The Golfe du Lion area of the Mediterranean is well known for its frequency of strong winds and gales. Rod Heikell reports
in the France and Corsica pilot book that there are 13% gales in this area over the winter months but only 1% gales in the
summer months. That means the wind blows at Gale Force 8 or greater for 13 per cent of the time in the winter and most gales
last between 3 and 12 days.
That this trip had been very carefully planned was an understatement. Not before the middle of May to avoid the frequency
of gale force Tramontane and Mistral winds. We watched the long range weather forecasts for two whole weeks prior to departure.
The weather men had forecast rain for tomorrow every day for the whole two weeks. We all know that tomorrow never comes. Very
occasionally a brief spell of 20 knot winds appeared on the chart far into the future but dissipated back to 10-12 knots by
the time the day arrived.
We were quietly confident that this was going to be a comfortable 5 days of 35 – 40 miles a day, in port every night
with good local food and wine and a leisurely start the next day. This is what Mediterranean sailing is all about.
To get Ryan Air’s cheapest flight offering to Girona Bob Chapman and I needed to depart from Stansted at 6 am on
Monday morning which meant leaving Norwich at 2am in order to get through the check in on time. This was going to be a long
day. Andy Seal was already on board having spent a week helping John Bird and Barry Sladen to get Deuxieme Amour ready for
the season. They had done a fine job.
I was fairly confident of being stopped by the hand luggage scanner at the airport as I was carrying 2 GPS sets, a fast
charger for AA cells, a mobile phone and charger, a digital camera and enough batteries and leads to connect to mains, ships
batteries and any other power supply I could find. I was wearing my waterproof jacket to save luggage weight and I had carefully
removed my sailing knife from the pocket and packed it I my hold luggage. Nothing could go wrong. So I confidently allowed
the baggage check officer to unpack my hand luggage, explained the use of each GPS, switched on the phone and camera removed
the 20 rechargeable batteries from their box carefully packed with polythene between them to stop them shorting out and exploding
in the plane. What’s this he said pointing to my pencil case? Soft pencils and an eraser said I as he opened it to reveal
the curved brass shape of my old favourite single handed dividers which have been with me on every trip for 15 years. They
are not particularly sentimental in the luggage check area. I had all of 2 seconds to watch them disappear into the security
bin forever.
Next the plane was delayed from take-off by Air traffic control in France. Good news and bad news. We were already seated
so a one hour delay meant 3 hours to sleep instead of the planned 2 hours on the plane. I was woken by the air hostess checking
the seat belt I hadn’t undone from before takeoff.
John Bird and Andy Seal met us at the marina in Palamos after a taxi ride from Girona. John had done an excellent job and
with a few minor exceptions the boat was checked, serviced, anti-fouled, fuelled, watered, and provisioned ready for departure.
We had lunch in the marina restaurant discussing the work which had been completed and the outstanding tasks. The one essential
job was to go up the mast to check the wiring for steaming light which was not working. That job completed we checked the
marina weather forecast - rain tomorrow (again), wind NW 2-3 - and were ready to depart Palamos for L’Escala at about
3pm. The trip would be about 18 miles.
We headed out of Palamos on an east north easterly course to give the rocks at Islas Hormiglas a wide seaward clearance
and then due north to pass inshore of the very picturesque nature reserve Isla Meda Grande opposite the rather less picturesque
fishing town of L’Estartit. L’Escala is at the south western corner of the very sheltered Bay of Roses and we
arrived at about 8pm. There was no Port Capitaine in sight so we helped ourselves to a mooring using the lazy line, checked
the sailing club office was closed and went to find sustenance in the form of excellent local food and wine in a restaurant
overlooking the harbour.
This was going to be a very enjoyable trip. 2 or 3 litres of wine later we tumbled back into the boat. Andy and Bob in
the cabins and me to the cockpit to watch the stars. That lasted about half an hour before the rain started at about half
past midnight. It must be tomorrow already I thought as I retired to the saloon berth. About 2 hours later we all awoke to
the sound of the anchor bumping the quay. The wind had blown up and we urgently needed to adjust the moorings. We picked up
a second lazy line and hauled the boat back off the quay using the main winches. The wind was blowing rain in through the
main hatch so this had to be closed. I switched on the mast head anemometer to see how bad it was. 25 – 30 knots and
we were lying in the lee of a very steep hillside! Nothing else to do but sleep through it so we retired back to our bunks.
In the morning the anemometer showed the full extent of the storm 35 – 40 knots in the harbour, waves breaking over
the harbour wall and spray everywhere. We were getting the full force of a Tramontane and were going no where for a couple
of days. We braved the strong winds, sheltered our faces in our waterproofs from the torrential rain, waded through water
18 inches deep pouring down off the hillside and crossed the road to the clubhouse!
Later, still dressed in full waterproofs we made our way to the town to find a restaurant for lunch. The head waiter reprovingly
directed us straight to the toilets – to remove our waterproofs which we left draining onto the floor. The food was
excellent but we must have made an impression because when we went back in the evening again dressed in our waterproofs the
same head waiter carefully directed us to a neighbouring restaurant. As we retired to our bunks that night the anemometer
continued to indicate 35 – 40 knots and it had not stopped raining all day.
The next morning there was a definite improvement in the weather. Only 25 – 30 knots of wind no rain and even an
occasional patch of sunshine through the clouds scudding overhead. After a leisurely start Bob and Andy went to find provisions
while I studied the charts and pilot book to reschedule our passage. The wind was steadily dropping and by 12 noon was 18-20
knots. Bob and Andy returned well provisioned at about 2 pm and the wind speed indicator showed 14-16 knots. The forecast
in the club house had predicted NW F7 dropping F3 so this seemed like a good opportunity to make up some of the lost time
and head north again.
