Friday 30 May 2014 - Vernazzo

We get up fairly early for us at 7:30, with a view to leaving in good time and making a decent passage.  We are a bit stymied by the fact that the office opens at 9:15, almost an hour late!  You would think they would be keener on us paying their exhorbitant fees (of which one third is for port services- eg mooring help, electricity etc).  Finally we pay and we make our way to the fuel pontoon.  Although the fuel gauge has moved off completely full, it is showing only 1/3 of a tank used, whereas we know from the engine hours we have used, it is 40% full.  Our calculation is right, and we put in nearly 90 litres of diesel.  Well at least we now have a full tank.  The weather forecast is for no wind, so we will need it.

We set off in the sun, but it does cloud over from time to time.  We are motoring at over 6 knots.  We are uncertain where to go.  Richard has identified a place called Vernazzo, one of the Cinque Terre villages, built into the hills on the coast.  They have no roads going to them and can only be visited by foot, boat or railway.  The pilot book raves about the place and the Green Guide gives it two stars.  But the problem is that it is a very small harbour and we may not be able to moor anywhere.  But we decide to try.

So just at about lunch time we approach the harbour.  The approach is not propitious.  Firstly we can barely make out where the entrance is.  When we do we can see that the harbour is very tiny indeed, but there appears to be space on a harbour wall referred to in the book at a Mole.  But we are uncertain where to go.  We know that we are supposed to go near the port entrance and moor stern to with our anchor holding the bow.  But Richard thinks he sees laid lines further on and heads for that.  At this point one of the local boat taxi and tour men heads our way and says we have to go where we originally looked.  He then helps and directs us in.  We are making a terrible hash of it.  I have let the anchor down and am feeding out tons of chain in this tiny harbour.  Richard keeps saying it is not enough.  It takes us over half an hour to moor and people on the dock come and help, taking lines, moving small boats out of the way and helping Richard on to the dock.  One helper is an English man who chats to us.  He has a classic wooden boat in England.

So finally we are in.  But we are bouncing all around.  We keep putting more and more lines on.  We have the usual two to the back.  Then we have two to each centre cleat by way of springs.  But we are still snatching and bouncing all over the place.  But we don’t know what else to do.  Also the pilot does say that the harbour is uncomfortable, but worth it.  So to prove that we must get off the boat.

This is our next problem.  We are too far from the wall for me to step ashore.  Richard just manages it, but with a hand from someone on shore.  The boat is moving about so much, that the board is going to be dodgy, but it is the only way.  In the end, we rig the board up to a wooden strip, large enough to step on about 18in from the top of the wall.  The idea is to run across it before the boat jerks out away for the wall.  Somewhat risky, but it seems to work.

So after a quick lunch on sandwiches I made earlier we walk the plank and go ashore.  This is a very beautiful place.  It is a typical multicoloured town perched into the hills right on the sea front.  There are cute little brightly coloured fishing boats on the shore and a cave like structure to walk through to get to a beach.  It is heaving with tourists who mainly come on a big ferry which moors outside the harbour wall.  

We have a walk along the main streets and then up the hill with lots of steps to the castle.  There is a footpath that goes between all the five villages, but that is obviously a major hike.  We see a lot of people properly dressed for hiking who are obviously doing that.  I am not keen to even try the first part, so we give that a miss.

After a good walk around, a drink and an ice cream we decide to go back to the boat.  But I am still feeling rocky.  So I don’t go aboard immediately.  Instead Richard gets me water and a seasick pill, just in case.  I am not certain I want to cook, but the plan is to eat on board, and really the restaurants here are all very touristy.  I do stop in a shop and buy some truffle scented oil.  I hope it is good.  Richard tries the local white wine.  It is pretty bad.

Back on the boat we decide to open a bottle of good red wine (from our trip to Burgundy) and have a few nibbles before dinner.  As we sit in the cockpit having our drink an American couple come and talk to us.  We invite Debbie and Jim on board.  They are fascinating.  They come from Seattle and have sailed a 22 foot boat from there to the South Pacific, via Mexico.  They are really adventurous and tell us all about it.  It sounds amazing, but I am not interested in spending 42 days at sea!  As we chat another American couple stop to chat asking about our boat.  Also a group of French young people come and ask about our flag.  We have had this before.  People do not recognise the Red Ensign as a British flag.  Even experienced sailors like Debbie and Jim didn’t know about the different ensigns and the way the term Union Jack came about.  Funny that.

