Adventures of Thésée: Nearing the border and the Gulf of Lion

Friday 16th August... Spent the morning weather predicting. It's worse than trying to predict UK weather. The marina we are in is fairly cheap compared to what's coming up and we don't really want to get stuck in an expensive place for days on end. It's high season prices at the moment and some charge over 100 euros per night. On the other hand we still want to plod on and get to the border. Anchorages are out of the question at the moment on this coast with the south westerly winds. It's really quite a headache and we now look back on the good old days of Solent prices (that we used to think were expensive). The wind really blew up this afternoon and so we decided to stay another night. Thing is we don't know when we'll be able to go for it. The marina is not very protected and we are rock and rolling along with all the other boats here, so it's no use asking to move to another berth either. Let's see what tomorrow brings...

Saturday 17th August... Well, we took the bull by the horns and got up at 5am having decided to do a quick departure at 6am. There was a bit of a weather window this morning although we wanted to do a 70 mile trip to L'Estartit and it would take about 10-12 hours. By the time we would arrive the wind forecast was 25mph gusts, but we would be going with the wind so it wouldn't be too bad and the sea state forecast was only about 0.5m so pretty good.

It was still dark when we left the marina but not too long before daybreak. We'd done a lot of homework for the planned journey with about four marinas and a number of anchorages to divert to if the wind blew up too much. All was very calm and after about an hour we put the cruising chute up.

First signs of morning

Here comes the sun

Beautifully peaceful sailing with the cruising chute

It worked well for a while but after an hour or two we took it down because of no wind at all, so we motored until noon. By this time we were passing Blanes. The coastline is spectacular with coves and villages everywhere against a mountainous background. At 1pm we passed Sant Feliu de Guixols and it was crazy busy with boats of all descriptions going in and out of the harbour, and out at sea. There were so many boats around, the sea got real lumpy and we were quite surprised by how mad it all was. Then we realised it was Saturday afternoon, busiest time of the week.

All was still well and the wind picked up a little, so we rolled out the Genoa and switched the engine off. There was no reason not to keep going as everything was fine. From there we passed Palamos and then took the passage between the mainland and the Islas Hormigas (Formigues) along with a number of other boats.

Navigating the 'Freu de las Hormigas' channel

Think this was the lighthouse at Cabo de San Sebastian

About to pass Cabo Negre

Fabulous coves and anchorages.... when it's calm of course

With only about two hours to go the wind gradually built but Thesee was going great, and it was only when we had about 7 miles to go that it got really really windy, at one point coming across the bay Dean saw 32 knots but on the whole it was around 25 knots.

'Vessel Finder' website shows today's track... 70 miles

A big step towards the border

...and 'Windy' website showing the 25 knot gusts

.... typically almost the only spot in the western med!

Eventually we arrived at the marina. It was so busy with boats coming and going. Are they mad? Going out in this weather? Some were tourist boats and dive boats, and also a lot of small power boats. Anyway it was a bit like dodgem cars, and we had to berth in windy conditions. It wasn't easy but we made it without incident and we were on a high, reaching our planned destination and all being well. L'Estartit looks really pleasant and we are both looking forward to having a look around the place.

Sunday 18th August... Was in bed early last night completely exhausted, Dean stayed up for a while and finished off yet another book. He's already looking for a book swap shop. Yesterday when we were sailing he decided to take action on his hurting foot. He stuck a needle in his man blister to release the nice yellow liquid which gave him almost instant relief from the pain he's been in for a couple of days. You really would not believe the difference in his demeanour from one second to the next!

Dean's bandaged blister toe with one sock to keep in place

So late morning we strolled around the lovely harbour and seafront with lots of shops, bars, and restaurants. There's a couple of chandlery type places but mainly selling fishing tackle really. Dean's looking for some 8mm dynema to replace the line which snapped on the boom vang the other day but could not find any. L'Estartit is a busy harbour but doesn't really have much in the way of boat maintenance supplies. It's mainly diving accessories as there are a couple of small islands about half a mile off the coast called Islas Medes and it's obviously a popular tourist attraction for snorkelling, scuba diving, glass bottom boats and so on.

We carried on walking through the pleasant streets and was amazed to find everything open, even the Tourist Office (unheard of on a Sunday). There were some market stalls around the Church Square, and it was an interesting change to see sweets, dolls, bread, instead of clothes, material, and phone cases.

Esglesia de Santa Anna

Church square

Do you have any dolls for sale?

The sweet shop

Clever attraction to have a pirate in the doorway

On the way back we stopped in the Club Nautico for a very nice coffee then strolled back to the boat. By this time the wind was getting pretty strong and arriving at Thesee we could see a crowd gathering a few boats down. Turns out there was a Catamaran stuck against the bows of a couple of boats, we think he had a buoy line caught round his prop when trying to berth. Eventually two marinero ribs had to pull him off against the wind and then he was able to moor across the other side of the entrance.