The first hour of the passage was in the shelter of the Bay of Roses towards Cabo Norfeo. As we rounded Cabo Norfeo the
wind had increased to NNW18-22 knots with a 2-3 m swell. If this was the conditions of the open sea then all was well. We
continued NNE towards Cabo Creus on a tight beat making 6 knots under half reefed main and half reefed genoa passing about
2 miles offshore of some very rocky anchorages and a harbour which might have looked interesting under better conditions.
As we approached Cabo Creus about 4 hours out of L’Escala the wind was blowing 25-28 knots and we had reefed down to
1/3 main and 1/3 genoa. From Cabo Creus to Port Bou was about 6 miles direct in a NW direction but the wind was also from
the NW so we needed at least another 2 hours to tack into Port Bou going on or 4 hours back to the shelter of L’Escala.
This was a decision to be made by the crew depending on how they personally were each managing the weather conditions. From
Cabo Creus the shore line went due west providing an evil rocky lee shore. To carry on meant tacking out into the open sea
away from what shelter we had before Cabo Creus and away from the lee shore. We carried on making slightly E of North on a
tight beat with the wind showing 30-32 knots as we left Cabo Creus behind. After an hour we were ready to tack in towards
the shelter of the shore. At this point we were approximately 5 miles to windward of the lee shore. The highest wind speed
recorded was a gust of 39 knots at the point where we tacked but from there on the wind dropped as we approached the shore.
DA had taken the weather in her stride and at no time felt overpowered. We had not experienced the heavy pounding which is
becoming a familiar feature of the modern breed of light weight round bottomed yachts. We had used the auto pilot for most
of the trip without problems. I have recently sailed a newer and larger Bavaria 37 in slightly lighter winds and needed to
hand steer all the way as the boat was bouncing so far off course on each swell that the auto pilot could not cope with the
conditions.
Port Bou was little more that a loose stone harbour wall laid in a small rocky cove. The harbour had been fitted with pontoons
electricity, water and showers in Portacabins this spring. The facilities were not marked in the Pilot book but were marked
on the chart I had purchased for my hand held chart plotter especially for this trip. We were immensely relieved that the
electronic chart was right. During the rough final hour of the crossing the hand held chart plotter had proved its value by
giving us a continuous position fix without the need to go below to plot positions on the chart or to stop looking after the
boat which was looking after us. I don’t believe in relying on the GPS chart plotter exclusively and keep a notepad
and pencil in my pocket to note the position and time at regular intervals to be transferred to the chart and the log book
later. It is actually illegal to use a chart plotter exclusively for navigation unless you have either paper chart backup
or another completely independent chart plotter on board.
We managed to get the boat secured and walk the half mile or so into the town to find only one bar open and one restaurant
just about to put up its shutters. The waiter who although Spanish could best be described as like Rene from Allo Allo eyed
us suspiciously over the top of his shutter as we read the menu board outside. He obviously hadn’t had a very good evening
as he didn’t take much persuading to serve us with some excellent food even if he did proceed to put up all the shutters
around us as we ate. Later when we paid the bill in the dark he took care to remind us that he and his chef had stayed late
to serve us and then relieved us of the 18 euro change for his tip. After the generous serving of local red wine we hardly
noticed.
In order to make Port Napoleon in sensible time on Friday we now needed to make a long leg on Thursday so Port Gardian
which is the harbour for Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer was to be the destination. A leg of about 85 miles taking approximately
15 hours necessitated a 6 am start. Port Gardian is 30 miles from Port Napoleon so we should easily be able to finish the
passage in time to register in the marina, wash and clean down, eat, pack and be ready for an early trip to Nimes airport
on Saturday morning. The morning dawned almost flat calm, sunny and windless. Many local fishing boats had gone to sea before
us. We motored out and hoisted the mainsail and motored and occasionally hoisted and lowered the ghoster and motored arriving
in Port Gardian at 9 pm. During the journey we read the print off the one newspaper on board. Andy read the pilot book and
noticed that we were about to arrive in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer during the one week of the year when Romanies from all over
the world meet there to celebrate a religious festival. As we arrived we were greeted by numerous security guards escorted
by an even larger number of Rottweilers.
The town was actually quite quiet although we tended to feel that it looked a little bit like a Mexican film set from the
wild west. The food was good though.
The trip to Port Napoleon was relatively straight forward. A useful point to note is that the entrance to the river Rhone
is very shallow. It is only about 1m deep and not navigable. The consequence of this is that the out wash fan extends approximately
1 mile out to sea and is also shallow. It is marked by 2 cardinal marks which appear to be in deep water until you get quite
close. Do not attempt to cut inside them. The prevailing wind is strong onshore and builds during the day! We recorded 9.4
knots on the GPS surfing into Golfe de Fos. The entrance to the channel into the marina is well hidden in the low lying and
featureless surroundings. With out a GPS waypoint you are unlikely to find it easily.
Port Napoleon is a large and busy marina run by a Dutch family with exclusively Dutch and Belgian staff. Consequently they
all speak very good English and do not suffer from the prejudices of the chauvinistic local population. They do a lot of work
installing masts on northern European boats which have travelled down through the French Canals. The restaurant in the marina
burned down last year but currently operates from a temporary marquee just to the west of the main gate. We had a good meal
served from a ‘Carte du Jour’ menu. The local town is approximately 3 miles away. There is a free marina shuttle
bus but check with the marina capitainerie for the times. Alternatively the Marina run a taxi service in Marina cars. There
is no fuel in Port Napoleon. To refuel you must borrow cans from the capitainerie and take them on the shuttle bus to the
town to fill them or refuel at another local marina with fuel.
Our marina taxi to the airport arrived on time and we had an uneventful trip home. Thanks to Bob and Andy for a very enjoyable
trip.