Richard has tried to make the boat more comfortable.  He has put yet another line on from the bow to the further side of the Mole and has put a snubber on the anchor.  It is a bit better, and that and the pill make me comfortable enough to make dinner.  So we have our duck breast a l’orange and asparagus.  All quite good if I say so myself (the editor agrees).

Now my only worry is how we are going to get out of here tomorrow.  I am convinced that the anchor is fouled.  I let out huge amounts of chain, but I cannot pull any in.  Richard says it is just because of the way we have reversed so far towards the sea wall that the chain is now taut.  We shall see tomorrow.  Now we must just be rocked to sleep.  Oh and by the way, our internet device seems to work here, at least better than it did in Genova or Rapallo.

Thursday 29 May 2014 - Rapallo

I haven’t posted for a few days.  The main problem has been internet access.  In Genova for some reason our internet machine has such poor strength that we could not even get e-mails.  The Marina internet didn’t work at all.  We did get a bit of a signal from a local café where we drank decaf cappuccinos, but again only enough to get a weather forecast and some, but not all e-mails.

Also we were spending two days in Genova doing firstly the tourist stuff and secondly domestic stuff, so not too interesting.  But I will summarise.  On Tuesday we spend all day doing walking tours of the old city.  It is quite a fascinating place.  There are ancient narrow streets which are more like alleyways.  Some are quite slummy and there is a big immigrant population.  But right next to such streets are spectacular 16^th and 17^th century palaces and then further on huge magnificent churches.  So there is quite a contrast.  We went into two of the palaces, which are now museums (for free being over 65!).  The Palazzo Real, which was amazing and it started as a private home, and the Palazzo Spinola, which is now the National Gallery.  The latter was a much more modest sized house, although very elaborately decorated with murals and gilt and lots of Italian art.  But one of the more interesting things we discovered was a roof terrace on the latter.  What was interesting is that from the terrace you could see all the other roofs all containing terraced gardens.  So we learned how the Genovese actually live.

We also had a long walk around the port area.  We found an interesting restaurant recommended in the book where we reserved a table for dinner.  This was a real find.  It was absolutely buzzing.  We were at the front of the restaurant, which was quite small, but dozens and dozens of people kept going out the back to two large rooms to eat.  There must have been about 100 covers at the place that night.  All cooked in a traditional kitchen.  The food was mainly fish.  We had pasta starters, Richard trying the local homemade pesto and me trying another specialty, walnut sauce.  Then we had a huge plate of mixed fried fish, which we couldn’t finish.  One of the nicer meals we have had this trip.

On Wednesday we mainly did laundry, which turned into a major production.  The marina has some laundry facilities, but they comprised one small washing machine (smaller capacity than mine at home) and one dryer.  So we ventured into the old town to find a commercial launderette.  We found one, run by a sweet Somali lady who helped us despite not speaking a word of English and our Italian being terrible.  We managed to wash all the clothes well enough, but couldn’t get her dryer to dry them.  She only had one dryer and after 40 minutes and a queue forming to use it we gave up.  We then went to the marina and used their dryer, which did about half of the laundry.  The rest we just let dry on the boat.  So that took up most of the day, but at least I don’t have to worry about washing for another two weeks.

We ate dinner on the boat.  We started with kirs and nibbles.  One good thing about this place is that they have a large and free supply of ice (rather like an hotel) and we can chill wine and make cocktails!  For our main meal we used up the rest of the Bolognese sauce, putting it on some fresh aubergine stuffed pasta I bought in a local butcher shop. 

So today we left Genova.  We must say we have been pleasantly surprised by our stay here.  If it hadn’t been a convenient place to stop, we probably would never have come here, but we can recommend it.  A very enjoyable stay, and not too dear.  In fact the lady at the marina gave us a 10 euro discount on each night’s mooring, so that was very nice.