The catamaran being towed sideways by the marineros

Looking the other way from Thesee's bow

While all this was going on there was a large motor boat trying to moor next to us, and the marineros were shouting at him to go away and wait for them to help, which they did once the Catamaran had been dealt with after about half an hour. We were on guard with our fenders as he had a dinghy on the back with his outboard motor sticking right out towards Thesee. That would have made a lovely long line of scratches down our hull, only we needn't have worried because although it was touch and go he finally got in OK without any issues.

Early evening walkies

Very calm here right now

Soft-top classic

Our Owl and Pussycat lantern

Monday 19th August…. We want to stay here a couple more days, and were just working it all out (and Dean washing the decks) when a marinero came and asked if we were leaving today. A big catamaran came in last night and we are in half of his berth it seems. So in order to stay longer we have to annoyingly move places. The marineros came to help us about 11.30am. We were only moving about four places down the row….into a space just about big enough for a sausage! Next to a nice big brand new looking fancy white catamaran. No pressure Dean. It wasn’t an easy manoeuvre with a bit of wind and the infamous buoy lines at the bow. We made it second attempt with only a minor blemish to the ‘nice big brand new looking fancy white catamaran’.

We settled in, had a snack, and then went for a little explore up around the back of town. Dean thinks he has been here before on a diving holiday, many many moons ago. He keeps trying to identify places and seems to remember a set of very steep steps near to his hotel. The only thing he definitely remembers is that he had the best chilli-con-carne ever! It wasn’t long before we found ourselves near a campsite a little way up the hill. It looked great but ‘No perros allowed’ as always.

At the campsite entrance....looks great

Long distance views for the posh homes

Looking up to the top of the rock

Feels like Canada

Are these your steps Dean?

We carried on walking the streets with lovely homes and big garages, ending up at St Anne’s Fountain where Saffy was glad of a drink of Holy water. Well almost… there was a Holy picture on the wall.

The good old days of hand washing in the font

Saffy's Holy picture

More Holy water please

After all this excitement we arrived back at the beach front. It appears they must have a bit of a sandstorm most afternoons, and I had forgotten my sunglasses. We diverted to a pretty looking café for a well-deserved beer and ice-lolly.

Nice grass but not for perros

Who drank all the beer?

We had found out that there was a Spanish Guitar Concert on in the Church this evening and Dean was keen to go along. Not really a concert, but a soloist. So later on we went along, stopping for a rum and coke first along the way. The concert started at 9pm and we were in the front row. There were only about 50 people watching and it lasted for an hour. The guitarist was Tono Blasi and he played about 10 tunes including ‘The Blue Danube’ and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. It was quite pleasant, and definitely an unusual thing for us to do. On the way home we took advantage of not having Saffy with us, and went into a small Art Gallery for a look around. What a very cultural evening.

Quick drinkies before the concert

Ready and waiting inside the Church

Here's Tono doing his thing

Tuesday 20th August... Today we had a walk up the big hill towards seawards. The Tramonta has set in from the North but here in Estartit bay it's really protected and you wouldn't even know anything was going on out there. It was quite a climb, and it's still warm although very cloudy today. We haven't been on a ramble for ages and i think Saffy enjoyed it as much as we did. Still we didn't walk too far, just to the cliff top to get the views.

Overlooking the Islas Medes from half way up our climb

Now views back down towards the marina

Linda, put your finger on Thesee

Dean dreaming of when he can next get out there

Looking down towards where we were the other night

Saffy scrambling

Our neighbours have rented a car for a couple of days and gone off to Andorra. We did think about it too, but decided against in the end. Some good news from yesterday that i forgot to tell about. Dean could feel something rough on Saffy's poorly foot and under the magnifying glass with his tweezers he managed to extract half a seed from Saffy's wound. Wow, it was a breakthrough indeed. We could not believe it. The seed must have been over half a centimetre long. Unfortunately Dean had washed it down the sink before i could get a photo. Oh well, at least it's good for Saffy and i hope her wound will finally be able to heal now. We're just off for ice cream now, so must hurry.....

Wednesday 21st August…. Still waiting for the weather to calm down around the next couple of headlands. Dean is eager to go straight across the Gulf of Lion but I’m not too happy about that and would prefer the coastal route although it will take longer. It seems we will be moving on early Friday morning.

It a lovely sunny day again here after the cloudy one yesterday. It sometimes gets a little chilly overnight so I decided to put the quilt back into its cover and now we’re nice and cosy again. Dean has been very busy today fitting one of the new leather wheel covers. First he had to unstitch and remove the old cover. Putting the new one on was a real fiddly job, sewing it all together neatly, and the skin on his fingertips is wearing thin along with his patience.

