28/6/08


We waited in La Ciotat till Saturday 28 June; we'd meant to leave on Friday but a mistral was forecast so we hung around. In end it didn't get above force 4 or 5, and would have blown us straight downwind to our destination, so we could have gone. But it's not a wind to trifle with.
We left shortly after 0800 and ended up motor sailing all the way. Our destination, the Iles d'Hyeres had been strongly recommended by lots of cruisers as a beautiful place, if a bit crowded at times. We rounded Cap Sicie, apparently a place of considerable dread hereabouts as it kicks up a nasty sea in a mistral. There is a west-going current hereabouts, which fights the mistral wind, so it makes sense, but at least there aren't any tidal races to add to the mix.
The Iles d'Hyeres are often called the Porquerolle, after the biggest island. The archipelago lies just east of a hammerhead shaped headland called Presqu'ile (peninsula) de Giens. This is nearly an island, as the 'shaft' of the hammer is itself eplit in to by a large etang, and indeed the sandbars around it have been flooded in big storms.
The (very simple) passage past the peninsula and its outlying rocks takes you south of the Ile de Grand Ribeau; this is its lighthouse on our port bow.