We had a late start.  Richard has not been sleeping at all well.  The cold is still keeping him up and he has developed a terrible cough.  We then went to the market to buy a fish for our dinner tonight, which we did.  We set off just before 11:00am.  The sun was shining, but it was not very warm.  The sea has settled down a lot, but it is still a bit lumpy.  The worst is that the wind had gone around again and was on the nose.  So although we put the sail up, we  really couldn’t sail.  The original plan was to go to Portofino.  But when we read the pilot book it sounded like trying to find a berth there would be hopeless.  There is no marina and only 8 visitor bouys.  Richard miscalculated the distance we had to go.  He originally said it was 11 miles to Portofino, but it was more than that, more like 18.  We did go there to have a look, but it was solid with boats, many very large.  We couldn’t work out how to get in the harbour, no less find a place to moor.  So we used plan B and went to Rapallo, only 4 miles across the bay from Portofino. 

This is another sophisticated seaside resort.  We are warned by the books that the cost of the marina here is very high, and it is, but at least we are comfortably and safely ensconced.  We have a walk around the town.  It is quite nice with pedestrian streets and a grand water front, though we can’t actually see any beach!  We do fall into a wonderful looking delicatessen.  We can’t resist and buy up fresh pesto, spicy gorgonzola, ham and special pasta to go with the pesto.  We hope not to starve over the next few days at least.  At least for our money here we are getting internet access.  However, so far, it is only on my I-Pad, so it remains to be seen if we can post this.  We will try to make an early start tomorrow and may make it to Tuscany!

Monday 26 May 2014 - Genova

We had planned to stay in Savona today.  On that basis we got up late, showered and breakfasted and did a bit of shopping.  That was a minor disaster.  I noticed that the local little supermarket sold caffeine free Coke, so R went out to buy it.  Only when he bought 24 cans of the stuff did we realise it wasn’t diet Coke.  So now I have all these cans I don’t want to drink.  Richard says he’ll drink them.  I don’t remember ever seeing full sugar caffeine free Coke before.  We live and learn.

As we are deciding what to do in town we look at the weather and get a bit of a shock.  The sea is predicted to get quite rough over the next two or three days (despite week winds).  They are predicting swells of up to three meters! – caused apparently by gales somewhere nesr Corsica.  We don’t really want to be in Savona, sweet as it is, for that length of time, so we decide to leave at once for Genova, where there will be more to do if we are weather bound.

So we pay up (very reasonable place - do recommend it) and ask them to open the bridge at noon for us to leave.  The weather is odd.  When we start out it is hot and sunny with no wind.  Then clouds start to build up and at one stage we really thought we were going to get rained on.  A huge rain cloud was just over the land, but it never got to the sea.  The wind was mainly on the beam and built up to a force 4, so we did quite a lot of sailing.

The journey took the four and a half hours we expected.  We had to put the engine on to get into harbour as the wind was right behind and had gone down to a force 2.  By this time the sea had started to build a bit and was getting quite rolly so that we were not keen to take the sails down at sea.  Richard decided we could do it in port.  But the problem is that this is a very big commercial port with a lot of ships coming in and out.  As we came in it seemed very quiet with nothing moving in or out, but as we took the main down we had to go into the main channel and then one large liner started leaving and one started to come in.  We really weren’t in the way of either but the water police came up to us and told us off saying that we had to stay right to the northern edge of the channel, both arriving and leaving. 

It is a complicated harbour and I had trouble finding the port where we had reserved as space - Marina Porto Antico (the old port). Richard, of course, had the benefit of the navigation instruments and had read the pilot book avidly and knew exactly where he was going.   Despite my worst fears we finally found it without getting into any more trouble and are directed into a perfectly good mooring.  We hope this will be convenient, as it is all supposed to be close to the old town.

There are a few more technical oddities going on.  First big surprise of the day was that the fuel gauge has finally moved off full!  So it is working up to a point, but we know we have used at least a third of the tank and it is showing us as three quarters full.  So we still have to watch the engine hours and make sure we fill up in good time.

The next peculiarity is my Nike Band.  It is supposed to only record real physical effort.  When I first got it I found that it showed I was exercising even if I just moved my arms about.  In fact it seemed to think I did a lot if I just did the ironing!  They improved that, but now it is recording big numbers when the sea is rocky.  So the other day when I got seasick it showed that I reached fuel of 6900 (as opposed to my goal of 2500) even though I spent most of the day on the bed!  Today it did much the same, so now I have exceeded my goal by 1500!  Perhaps I shouldn’t take much notice of it.