Attaching some sticky tape

Now the new wheel cover

Ready to start stitching

Here goes, he's made a very neat start

....and just about finished after about 6 hours from old to new

....it has to be perfect of course

Thursday 22nd August... Not much going on here today. Had a walk to the Spar shop for a few essentials this morning then a bit of cooking.... The excitement of the day was the beer and coke delivery from the marina shop. That's a first for Thesee, we might as well make use of the service on offer.

How many Rum and Cokes there?

We'll be moving on from here in the morning, destination France but we're not sure of the exact destination as yet. So if it's a long day i may have to skip the blog. Stay tuned...

Friday 23rd August…. After six days here in L’Estartit we departed at 7am, destination France. We spent an hour or so motorsailing up the coast past Bahia de Roses. Plan A was to get to Cap d’Agde before nightfall, about 80 miles up the coast. It’s a long way around the Gulf of Lion and we weren’t really looking forward to the trek and at least three days worth of motoring and high priced marinas (again).

A few minutes out of L'Estartit and the sun's up

All three sails trying to catch the wind

By the time we were level with Cap Creus we had a good sailing heading north west. We debated whether to tack and keep heading to Cap d’Agde or whether we should just carry on as we were and head straight across the Gulf of Lion to Marseille. We knew there was no bad weather predicted and that we would have to motorsail for some of the way due to lack of wind. Weighing it all up we decided to go for it and carry on towards Marseille. It would be an overnight trip but that’s worth doing to be in Marseille by tomorrow morning.

There were a few boats around for a couple of hours but eventually we found ourselves alone out there. That was until we saw two whales! Our first whale sighting since we left UK. At first we thought they were dolphins but soon realised they were swimming far too slowly. It looked as though they had all the time in the world. They weren’t very big whales but we were so excited to see them. After that we saw loads of dolphins here and there, some small bits of rubbish too. We found that we had been giving a free ride to an emigrating dragonfly that stayed with us all the way across to France.

So difficult to take a good photo of the whales

That's a better one

Now the stowaway dragonfly sitting on the hydrovane line

Here he is hanging on to Dean's new wheel cover

The day passed by and we lower the Spanish Ensign and raised the French one. Trying to remember the French phrases we would need again, we had a little practise. For example Saffy Perro is now Saffy Chien. Think i like Saffy Perro best.

In French waters now raising the ensign.... Bonjour

Adios Spain, your ensign is almost in tatters

Chartplotter screenshot of our position and heading

...and so to bed, the sun has been with us all day long

By 10pm we were in darkness and probably about half way across the gulf. We try to take it in turns keeping watch but neither of got very much rest as there were a fair few ship’s lights around and we kept an eye on the AIS screen as it was playing up a little. So the dark hours passed pretty quickly with so much to keep us busy. Strangely I thought there would be no ships at that time in the morning but there were quite a few really. One cargo ship in particular we had to keep out of the way as it was coming towards us, but all was fine. It’s a bit mind boggling trying to work it all out in the darkness. The binoculars were put to some good use, plus it seemed to be getting a bit misty which adds to the pressure.

Saturday 24th August... We had been watching ship's lights around us all night long including on the AIS and radar screens, also one that was supposed to be there but actually wasn't.... too wierd !! So we thought we had finally seen the last two go into Marseille, and Dean went for a rest. That didn't last long because 20 minutes later i was getting him up when two cruise ships appeared coming from different directions and heading into Marseilles like us. We only had about 90 minutes until our destination so the time passed quickly keeping an eye on 'Costa Fortuna' (funny name for a cruise ship), and the other one which I've forgotten the name of already.

Morning had broken and we made our way into Marseille Vieux Port hoping to find a berth. We arrived at the SNM waiting pontoon and Dean quickly took Saffy for a pee (24 hours worth), then we found out they had no space for us. But at least Saffy was happy now.

Daybreak approaching Marseille

At the Iles du Frioul

This is Ile d'If

Now in the Vieux Port looking for a berth

It's chockablock

Some nice views though

Very nice place up there, the Palais du Pharo

... and the Church of Notre Dame de la Garde

We had a quick coffee and then headed back out of port and just across the way to Iles du Frioul where they had a big marina and space for us. We arrived and were really impressed. There was lots of room to manoevre and the marinero was very helpful. This is another new way of berthing for us. You have to reverse into the space, and put a line through a buoy at the bow. Similar to L'Estartit but using your own line, not theirs.

We're really impressed with the place considering it's just a marina on a big rock. Now we're here there's more to it than it first appeared with good pathways all around, so pleasant walks and views. It's so hot today, and i had to have three naps to feel almost human again. The downside is the toilets and showers are dreadful, but at 60 euros a night we can cope with using our own onboard. Even though we like it here we are planning to carry on tomorrow and try to find some anchorages along the coastline.