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.

A Small Trip Along The French Coast. Isles De Lérins.

After a nice sail from the Golfe de St Tropez, rour first stop was the nice "Isles De Lérin" just south of Cannes. These islands are small, but have a big and dark history. One advantage of the anchorage is that the water is Christal clear; wonderful.

First we stopped on the N side of the biggest island Ile Ste-Marguerite, where there are only a few people living, but it has an imposing "Fort Royal". Its history is interesting. Not long after it was build in the 17 th century by Richelieu, the Fort accommodated its most famous prisoner, the "Man in the iron Mask". Actually the mask was not made of iron, but velvet, though this does not detract one bit from the mystery of who he was. 

His identity has never been established for sure, but there have been numerous theories. Among the popular candidates are the following: that he was the illegitimate son of Louis XIV; Louis' twin brother, born several hours after him, a minister of Duke of Mantua who attempted to trick the king in negotiations over Piedmont; and accomplice of Madame de Brinvilliers, a notorious poisoner; and a black sheep of nobility. 

There are a number of other suggestions which are less likely, but more intriguing. One is that he was a doctor who performed the autopsy on Louis XIII and found him incapable of producing offspring, the doctor's son indiscreetly releasing the state secret and being imprisoned for his indiscretion. Another tells of a son sired by the "Man in the iron Mask" and a female prisoner, the son immediately being whisked away to Corsica to foster parents. To be "entrusted" in French is "remis de bonne part", in Italian it is "di buona parte", and so the tenuous argument goes, the child was the great-grandfather of Bonaparte.

I set out below a photos taken at the prison and that shows a list of the possible candidates. Click on the photo and you should be able to read the names on the left hand side. Note that Moliere is listed, which I find doubtful.

The "Man in the iron Mask" ended his years in the Bastille. Mr de St-Mars, the Governor of Fort Royal whose special charge was the mysterious prisoner, didn't find life very entertaining on the island and eventually wrangled the post of Governor of the Bastille in 1698. His prisoner went with him and spend his final years with him until he died in 1703.

You will also see that I set out photos of the prisoner cells, which to me are rather large and well lighted. Some have been decorated, but I did not find out why, when and by whom.

The watchful Chris on duty.

A nice classic yacht at the anchorage.

Click on the photo to enlarge it so you can read the list I mentioned above.

The Fort by night. 

The next Island is Ile St-Honorat, which also has an interesting history. On it is a Monastery founded in the 4th century by farther of the French monasticism, who decided to settle on the tiny island to live a life in solitude. It proved to be a fruitless exercise as his popularity was such that his followers soon discovered where he was and joined him on the island. Relenting, he founded the monastery, and in time it came to be one of the most powerful and influential in the land. It produced 20 saints and a staggering 600 bishops. One of the Saints was St Patrick who studied at the monastery for nine years before embarking on the task of converting the heathen Irish and founded numerous monasteries in Ireland.

On My Way Back To France.

Finally the new motor for the Auto Pilot Drive was installed and also the new wind instrument, as well as a new compressor for the Freezer. Cost was about EUR 3.200. All works well except the Auto (still need a new AC42 - computer), but I managed to set out very early morning from Porto Colom and headed for Proquerolle in S France.

It is a long trip. Fortunately Auto desided to work most of the way, so I managed better this time. The last  Nm was performed without much wind and in very thick fog. It was so thick, that at times I could not see the top of the mast. Thanks to the Radar and an excellent Plotter with the latest C-Map, was I able to arrive OK, even though I met a Cat which passed in front of me with only 30 m to spare. I had the fog horn blasting and it is silly of the skipper not to respect it when they could hear I was so near and I had priority.

I arrived as dark fell and managed to drop anchor close to the Porquerolle island, which I know well, but I  could see nothing and I was only about 75 m  from the marina. An hour later I could just see three of the marina's lights. What a soup to sail in. Well, all went well and I had a good Rum Punch and a meal, before I hid the pillow.

 This is Isle Levent, which is partly run by the French Marine. This photo shows one of their less impressive ships.

As I approach the Golfe de St Tropez, these kind of fast going yachts becomes more apparent.

Finally at anchor outside our Beauvallon Beach, here with Port Grimaud in the background. Chris, Nataly and Stephane arrived on the Sunday, as I received a Gale, so I had to move close to the Cogolin beach (SW side of the Golfe) for two days, before I met up with them.

Full moon over St Tropez and our billion dollars view.