Day 109 Sete - Port Gardian

Our trip from Sete to Port Gardian was not to bad a day, the wind stayed as forecast F2-3 but was SW not NW but didn't make any difference to us today but with SW wind we had a following sea which I don't like as sometimes this motion can make me sick. At 10.13am we clocked up 3000kn miles only 1400 to go!!! Our destination was Port Gardian but we had hoped if the wind stayed consistent we may go further to Port De Bouc which is a further 30kn miles, but that didn't happen as the wind did drop off. It was a pleasant journey the sun came and lovely blue skies. We arrived at Port Gardian at 1415pm plenty of time to get showered and go and have a wander around the town. The marina was very nice, friendly staff, restaurants/bars, the showers very posh and they had hot water and no deposits so we where free to go what ever time we wanted.

We walked into the town it was very nice not to big and was full of people it was lovely to see them and the sun was shinning. This area La Camargue known for the "Camargue horses". There is also a bull ring here, the people are Catalans/French a bit strange I don't understand all the areas and culture it seems to mingle a bit with the Spanish traditions or French I don't know who it belongs to or is it the area! Anyway it was a lovely little town the people friendly and only 5 minutes walk from marina. They have warning signs up on lamp posts for "Bulls" railings along the side of the streets, maybe that's just in case the bulls escape or maybe they parade bulls along the streets, who knows. Port Gardian is a lovely place and glad we didn't miss it.

Berthing 15.20euros (£12.88) - free showers and free wifi.

Day 110 Port Gardian - Port de Bouc

Our trip from Port Gardian to Port de Bouc started off a pleasant trip sun shinning, there was a bit of a chill in the air, wind being from the East. Wind currently E4 we where able to sail for nearly two hours as we where heading SE but we new we would be changing direction to East. The wind increased to E5-6, yes on the nose again so another 5hours bashing around. Later when we changed direction, we where able to sail again and the wind changed as well to ESE but still F5. We where both extremely pissed off with the direction of the wind , I think this was my lowest day yet, I had had enough of wind on the nose being thrown all about the place I was ready to jack it all in. I told the skipper I can't keep on with this it is just an up hill struggle all the time, battling against the wind every bloody day! Neville did the sailing as I had given up, he got 2hours good sailing a bit gusty but sailing at last. The 2 hours sailing in morning and 2 hours in the afternoon didn't quite make up for the 5 shit hours of punching wind and swell. Anyway again another diversion, we had hoped to go "Point de Rouge" but again we lost 5hours time with E5-6 on the nose so had to go to Port de Bouc, arrived 1715pm.

The approach to Port de Bouc in the "Golf de Fos" was not very picturesque the bay was full up with anchored ships mainly oil tankers. I counted 32 next morning, sort of spoilt the bay a little bit. The river Rhone enters this bay another place where people come out when travelling down the canals in France. In the port it self, it was quite large with a commercial part and two marinas, we headed for the marina closest to the town. Found a pontoon in the waiting area and headed to the office. The lady and a guy were quite friendly but didn't speak much English but we got by with our little knowledge of French. Neville asked about a recommendation of a restaurant and she recommended "Catermeran" as we both had a shit day we needed cheering up. First of all we had to give Artemis a wash as she was covered in salt water and the water/diesel had leaked from the bilge out under floor and even got into the cupboard which we use as our safe and all the money, cheque books where covered in diesel lovely the joys of sailing. Once we had done our chores we headed out for a well deserved meal.

We didn't see much of the town it seemed to be a bit out of the way but there were bar/restaurants around the marina. We headed for the recommended restaurant and the meal was excellent, with wine it came to 36euros and we where stuffed. We had a platter with chicken kebab, 3 lamb koftas, 2 lamb cutlets, cous cous, chips and naan bread. There was plenty of it not small portions, it was scrummy and it reminded us of Cyprus and why we are doing this trip. It was a very pleasant dinner to the end of a really shit day. We are both glad we got diverted to Port de Bouc.


Berthing 16.92euros (£14.33) - Showers 1euro, free internet


Day 111-112 Port de Bouc - Port du Frioul (Marseille)

Our trip from Port de Bouc to Port du Frioul was only to be a short trip as the weather was changing on Saturday to a F10 and not clearing up until Tuesday so we had made our minds up that we where going to fly home to UK to spend a couple of days with Carrie in Southend. The trip itself was windless, hot and sunny and only lasted 4hrs. We arrived at Marseille at 1245pm at one of the marinas and enquired about how much it would as we where planning to stay for maybe a week. Marseille being a large city we thought it best to ask C'est combine? The answer to that question was bloody expensive so we headed to Port Point Rouge just a couple of miles outside Marseille, but they couldn't fit us in we where to big, third choice was Port du Frioul an island opposite Marseille. The reason we didn't go here as first choice was because it was an island and we wanted to be on mainland to be able to fly back to UK. It turned out it wasn't a problem they have a ferry going back to Marseille every 45mins.

When we arrived on the island Port du Frioul we explained that we wanted to go back to UK for 4 days and we chatted with the captaineire and bartered a price for the week and got a good deal so our visit to the UK was on. No wifi supplied by marina so we had to go to a restaurant to get access and managed to book flights, car hire and find out directions to airport all by the time we had drunk a nice bottle of wine. We both think it would do us good having this break, spending time with our daughter instead of sitting on the boat stuck not being able to make any progress.

Our flights we not until Saturday morning so we had Friday to chill out and walk around the island. It is a very interesting place, we walked around the North part of the island the views where out of this world, it took us over 2hours up steep cliffs, we both really enjoyed it and decided we would do the South part of the Island when we got back from UK. The mariner who assisted as with our berthing was very friendly and tried his best to make us understand his French. He give us a map and explained all the places to go when went for a walk, he was so proud of the island and Marseille.

We didn't get back from UK until Wednesday as the French air traffic controllers decided they would strike on Tuesday the day we where returning so we didn't get to explore the rest of the island. Our stay on the island we very pleasant and very quite, we both think it was a much nicer place to stay than Marseille.


Berthing 14.28euros (£12.10) - free showers no internet, free at pub.


Day 113-117 Port de Bouc - UK Southend on Sea

We had a lovely time in the UK spending four days with our daughter. When we get together we love to cook so all we did was eat and drink we had a great time. We decided to cook all the things we have both missed. Carrie is into cooking desserts at the moment so we both managed to make a lovely lemon meringue, it was delicious. It was a nice couple of days apart from the travelling to and from, arrived back to Port du Frioul Wednesday ready to re commence our trip to Cyprus.

Accomadation free - free showers free internet, at our daughters.