Sailing the southern coast of France

Crossing the Gulf de Lyon, France

Octopus reading the news

Paula and Moa

Stowing the groceries

And so summer is finally here. The heater is put away and so are the sweaters and long pants. Out come the bathing suits. Hopefully the Mistral and Tramontana winds will go back to where they came from. I certainly don't want any more force 7 and 8 conditions. Been there, done that.

I took the photo with the scrap of jib out during a relatively calm moment on the way to Marseille when I didn't have to worry about getting salt water on my camera. Need to remember to buy one of those waterproof disposable ones. And one of these days I'll write up about sailing in the Gulf de Lyon with 40 knots of Mistral wind and a French Navy helicopter hovering over Eidos with its crew wondering what the heck we were doing out there. Well, it was only blowing 15 when we started out... They told us to head for the nearest port immediately. Right, guys, at 7.5 knots it should only take a minute or two. Atlantic crossing was easier.

I didn't set up the photo of the octopus reading the newspaper, honest. Just one of those lucky moments when I had the camera with me.

The two ladies are Paula from Venezuela and Moa from Finland who came for a week. And the messy galley is right after we received three bags of food from a charter boat in Marseille. Lucky for us, because the food in France is twice as expensive as in Spain.

More coming soon...