Finally we are finding that the electricity in these Italian marinas has reversed polarity.  Luckily Richard was warned about this and has a plug which tells us if the polarity reverses and he has a special socket to use to put it right.  Has just done that now.

Now all I have to do is find a launderette.  We are overrun with dirty laundry.

Sunday 25 May 2014 - Savona

We thought we would try to make an early start today.  The plan was to go to Finale Ligure, about 24 miles away and going towards Genoa.  The forecast was for no wind, but we put the main up just in case.  But there was no case.  The wind never got up to more than 4 knots.  The sea was glassy.  But the weather was a bit disappointing.  It was quite cool and overcast.  For most of the morning I needed a long-sleeved top and even then I wasn’t overly warm.

As we approached our destination we were going so well we decided to just carry on.  The next place we were recommended to is Savona.  I knew nothing about the place, but the books and a German couple we met said it was well worth a visit.  So we decided to go.  The only problem was that we could not get through to the port on the telephone.  Each of our books gave a different telephone number for the harbour office and none worked.  The most recent book’s number just had a man who kept saying ‘Pronto”- Hello.  Richard decided to go for it anyway on the basis that this is not high season.

We approached the harbour and it did not look very inspiring.  On reading the pilot book I find that this is the 5^th largest commercial port in Italy.  We also can still not make any contact with the port.  We are near enough to call them on the VHF and although I am certain I have the right channel I can get no reply.

The entrance to the old port, the place we want to go, is through a lifting bridge that opens every half hour.  As we approach the bridge, about 15 minutes before it was due to open we see a number of other boats all waiting for the bridge.  I still cannot get hold of the harbour office to see if they have a berth.  I then have a brain wave.  I shout to one of the boats next to us waiting to go through the bridge and find someone on it who can speak some English.  I ask how we get in touch with the harbour to secure a berth.  He tells me I have been calling on the right channel and when I say I can get no reply, he telephones them for us and confirms that they will have a place for us.  The Italians are really charming.

Finally the bridge starts to open and a man from the harbour gestures to us to call him up on the VHF, which I do.  At first he seems to say he does not have space, but after I tell him about the phone call he confirms there is a berth and directs us to it.  He is there as we come in and takes our lines, gives us two lines for the forward chains and connects our electricity.  Again no one could be more charming.

We can now see why this harbour has been recommended.  It is right near the centre of the old town.  It is charming in itself and has all the facilities you could want.  The shower block is just at the end of our pontoon.  So we seem well settled in.  We even celebrate with a cocktail at one of the numerous portside cafes.

I could have made dinner on board, but we decide to go out.  We try to look up restaurants in the Michelin guide but can only find one that would be suitable and is in this part of town.  So we decide to go and look for it and sus out the town a bit.  The old town has a lot of cute streets and many old churches.  We also find that we have just missed a huge Sunday market which appears to have been selling everything from food to clothes and to antiques.  But they are all packing up as we get there.

We do finally find the restaurant only to discover that it seems to have gone out of business!  So we go back to the area around the port where there are lots of restaurants.  All are really touristy, but we chose a fish place right on the harbour front.  The food is OK, but nothing special, but it is nice being out.

We find there is a nice little supermarket right at the end of the marina, which will be useful and note that there are fishing boats at the end of the port that seem to sell off the quay.  Maybe we can buy some fresh fish tomorrow.

Saturday 24 May 2014 - Imperia

As we aren’t going far we sleep in a bit.  The colds have stopped us having a really good sleep.  So we set off at about 10:30 to go to Imperia, a place I never heard of but it is next door to Diano Marina (where we went on a camping holiday about 30 years ago).  The sun is shining brightly and although the air is a bit cool, the weather seems lovely.  The sea has calmed down a lot and the wind is blowing on the beam at about 8 knots when we start out.  The sail isn’t bad, but the little swell there is (about 1metre) is making me feel bad.  So, silly as it seems, I have to take a seasick pill.  I hope the whole of the Med won’t be like this.

