The weather having presented the necessary window we left the Costa Brava for our final crossing back to France. An afternoon departure was chosen to give an arrival in the Golf de Fos at first light. The thunderstorms that have been wandering across this part of the Mediterranean were still in evidence but fortunately stayed well east of our track and provided an occasional light show to enliven the night. We're all used to seeing dolphins leaping about near yachts but on this trip we saw hundreds of tuna doing much the same thing. This went on for several hours so may be some kind of migration or perhaps these fishy chaps just like to move around a bit.
The refinery in the Golf de Fos provides a useful visual homing beacon - its flares can be seen twenty miles away at night. Some good sailing in a lightish north-westerly and a bit of motoring brought us to XII Bar Blues's base camp at first light as planned. We dropped anchor behind the long spit of sand that protects the southern end of the golf and after breakfast we motored into the marina at Port Napoleon to start the business of putting the boat to bed for the winter.
The watermaker tale ended happily with the needed parts arriving from California in a few days and fitted in good time by Northshore who are the Spectra agents in Mallorca. Similarly the outboard motor returned to full time duty without further intervention and has worked without hesitation since we left Corsica.
After many days of polishing and fettling we eventually left France to return north by aeroplane at the end of September having logged some 1600 miles since setting out at the beginning of July - a decent trip round the bay and the boat still looks shiny !