Tuesday 6th September 2022
We were still at Port Navy Services in the water, rafted against another boat using electric we were not entitled too because we were paid up to the 28th August which obviously had been and gone.
After feeling an increasingly unwelcome vibe from a lovely lady that worked at the port over the last few days whilst doing the toilets we felt we should move, as maybe we had outstayed our welcome some what.
Garry had ordered a Bluetti battery bank with its own Solar Panels to be delivered to Port Navy Services which was not going to be there till the 10th and we were still awaiting the art work for the Tender.
It was decided we would potter off for a little sail as now we lived on a boat, we could move it anywhere. After a lot of searching anchorages on Navily, knowing the wind direction we agreed on LLe Ratonneau a little Island in front of Marseille. The anchorage was called Baie De Grand Soufree which is on the lee side of the Island and not too far way from Mosquito City only a 7 hour sail.
Our alarm went off at 7 am it was raining, well this is a good start for a nice little day sail. By 8 am the rain was stopping so we set sail, the sail was not too bad for our very 1st journey on our own, admittedly we motored a lot and arrived at 3.30 pm.
This anchorage was not that well protected as the Port du Frioul wall was low and you needed to tuck the boat in close to the rocks. We did not fancy this so we checked Navily for another spot and moved around the corner to Havre De Morgirel.
On arrival there was 25 boats in the anchorage and we were the biggest, some were little power boats just there for the afternoon. Anchor was dropped, as we backed down on the anchor we ended up with our stern quite close to the rocks, too close for our comfort so decided to wait till some boats moved and we could then pick a better spot.
After an hour or so we picked up anchor and moved into the middle of cove at 12 meter depth we let out 40 meters of chain. This time i dived in, checked anchor was buried into sand, all good but still I sat there waiting to see if we dragged as we were still among 15 boats all around us.
Doubt set in and I could not stop worrying that this was not a good place to anchor, the wind was due to change direction overnight. Garry joined me in on the wondering so stayed up whilst I got an hour’s sleep, my time to watch was 1 am. At 1.45 am the wind direction changed a whole 180 degrees, the boat swung around as your bow always points into the wind. Straight away i knew we were getting close to the boats we had been looking at all night.
I woke up Garry by now the wind had picked up to 20 knots, it was thunder @ lightning the rain was pouring down and vision was limited. Garry started the engine, I grabbed the torch which turned out to be less than useful and was not good enough to see jack shit.
We kept the engine on, in gear moving forward for what seemed an age whilst i pulled in some chain and the wind died down. 45 minutes the terror lasted we stopped moving towards the other boats and the anchorage became calm in the darkness.
During our struggle we did notice other boats in the anchorage came up with their torches, up root their anchors, reset and then disappear back down below.
In the morning with no sleep to speak of I re dived on the anchor to see what our chain and anchor had been up to overnight. As it turns out one reason why we did not crash into the other boats was a concrete block on the sea bed that the chain had wrapped it self around. More sleep was needed and in the safe knowledge now we were not going to move i went back to bed for a couple of hours.
We wanted to stay another night somewhere else so we motored around the Island to another anchorage as the wind was shifting direction for tonight. We had found an anchorage on Navily that looked OK but trying to locate it from a far we motored right pass it, so decided it was not big enough for us.
I was very tired and now fed up, Garry had received confirmation that the Bluetti had been delivered to the office, so we sailed back to Port Navy Services.