10.00 start into a beautifully calm day, which is actually warm without the mistral blowing.
We overtook a tug towing a dredger - quite a rarity for us to be overtaking anyone, and it felt good!
Although the Calanques are past Cassis on our journey, the capitainarie had assured us a spot would be kept until 6pm, so we trundled past, excited to experience these natural wonders for the first time, pulling into the Calanque d'en Vau behind one of the notoriously frequent tripper boats.
Still, they tripped off before long, leaving us plenty of space to moor to one of the buoys outlining the authorised mooring zone by 12.30. The beach was surprisingly packed, until we remind ourselves it's the weekend and toasty for October, so it all starts to make sense.
We were shortly followed into the mooring by a speed boat called Elton, who dropped their anchor worryingly close to ours, and proceeded to cast a line, despite the obvious 'no fishing' signs. Not a language barrier issue, and to top it off, the fisher tipped a bucket of small, dead fish overboard on departure. Humans & fish - nil, Gulls - result!
After sarnies on the fly bridge, A launched the paddle board, before donning his wetsuit (Mr Rubber-rubber to his friends - sorry, but if it sits here long enough, J will name it; it even has a theme tune!) for a swim, boat hull inspection in the incredibly clear waters, and a bit of snorkeling. J doesn't yet have a wetsuit, and refused A's kind offer of a loan, so stood lookout against other visitors on the water - which included scullers, paddle boarders, divers and, of course, more tripper boats. Roxy literally paced the decks, ensuring all knew exactly where A was at all times.
And here's a wee challenge for y'all: how many nutters, I mean climbers, are in this photo?! Answers in comments, please, and the first to get it right wins a kiss from Roxy - you gotta come and get it, she doesn't deliver!
At 2.45 the sun had moved over and we were no longer warm, so we weighed anchor and retraced to Cassis, where we were asked to wait on the fuel quay for a port agent to accompany us to our spot; slight issue, as the fuel quay was occupied, and the occupant was unmanned, so we trod water for a while before our guide arrived, and led us to quite literally the tightest mooring maneuver required so far. Of course A aced it, and got a respectful thumbs up and bravo from the agent. Some later arrivals got disparaging 'oh-la-las' on their skills, with one needing a tow, and another simply needing a larger space. Useable mooring space size is inversely proportionate to one's driving skills, apparently.
All tied on at 3.30 we headed off into lovely Cassis, to find not one blade of grass openly accessible to dogs, and on asking a local dog owner for directions she took us to an alleyway with little grass, but a huge no dogs allowed sign! Oh dear, poor Roxy...
But Cassis does have the most beautifiul carousel EVER:
A bit of a downer, but we had a disastrous meal out at a restaurant run by an accomplished false advertiser, with a huge billboard offering all sorts of moules for 9.90€ per kilo - the sort of advertising to enchant J, who is an accomplished Moules-Frites tester, with years of experience behind her.
As it turned out, the small print said 'from' 9.90€, with marinière - the classic - at 15.90€, and the only choice at 9.90€ was simply steamed. Of the 'kilo' served - take your word for it, we hadn't brought the scales - about 40% of the shells were empty; they can fall out during cooking and be waiting in the delicious juice, except all J found in the juice were clumps of barnacles, and some sort of unidentifiable piece of sea scuzz... Minging.
They took the complaint on the chin, and we were not charged for the moules, but on departure our waitress asked if we had received satisfaction, and was surprised at our positive response, as "usually the director couldn't care less!". Hmmm, looks like we had a lucky escape - both with the bill (although 10€ a pint is Monaco pricing), and the lack of food poisoning!
The next day the weather remained beautifully clear, and we strolled back to check out Port-Miou, and also observe a rock formation reminiscent (to J) of an Independence Day spaceship crash.
Although Cassis is famous for it's wine, somehow we forgot to buy any :-( Next time!!
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