We sail for about one and a half hours until the wind dies to pretty much nothing.  We continue to sail for a bit, but when it was getting up to lunch time and we only had 2-4 knots of wind we gave up and motored the last bit.  Before we got to the harbour Richard rang them up and confirmed that we had a space.  The harbour is huge and we really didn’t know where we were going.  I called up the Harbour Office who told us to sail straight on until we saw their men who would direct us into a space.  As we approached the end of the harbour a rib came up with two fellows in it who did indeed direct us to a space and help us tie up.  They then told us that the Harbour office was on the complete other side of the harbour, which is very big.  They asked us to give them the ships documents and they would come back with the bill, an adaptor for the electricity (yes, it has yet another connection!) and a key to the toilet block.  Now we have read about rogue helpers in harbours who are not officially connected with the harbour charging unwitting sailors for help with mooring.  But these men did not take any money from us, but we are still a bit wary.  However all is well.  They are members of the harbour staff and they did exactly what they said.

Our only problem now is getting off the boat!  We are moored stern to, but the dock we are moored to is at least 2 feet above the level of the boat.  This means we have to use our board and it is at a very steep incline to walk up and down to get on and off.  Even Richard is a bit wary of it.  But we manage to use it.  We just won’t do it very often and not after dark!

We have an afternoon walking up the steep hill via numerous staircases to get to the top of the old town.  We follow a little walking tour for a bit and then find a small supermarket to buy a few essentials.

Back to the boat where the sun is still shining and it is nice and warm.  So for the first time this trip we have dinner in the cockpit -  pasta, what else!  We will have a longer trip tomorrow, so will have to get up early. 

Friday 23 May 2014 - San Remo

We are in Italy!  We woke a little late, neither of us sleeping well with this rotten cold.  But the sun is out and the weather forecast is much better.  The wind is in the west for a change, so it will not be on the nose.

We aren’t going far.  We just want to get to San Remo, only 14 miles away.  The sailing conditions are fine.  The wind is behind, so we are on a run, but with a nice constant force 4 we are doing 5-6 knots most of the way.  There is still a bit of a swell, but much much better than it was on Monday or what it looked like from the shore for the past two days.

Richard tried to reserve a place in San Remo.  They have an e-mail system, but it didn’t work.  One e-mail address said that the mailbox was full and the other just didn’t reply.  I guess we will have to get used to Italian inefficiency.  Having said that, it is probably unfair, because they were very organised when we got here.  We were making our way to a mooring just outside the Harbour office when someone came out and directed us to a pontoon where one of the men from the harbour was waiting to show us our space and take our lines. 

The marina is huge and the most expensive so far.  But we were warned that this part of Italy is very expensive.  The showers and toilets are about half a mile away (only one block for this whole place).  But it won’t make much difference for only one night.

We have a walk into the town.  We really want to get set up with phone and internet here in Italy.  So we go to a Vodafone shop and buy me a sim card for my phone.  We cannot just change sim cards for the internet device because they are all locked to work only in one country with one provider.  So we buy another one.  If you can read this Richard has set it up successfully.

We have been lazy other than for our walk into town.  My cold is improving, but Richard is still in a pretty bad way.  So we have our light supper on board and just hole up in the cabin for the evening.  Tomorrow we are not going far, so we can take it easy.

Thursday 22 May 2014 - Menton

We are still in Menton.  As expected the weather forecast is rubbish for Wednesday.  They wind is still in the east and blowing a 5-6.   The waves are forecast at about 2 meters.  So we decide certainly to stay Wednesday night.

We see my colleague Julia for breakfast on board the boat.  The weather is nice in that it is sunny, but it is very breezy.  We then go to her flat.  She has a small one bedroom flat in a lovely late 19^th century villa up the hill and overlooking the sea.  The villa is in a spectacular large garden and the flat has a lovely terrace overlooking the sea and the old town.  As we aren’t going anywhere we stay for lunch.  We tried to get reservations for lunch at the 2 Michelin rosettes restaurant, but not surprisingly they are full.  So we have the day to ourselves. 

After we leave Julia’s we walk along the top boulevard to the old town and walk around.  Richard particularly wanted to come here because his paternal grandparents moved here to live for a couple of years just after the war.  Richard does not know the address where they lived, but he has seen a photo and is looking for the street.  We find one street that has similarities to the photo he remembers, but the chances of it being the right street are very slim.

I like the town.  It is not overdeveloped or shi shi like most of this coast.  There are a number of modern blocks of flats, but the town is dominated by old villas all in lovely colours of pink, orange, and beige.  It has a pleasant beach which appears to have imported sand and the town has a good market, supermarket and all the standard shops.  Not a bad place to be weather bound.

