From The Golfe De St Tropez To Port Napoleon And Back To Beauvallon.

We had a very bad storm with 54 kn wind and I sat it out by anchoring close to Port Grimaud to reduce the fetch (distance from a point where the wind and waves can build up unhindered) as much as possible. In fact 54 kn wind is only 10 kn below Hurricane Force and it is well inside the scary zone. Many yachts, even the very large once in the 150-250' range were dragging and had to reset their anchors. I had 70 m chain out on 11 m  dept and held OK, but not much sleep for two nights and a day.

This is how the Tricolour courtesy flag looked after the storm. Guess I need a new one soon.

St Tropez town seen as I sailed out of the Bay to get to Port Napoleon.

As there were two bad weather systems, one just to the East and the other to my West, I stopped in the Bay of Bandol for two nights to see the systems disappear. They had severe thunder storms to my East and huge rain and thunder storm. I only received a bit of rain and a mixture of clouds and some wind, but had a lot of thunder rumbling during my stay in the Bay. But the Bay is a rolling place to be at anchor, so still not much sleep.

In Bandol Bay.

Paul Richard (Pastis) bough a couple of islands along the French south coast. The below one is in Bandol and the company run it as a luxurious resort/Hotel.

I have passed this place many times, but have never found out what this huge construction is all about. It is build at the foot of the rock, with no apparent access, unless there is a tunnel through the mountain. It looks strange and I wonder if it is a military installation. Toulon Navy station is not far away, but then why would anyone build this in this place?

At the entrance to Port Napoleon in the Bay of Fos, there are several sand banks and loads of Mussel Farms. The below yacht (an Amel Super Maramut of 52') must have misread the Cardinal Buoy (see the second photo), which tell us to stay to its north, but he went south and ended up on the sand bank and did sink. If one looks careful, one will see the beach in the background immediately to the left of the fore-stay. What a mistake he did.

Hauling out in Port Napoleon.

Chris met me in Port Napoleon and we prepared New Dawn for its winter hibernation and after the usual week work we drove back to Beauvallon, where we spend two weeks working in the house and preparing the garden. There were a lot of work as the British gardener we had hired last year, had not done a good job and seemed also to have problems with another house, so he just did not show up.

Well the work was done and our previous gardener agreed to come back and look after the garden.
The following are some photos taken after we did some of the work.

The Orange tree should give a lot of  Oranges this winter.

Laurie Rose.

Grenadier.

Basil and Mint.

Olive tree.

The Cactus Bush.

Hortensia. 

Fresh Figs straight from the tree.

The below photos were taken just before we departed for Luxembourg. It looks a bit better, but the lawn will be redone in spring.