South of France Trip 2
On meeting Arthur and Page at Nice airport, it was a 10 minute taxi ride back to Nice Port where Timoneer was moored. After a freshening up and lunch they went for a walk along the Promenade des Anglais, Nice’s waterfront, and then through some of the old town and climbed the hill above the port for views over all of Nice from the waterfall.
Old Town Nice
After a much needed good nights sleep we left and went for a sail and had lunch underway. The swell picked up and we were left with few options to get away from it. We stopped at Theoule-sur-Mer which provided a calm anchorage and a small protected beach ashore. We stayed here for the night and Page went for a run in the morning and Arthur a swim. We then sailed to Baie de Bougnon where Arthur and Page enjoyed some time on the beach and we got buzzed by jet skis. The wind picked up to 25 knots and we motored into it to St Tropez. It made for an interesting docking there and 100’s of people watching. It was amazing how much more crowded it was compared to June. The guests battled the crowds for a while before returning to Timoneer for dinner and then heading out again after for a wander through St Tropezs narrow alleyways.
St Tropez
Page went for a run in the morning and then after breakfast they went wandering some more. Jonny then drove Timoneer off the dock and we headed to Agay where Arthur and Page had a go on the SUP’s and paddled ashore. Unfortunately, after an hour of lying on the beach, one of the boards decided to pop, with the noise of it giving everyone in the area a fright. This turned out to be a manufacturing flaw and we have now been given a new one. After rescuing Page from the beach we headed off to dock in Cannes where they enjoyed a walk past the festival center checking out the stars hand prints in the pavement and along the beach past all the fancy beach clubs and crowded public parts of the beach. After dinner they enjoyed the narrow streets of old Cannes.
Friday morning we headed back to Theoule-sur-Mer and found a great little beach around the point with caves and cliff jumpers. Arthur and Page spent the morning there and then we headed to Antibes in the afternoon where we were mobbed by sailing dinghies when we dropped anchor. They explored ashore before returning to Timoneer for dinner.
Villefranche
After Page’s morning run we moved to Villefranche. We ran Arthur and Page to Nice port in the tender and they caught the bus to Eze Village where they wandered its maze of narrow alleyways and took in the incredible view from the Exotic Garden. They then walked down the 700m (2,300 feet) to the sea at Eze-sur-Mer and caught the train back to Villefranche. They then had a well deserved swim before going ashore to Restaurant Loco Loco for moules et des frites (mussles and fries).
View from Eze Village over Cap Ferrat
Sunday we took a slow cruise around the coast of Cap Ferrat checking out some of the Meds most expensive real estate. In the bay there were some of the worlds most expensive yachts including the 115m (377 foot) motor yacht Luna. We continued around the coast to Monaco and due to the depth there we could not anchor. We launched the tender, said our farewells and took the guests ashore to their hotel to finish off a great trip.
Once the tender was back onboard we headed off for the 370nm trip to Palma. Along the coast we had lovely conditions and then we headed out in to a mistral and had 35-40 knots of breeze and seas to go with it. The wind angle opened up a bit and we had a cracking sailing through the night. Not a lot of sleep was had due to the big seas. We entered the calm of Mahon harbour on Menorca Island and motored the 3nm to its head. This is an amazing natural harbour and has a lot of fortifications from various periods of its long history. We didn’t stop as we still had another 12 hours to Palma. Arriving around 11pm we dropped the anchor in Palma bay and had a good nights sleep before heading in and on to the dock in the morning.