As the day goes on the wind grows and it is quite lively even in the harbour.  All the boats and mooring lines are making strange noises.  Richard puts on another couple of lines, but we are still rocking and snatching quite a lot.

We have not been able to connect to the electricity on this pontoon.  We try to get an adaptor, but the harbour office can only rewire our connection and R is not keen. In the end we have to buy yet another adaptor.  How many different connections can there be!  We have also got the marina to print out the Italian translation of our insurance policy, so that is sorted out.

Another reason for staying put is that neither of us is well.  When we got to Oslo we found that Colin and Eva had just come down with really awful feverish colds.  It was inevitable that we would catch them and so we have.  Mine started on Monday.  Richard has been in denial, but now admits his is bad too.  So we have a simple supper on the boat and go to bed early.

Thursday morning brings no improvement in the weather.  If anything it is worse.  The boat is still rocking around.  So we are here for at least another day.  We have a leisurely morning and then make our way into town to do a few errands.  The most important thing is to sort out our euro credit card which is maxed out because we paid for our winter storage and repairs on it.  We have little success because apparently we cannot pay it off early.  In the end all the bank does is let us take out 2000 euros in cash to use over the next two weeks.

We are just on the boat for the day.  The weather gets worse and worse.  We have a huge hailstorm followed by torrential rain.

The weather looks better for tomorrow so we hope to make it to Italy.  But to make sure we see something of Italy soon, we book dinner in a smart restaurant just over the boarder.  It is supposed to be only a 15 walk from here, but we have a disaster getting there.  Richard uses Apple maps which takes us up a steep hill only to find that the restaurant is 200 feet below us!  So we have a strenuous one hour walk to get to dinner.  This is the second time Apple maps have let us down.  I will ask R not to use them in future.  After we settle in we do have a lovely, all fish, tasting dinner.  When we leave a persistent drizzle has set in.  We hope it will improve.

Tuesday 20 May 2014 - Menton

Well we made it back from Norway yesterday.  All went to plan.  In the end we hired a car so we can re-provision easily.  The only problem is that the weather is rubbish.  We left Oslo in the sun and it was warm.  We arrive in Nice and it is only 16 degrees and it is raining.  Also the wind forecast is dreadful.  They are talking about 7’s and 8’s and worse than that it will be on the nose.  So it may be that we will have to stay here in St Laurent for another day, dull though that will be.

As the day on Monday goes on the wind builds and builds.  It is blowing a 6 steadily in the marina and the boat is moving all over the place.  But when we got up this morning, the sun was poking through and the wind seemed to have gone.  The posted weather forecast is still poor.  They are now only predicting 5-6, which would be fine if it wasn’t on the nose.  But we decide to go anyway.  Richard returns the car to the airport.  He hit lucky with parking.  He could not make any of the machines take cards or cash for the 20 Euro parking, so they just let him out without paying.

Although the wind is on the nose to go straight to our destination, Menton, we have to tack out anyway to dump the tank.  So we are having quite a good sail.  It is a beat, but we are going smoothly and making nearly 7 knots.  The sea is a bit lumpy.  The high winds have churned it up, but as I said, it isn’t bad sailing.  It starts out at a 4, but is steadily builds.  So we take in a couple of reefs to be on the safe side.  Richard would like us to stop for the night on anchor in Villefranche.  It is supposed to be beautiful and would be protected from the wind out of the east, sitting behind Cap Ferrat.  We start to go in, but I am anxious to make it to Menton, so we carry on.

This could have been a mistake.  We decided to stop sailing because if we have to take all the way to Menton we won’t get there until very late.  So we take the genoa in and motor straight into the wind and the waves.  Now it is so rocky that I can’t take it.  It only takes about 30 minutes for me to start to feel funny.  I take a pill and when that doesn’t help much I retreat below.  But even there I feel rotten.  I manage not to be sick, but it is a very close thing.  It is those short waves here in the Med that get to me. 

It is a terrible shame about the wind.  It is a lovely sailing wind to Menton, being 4-5, but as I said straight on the nose and into a very short lumpy sea that makes the boat corkscrew all the way.

