Tuesday 10 September

Up fairly early to await the diver.  He turns up right on time all prepared because I have told him what the problem is in advance.  I’m feeling fairly proud of myself conducting all this in French.

We are amazed by the efficiency of this guy.  He jumps right in with his gear and we can hear him scrapping away at the propeller first, and then the area around the log and finally a bit at the bow thruster.  He comes up after only about 20 minutes to say that the bottom of the boat is very dirty and the prop and log were badly covered in sealife.  He is sure that is what our problem has been.  He has cleaned the prop and log area off and all is fine, he says.  So by 10:00 am the boat is in a safe condition to sail away.  We go to the Harbour Office and check the weather.  It looks good, winds 4-5 north westerly to westerly.  So we are going!  We have enjoyed Palavas and are pleased that if we had to get stuck somewhere it was here.  We are also very happy with the service we have had from the engineer and the diver, both of whom were very reasonable.  So was the berthing at about 20 Euros a night.  But we are happy to finally get on the move again.

We manage to get off the mooring OK and out to sea.  The weather forecast does not seem to be reflected in what we are getting.  There is a following wind, but it is more of a 3 with occasional gusts of 11knots.  The engine is working fine and we are now doing the sort of speeds we would expect.  But we decide to sail and as we are doing under 4 knots we put the fishing line out.  And guess what - we finally catch some fish.  First we get two mackerel on the line.  Then almost right away another two, but one of them gets away.  We put the line out again to get a fourth one to make a proper dinner for us, when suddenly the wind gets up.  It has moved about and we are not now on a dead run.  It is also blowing a pretty steady 5 with prolonged gusts of 20-24knots.  The sea has also become very lumpy.  But we are going well.  Only problem is that I did not take a seasick pill.  I think I am already taking enough medication, so I am trying to do without.  Problem is that I can’t go below and therefore we get no lunch except for some ginger biscuits!

At just before three o’clock we make it to Les Sainte-Maries De La Mer.  It is apparently the capitol of the Camargue.  The wind is now pretty much a steady 6 and the sea is lumpy making it very hard for us to take the sails down, but Richard does find a small patch of flat water and we get the sails down and the fenders on.  We think we will be going on to an alongside welcome pontoon before being sent to a berth.  With that in mind I start to set lines to go alongside, when we are immediately directed to a stern to berth.  The conditions for berthing are terrible.  We have the full force of a 6 blowing us on the boat next to where we are to go.  They seem to have a terrible lot of useless fenders, so I spend all the time putting out more fenders (thank you for the extras we bought in the canals).  Luckily there are two people from the marina and other yachtsmen helping and we get into the space without mishap and are finally safely berthed.  Just as we finish another boat comes in and berths next to us and they too are blown on to us, but I have anticipated this and put out more fenders well placed to protect us.

We really only want to stay here one night, but it looks like this weather with very high winds will continue for the next two or three days, so we may not be able to move.  We shall see.

The marina is very nice.  It is fairly close to the town centre.  It has newly renovated showers and toilets which look very good.  It is not too expensive, so we could be in a worse place to shelter from bad weather.  This weather is strange.  It is clear and sunny.  It would be perfect except for the very high winds.  The lady in the office says it is the Tramontane (not the Mistral, which also blows here).

So we go in to town to buy some provisions and suss the place out.  It is very French highly influenced by Spain.  There is even a Bull Ring (right on the sea front, which shows how important it is to the town) where they are putting on a Rodeo tonight.  There is not much in the way of big shops, but there are a few small supermarkets, a bakery, a butcher and wine shops.  We buy things to pad out our three small mackerel, including a made up dish called Rouille, which is potato, baby octopus, and baby squid in Aioli sauce.  We toy with the idea of lighting the BBQ, but it is too windy and we don’t have much to cook on it.  So we just grill the fish in the cooker and eat it with some of the Ratatouille followed by the squid dish.  I also make us some Caribbean bananas in the oven (as we haven’t lit the BBQ).  We drink a bottle of pink wine with it that was recommended by one of the shops and it is quite drinkable.  So a nice dinner on board.  We hope we can sleep with the wind still blowing a six and our being buffeted between the two other boats.

After dinner Richard decides to go to the Rodeo.  It doesn’t start until 10:00pm, and I am not up to staying up that late and walking any more, so he goes on his own.  He comes back after an hour.  He seems to have found it quite interesting.  I guess I should have gone too.