks. The sea is like a mirror, and the sunshine is hazy. Again, we have to motor most of the way and don’t pick up any wind until we round the headland near St. Tropez, where we achieve our fastest speed under sail yet – 6.5 knots.

We arrive at St. Tropez, and after a couple of attempts to find a space, we get one. Our first impressions aren’t good; the marina is a bit tatty and expensive. What do people see in this place?

However, after dinner we head into town and have a look around; it’s actually very pretty with little back-street restaurants all lit up. On the big harbour wall, there are some of the biggest luxury boats we’ve ever seen (most with British flags). It’s a nice evening as we watch the sun go down.

Dinner tonight: sausages, potatoes. 

St. Tropez sunset

Thursday, 29th May 2003, St. Tropez to Cannes. 25 miles. 23 euros

After a morning walk in the heat, we set sail for Cannes, same old story with the wind – good job we topped up with diesel in Lavandou.

Arrive at Cannes hoping we can get a place; we’ve heard that it can get pretty busy – but we do. Some of our monster yacht friends are here from St. Tropez. I have seen the boat I want (apart from this one and Pippin, of course). – ‘No Escape’ – Dutch and beautiful! They are in the process of packing up the film festival, even though it was 4 days ago.

On chatting to some British Neighbours, we begin to think if our plan to sail blindly to Antibes and hope they have a place for 10 days might be a bit optimistic, so we ask here if they have a place for 10 days – no is the answer.

Better get phoning round tomorrow! Del leaves for England (Clark’s) on Saturday.

Dinner is a meal out, and I have an enormous plate of calamari. Del has a calzone.

Then a walk down the promenade – Cannes is quite beautiful.

Friday, 30th May 2003 Cannes. 18 euros a day (10-day deal)

A phone round of every marina in the area brings a resolute ‘non’ (and one who will phone back). Oh dear. Am I really going to have to move the boat on my own? – It’s bad enough when there’s two of us!

After going to plead with the office here, Del finds out there is a space – we just have to move berths. Phew!.

So I will be stranded in Cannes for 10 days. Ha!

We have a quick sail and re-park and dine in the cockpit.

Steak & lentils with garlic mushrooms.

Saturday, 31st May 2003 Cannes

Del leaves today – Oh no!

Up at 7 to get the 8 o’clock airport bus. I see him off then walk to the station to get my train ticket for tomorrow. I’m going to Monaco to see the Grand Prix!

Back at the boat I just chill out, sunbathe and read etc., and watch the boats go in and out. Maybe we aren’t the worse parkers after all. A boat comes next door and actually hits our hull! Wood on fibreglass, no damage though.

My favourite boat leaves – probably on the way to Monaco.

I wonder if I’m foolishly optimistic at being able to:

1. Get a seat on the train.

2. Get even close to the track tomorrow.

Time will tell.

Poor old Del in Luton, wish he was here with me in the sun watching the superyachts etc., etc.