The port fuel tank was leaking diesel from the seal which made me feel pretty nauseous. We changed our course to make it slightly more comfortable, although it would add time to the trip and delay our arrival in Canet. The wind and swell slowly abated ..until it was hot and calm again. At the half way point, Predict Wind ( a so-far accurate weather information program that used computer modeling to predict weather in the area you were interested in transiting), showed that there would be wind on the nose again if we continued overnight to arrive in Canet, as a Tramontane was building. Plan B was to change course to the Porquerolles with another early start to make the anchorage in Sormiou before the proverbial S hit the Fan. Plan B it was!
I was on watch in the cockpit late morning when I noticed a Dove flying towards us. It looked tired, and did 2 big loops around before trying a landing on the main sail bag. It took 3 more attempts, then finally landed and hung out (thankfully only one small “accident” ) for the next 7 hours.
Other than the Dove, I saw 2 turtles and a pair of porpoise (porpie?. The arrival at sunset in the Porquerolles was splendid, with a brilliant sunset and calm (uncrowded too!), anchorage.
We made a tuna curry and called it a night early.
The next morning we were off the hook at day break and enjoyed a comfortable sail in light breeze. The boat was a real pleasure to sail in fair (and less than fair) conditions, and it brought smiles to our faces to be sailing along at 7 knots in a light southerly breeze. This fizzled as predicted and we motored the last 2 hours in order to get in early enough for a decent spot in the anchorage at Sormiou. The wind would be turning to a Mistral (basically another strong wind from a slightly different angle), that afternoon for a few hours before backing to the Tramontane. The anchor reset when the first strong gusts occurred but we stayed put after that. Between boat clean up after the passage and watching the completely packed tripper boats that were making a constant stream of traffic in and out of the Calanque, we had swims and naps.
The usual brightness was present the next day and local fisherman were setting up fishing buoys in the bay (which was a designated no fishing zone on the chart), as the conditions outside were very rough in the high winds. Another example of the French “Do as you wish” attitude. By late morning the wind had dropped to 15 knots so we decided to head up to some islands off of Marseille (Isl Pomegues), and get a look at Chateau d’lf (of “The Count of Monte Cristo” fame, a favorite movie of mine). As is to be expected any anchorage close to a large city will be busy. We finally found a spot to anchor for lunch and enjoyed a few hours dining in leisurely fashion in the cockpit watching all the activity. Things got very busy in the early afternoon with boats dragging and near collisions, as new arrivals tried to squeeze in as this was the best anchorage for protection from the current wind direction. After deploying fender’s and shortening scope, we decided to return to Sormiou as chances of being able to rest well here were slim to none. It was a lumpy sail back until we got behind the island off of Sormiou and that flattened the sea’s considerably. We found another spot to get the anchor down,(I was becoming quite fond of Sormiou by now) and settled back in for the next few days while the Tramontane blew. Another boat anchored too close to us (by our standards), and soon drifted to within 10 feet of our stern. The owners went below as soon as they anchored so there was no chance to discuss the situation. It was too windy by now for us to re anchor,with gusts in the high 30’s so we spent a restless night monitoring the situation and tracking our “swing path” on the GPS. By 9 am the wind had decreased enough that we went ahead and re anchored anyway. 10 minutes later, the other boat left, Ce la vie! We charged via generator and made water (the Port tank was bad again after the rough sail yesterday), and noted the solar was coming on and off after we ran the generator, (but at least it was coming on-line sooner), and watched the water temperature slowly decrease to 62 degree’s. Yikes, its warmer in Canada!