I want to get up to help Richard into port, but the sea doesn’t seem to flatten out.  Suddenly I see a huge concrete wall outside the window and realise that despite the rocking we must be nearly in port.  So I rush up on deck and find we are approaching the harbour entrance, but it is still too rocky to take the mainsail fully in or set the fenders.  I take over from Richard doing the deck work when we actually are in the harbour in flat water.  Then we tie alongside to the fuel pontoon to get berthing instructions.  It is now very nice out.  Sunny and the wind has dropped here in the harbour.  We are allocated a nice berth, with the shower block just at the end of our pontoon.

We have paid for only one night, but we will probably stay a second night.  The wind is expected to be a 6 on the nose again tomorrow and I can’t face that.  We got in so late and so tired that we have barely seen the town and for a change we are in a place, here on the south coast of France, where we have never been before.  Finally, a colleague of mine who has a flat here got in touch.  We are having breakfast with her in the morning here on the boat, and shall probably stay.  But we shall see what the weather brings.

One more problem.  Next stop is Italy and Richard has only just realised that we have to have an Italian translation of our insurance policy ready for inspection at any time, or the boat will be detained until we get one.  He has e-mailed the insurance company and they have e-mailed the translation to us, but we want to get it printed before we enter Italian waters.  Another good reason for not leaving until Thursday.

Wednesday 14 May 2014 - St Laurent du Var - day 2

Today is a purely domestic day getting ready to leave for Norway tomorrow.  We get up leisurely, have showers and then breakfast finishing in time for the electrician to come.  He shows up just on time and gets to work.  He checks all the connections to the fuel gauge and concludes that it is the float that has failed and we need a replacement.  Unfortunately he does not have one and he is going away tomorrow for a family party and won’t be back until we are planning to leave here.  So the repair will have to wait for another port.  At least we are now sure what is wrong with it.

However, he does fix the light gauge on the holding tank.  It too was the float, but it was just all calcified and needed to be cleaned off.  It is now working, but we realise it is filling up faster than we thought and we have to me more careful about using it while we are here in port.

So repairs done we decide to get the laundry done.  I will take a few things to wash in Oslo, but the bulk of the laundry including the linens, towels and underwear need to be done here.  The weather is nice, sunny and not too warm, so we make ready to cycle into town to the launderette.  I am able to pack all we must wash into the saddle bag and one back pack, which Richard will carry, because he doesn’t want me to cycle with extra weight. 

So, off we set.  There is an excellent cycle path right past the marina and towards the town.  It is completely separate from the cars and traffic and even in my very wobbly state of cycling I can manage it.  However, the path does not actually go into the town, just bypassing it on the coast road.  Also to get to the town we have to cross the highway and the railway track.  The only way we can see to do that is to climb up two bridges with stairs.  To do this we have to carry our bikes!  That is my exercise for the day.  When we get into the town I am unwilling to continue to cycle.  There are just city streets, not wide with quite a lot of traffic.  So we wind up walking our bikes nearly as far as we have ridden them.

We finally get to the launderette and I do two loads, which will keep us going for another 2-3 weeks.  While I am doing laundry Richard tries to find another way back where I can cycle more.  He identifies a small road running parallel to the one was walked up in the centre of the town.  He thinks it may be much more quiet and I could cycle down it.  So we try that.  At first I am not keen to ride on the road.  It had no cycle lane and there are cars parked on the side of the road.  It is also on a slope down, which worries me.  But after a while the traffic thins out to just the occasional car and the road flattens out.  So I decide to be brave and get on the bike to cycle down.  I start out quite well, but after a bit the road gets a bit steeper and some cars start to follow me.  I then panic.  I really feel out of control and decide I must stop.  But for some reason I don’t stop properly and next thing I know I am on the ground and have ridden into a parked car!  I am OK, but I do have scrapes on my knees and forearm.  The car seems to be fine and the driver, who was inside is more worried about me.  So up I get and now I won’t get on the bike until we are back on the proper cycle path.  We do manage to find a way under the highway and railway track which means I do not have to carry the bike up and down stairs, but that path does not take us direct to the cycle path road.  Finally we get to the cycle path and using all my nerve I get back on the bike and manage to cycle back to the marina without further incident.  I am not sure I am ever going to be able to cycle on roads, but we shall see. 

