Fall 2019 Cote d’Azur – Monaco West to Marseille

October 31 – November 20, 2019

Monaco

October 31 – November 2, 2019

Trip to Monaco was overcast with wind on our nose. We kept close to shore due to heavy offshore wind. Torrential rain started shortly after our arrival and lasted for several hours. Found some new warranty issues after the rain 🙂

Visited the usual – casino, opera house, walked up to the old town to see the Prince’s palace, Oceangraphic Museum and cathedral. Overall not impressed with Monaco – too many tourists and bad weather put a damper on this stopover.

Villefranche

November 2 – 3, 2019

Sailed most of the way to Villefranche – an overcast day. Once in the Rade de Villefranche we set anchor and enjoyed a great view of the town. We toyed with staying the night on the hook but due to the overnight forecast of high winds we moved into port. We’ve been plagued with high wind this entire trip. There seems to be no middle ground.

It was a tight squeeze into our slip but we nailed it.

Villefranche is a quaint town rising from the harbour with narrow streets up and down joined by paths. We had a great dinner (and house wine) at Le Serre. A favourite dish of ours on a cool rainy night is the Daube de Maison. The showers at the capitainerie are the best in all Cote d’Azur!

We left the next morning in order to make some headway and beat the bad weather coming our way.

Antibes

November 3 – 4, 2019

It was a short but very unpleasant trip to Antibes. The storm arrived earlier than forecasted and we motored for 2 hours in torrential rain, thunder, lightning and poor visibility. It was a good test of our radar settings (sea and rain clutter).

Fall has definitely arrived and we are having to break out the long underwear and foul weather gear to keep warm.

Antibes is a very large port filled with huge yachts. From a distance we could see Dilbar – a 157m yacht, the largest (by volume) in the world.

We docked in the rain but waters were calm. We toured the town and had dinner at La Casa di Luciano. We made it an early night for an early departure next morning.

Saint-Raphael

November 4 – 6, 2019

Finally a sunny day and lots of wind. We had a good sail down (with our usual 2 reefs) until we rounded the corner to St. Raphael with wind on our nose.

We docked just inside the harbour entrance next to a dive boat which fortunately was not active during our stay.

Next day was overcast with rain and lots of waves inside the harbour. The capitainerie assisted us (with their dinghy) to straighten out our bow laid lines.

We walked into town to get some supplies at the small market and picked up dinner for onboard dining.

Le Lavandou

November 6 – 7, 2019

Heavy wind in the morning made for a difficult exit from St. Raphael. We got the sails up right away and had a good sail down the coast (15 – 20 knot winds). Once we turned west, bigger waves with 30 knot winds made it more sporty. At one point a French fighter jet screamed over at a very low level – cool!

After a long day, we stopped at Le Kilt for a pint and had the best dinner yet at a cozy french restaurant L’Auberge Provencal. Perfect ending to a great day.

Only one night in Le Lavandou to take advantage of a good travel day in between days of bad weather.

Toulon

November 7 – 11, 2019

We motored all the way to Toulon and along the way saw 2 French naval ships (one with its water cannons spraying) and 2 military helicopters. There was a strong military presence as you entered the Toulon harbour. The Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier was in port and could be seen at a distance.

The visitor’s dock at Darse Vielle was damaged due to a bad storm but we were lucky to get a spot on a floating pontoon at the harbour wall right beside the statue of the Sailing Genius. Water was available only a few hours each day due to the storm damage.

We spent 4 nights at Toulon and enjoyed touring the town – market, naval museum, beautiful cathedral, opera house, happy hour at Le Neptunia with the French sailors and we took in a Rugby game watching Toulon tie Montpellier.

Docked in Toulon in front of the Sailing Genius statue

Bandol

November 11 – 15, 2019

It was a good exit from Toulon on November 11, 2019 on an overcast day. We saw the rest of the French Toulon fleet including Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier. Weather was calm until we turned at Cap Cepet and then the sea got rough at Cap Sicie with large waves in all directions. There was not enough wind to sail but we still managed 6-7 knots.

We stern tied at Bandol. The wind at our stern was favourable for our moorage however our neighboring boats were moving wildly so we put on some extra protection.

During our 4 night stay the wind and rain continued. Gusting and changing wind caused additional concern with the neighbouring boats and the setup with our bow line.

We had our first visit from the Doanes (customs). Four officers boarded and checked registration, passports and logs. Fortunately all was in order and they seemed to be more interested in tobacco and large sums of euros.

There was a great flea market at the end of our docks. We cycled to Sanay sur Mer where we found a boucherie providing some great dinner options (Canard l’orange and Daube Maison).

Cassis

November 15 – 16, 2019

We motored all the way to Cassis and stopped at La Ciotat harbour to check out the 143m Sailing Yacht ‘A’ which could be seen from a long way off. West of Ciotat were great rock cliffs at Ile Vert.

The surge was too much to enter the nearby Calanques and there was a huge surge at the entrance to Cassis. Skipper did a great job timing the entrance in between surges. On the way into the harbour we passed a sunken boat that was not so lucky.

We had a nice dinner at Vielle Auberge which was dry and warm as it was cold and pouring rain outside (again). We prepared for departure the next day to Marseille. Calm weather was in the forecast.