We anchored here again after a very quiet few days in Port Man waiting out a mistral. In this bay, the RIB comes round selling expensive ice-creams; we allowed ourselves the ?'?8; the only money we spent between St Tropez on 20 August and arriving in Toulon on 26 August.
It was a glorious sunset for our last anchorage of the year.
From here, we went into Toulon and found a snug berth on the biggest pontoon in the Darse Vieille. It's all bows or stern to, with good stout lines (two per boat) to keep you off the quay. The Petit Rade (the inner end of the big bay that makes Toulon such a superb harbour) is still very naval, with both big grey boats and zippy black RIBs, full of men with guns. We arrived flying (as usual and amongst other things) an NZ flag and a big rainbow flag, which here is often used as a peace sign. Remember the Rainbow Warrior, mes amis!
For several days, we were watched closely, the RIB-fulls coming close under our stern and looking at us for minutes at a time. Then we took the flags down, as part of the winter prep, and they lost interest.
So Roaring Girl is securely wrapped up, with guardiennage for when we're not here. Pip is going to and fro, in between working on her silversmithing, while Sarah makes a temporary return to office-life.