Having made it back to the boat I clean myself up and put antiseptic cream on the worst of the scrapes (which is really just my forearm).  I am now ready for a stiff drink!  So we go the restaurant just across from the boat, which seems quite popular.  We finally wind up ordering a 50cl carafe of Cotes de Province rose.  They serve it automatically with water and ice cubes, which makes it drinkable, and is what I need.  We have a simple lunch and I am feeling better.

Richard checks us in to our flight.  The restaurant is supposed to have free WIFI, but the signal is so weak that it doesn’t extend to the tables out front!  We later try with out booster aerial but that doesn’t seem to do much either.  In fact we have had no luck with it all trip.  We will take it to Oslo and see if Colin can make it work better.  The marina office kindly prints off our boarding passes so we are ready to go.

This evening we have packed our bags and eaten in.  I have cleaned out all the perishable food from the fridge, so things are looking ready to go.  I won’t post while we are away, so will be in touch next Tuesday.

Tuesday 13 May 2014 - St Laurent du Var

So up at a reasonable time.  My weight is still terrible even after a fasting day. 

We decide to try the nice looking shower facilities here at the port.  They have little self contained bathrooms.  Unluckily the one I chose seems to have a problem.  The shower is only a dribble and the water is ice cold.  So I have to go to Richard’s cubicle which is just fine.  Then Richard goes off to the bakery to get breakfast.   Despite my dreadful weight we decide to have a French breakfast of croissants and bread.  We have only had one other this trip so far. 

Now that breakfast is over it is time to think about moving on.  I am still worried about the boat in front of us, but that problem is quickly solved when we see them go out on a cruise with what looks like a class of school children.  So we slip our mooring easily and off we go.  As we leave the port the wooden gaffer is just on its way back, so we timed our departure well.

Again the winds are very light, but we only have about 6 miles to go.  So we put up the sails and make a gentle pace out to sea for three miles to dump the holding tank and make an appropriate tack to take us to port St Laurent where we have booked a berth for a week while we go to Oslo.  We are sedately going along at about 3knots until we go about.  We are always better on port tack and we are now more on a reach so we are up to 5 knots.  The sun is shinning brightly, although it is not that warm.  But we have a pleasant sail to the port.  We can just make out the Alps.  I forgot to mention in my last posting that yesterday it was absolutely clear and we had a wonderful view of snow capped Alpine peaks.  Today is not so clear, but still nice.

As we travel along there is another weather update on the radio.  They are now forecasting a gale for this afternoon.  It is just as well that we will be in port long before that.  We arrive at the harbour just after 1:30 and moor at the welcome pontoon in front of the harbour office.  None of the ladies Richard dealt with in making our reservation are there (it being lunchtime) and it takes the men there over half an hour to work out that we have booked and are due to stay for a week.  Eventually they find our details and assign us a berth.  It is a good spot right near the toilets and the harbour office and all the other facilities.  There is not much here.  No shops, bakeries or launderette.  We shall have to go in to town for all of that, which is about 2 km away.  But Richard does a recce and finds that there is an excellent bicycle path right into town, so it looks like I will be on the bike tomorrow to do the laundry.

We can’t hook up to the electricity on this pontoon and the marina does not provide free adaptors.  So Richard goes off to the chandlery to buy an adaptor, which we will probably not use again.  This place is really quite expensive.  This trip to Oslo is getting to be a rather bigger deal than originally envisioned.  I sit out in the cockpit reading a book.  It is really hot and sunny, but I can see really dark clouds coming.  At about 4:00pm the storm arrives.  The wind gets up.  It is blowing 33 knots here in the marina, so it must be bad at sea.  Just as well we are tucked up safe and sound.  It also starts to rain.  Just showers, but it is quite cool and blustery.  This is the first rain we have seen so I guess we can’t complain too much.  I hope it gets better for tomorrow when I have to get out on the bike!

When the weather has calmed down a bit we take a walk around the marina.  The edge is just filled with restaurants and bars.  We first go back to the chandlery.  They arrange for an electrician to come and see us tomorrow to look at our fuel gauge and the gauge on the holding tank, neither of which is reading properly.  He will come tomorrow morning.  He can only help if the problem is electrical. We shall see.  On the way back we stop for a drink at one of the bars.  We seem to have hit the right spot.  All the locals are here including the staff from the chandlery.  Back to the boat and cook dinner on board. 

Now trying hard to keep our eyes open.  We haven’t done much today, but we are both tired.