Port St Louis to La Ciotat

15/11/2012

We were up early and off before 9 – the deck hand bringing in the fenders for the first time in quite a while!!
We had our course programmed into both the onboard GPS navigator and the new hand held, and did the whole trip on the auto pilot, which behaved itself perfectly.

A sad sight...

After the storm which had us holed up in Port St Louis for a few days there were plenty of large logs to steer round, but it was a new experience to not be at the helm all day, even if we were both ‘on watch’. The swell was pretty low, and any chop caused by the low wind had no effect so J was relieved her tummy behaved during the first sea outing, and Roxy took a while to settle but remained calm throughout.

The steadying sail

At a steady 1400 RPM we were making speeds of between 6.3 and 6.9kts so by 3pm we had rounded the Cap de l’Aigle – a rock headland which looks like an eagle’s beak – and now to dodge the various fishing net buoys in order to make it into the port.

No response over the VHF for a spot so we proceeded in anyway; moorings are stern-to with a lazy-line so required quite a lot of faffing before disembarkation was possible: lower tender, boat hook the lazy line (a heavy chain), find a rope to attach lazy line as this one doesn’t have one, untie passerelle and rig it to boom for craning (repeat last when the pulley broke off the boom – lucky we had a choice of spares!). First ever use of the passerelle, and Roxy was straight off the boat without even blinking – quite a feat of bravery for her!

Casualty – A’s favourite specs got caught in the crossfire while installing the passerelle, but may as well have been steamrollered!

The port for little boats in La Ciotat is not cheap (and we’re out of season) and there are very few conveniences, but the town looks very different to when A was working here regularly. The promenade overlooking the basins is being remodelled, and the Eden Theatre – where the first movie was shown – is being restored.

It was great to catch up with friends from a boat over in the big boys yard, and in the morning we wished we’d have tried our luck over in the yacht club as it was pretty rock and roll! Only problem is the quay is so high over there we’d have had even more trouble getting off the boat!