Chris, Dave, Pat and Darren assembled in Valencia 10th Aug to sail Cara Mara to Barcelona then on to Nice to meet Wendy on the 27th.
The weather has been hot and pretty windless, but despite lots of motoring we have had a very good time.
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| Pat, Darren and Dave admitted that they had dreams of sailing through this bridge into the marina in the center of Barcelona. We timed our arrival perfectly for the half hourly opening. |
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| Several years ago Wendy and Dave spent a long weekend in Barcelona at the Cathedral Hotel, just round the corner. |
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| Chris and Dave took the cable car ride from the port to the "Olympic" area. A view of Barcelona's 2 Cathedrals. |
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| Chris outside the fortress on the summit of the hill overlooking Barcelona. |
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| After a 190 mile 36 hour crossing from Spain, we arrived at Marseilles as dawn was breaking. The old port is very large and busy with leisure boats, ferry's and fishing boats Very confusing for a tired crew armed with duff information on how to get a berth; we got tied up by late morning. It was worth it, this area of Marseilles is really worth a visit. |
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| The mirror canopy at the end of the old port designed by Richard Rogers attracts big crowds and provides and interesting reflection on life. |
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| Chris and Dave in the mirror |
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| The approach to Marseilles harbor |
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| We had planned to leave Marseilles on Sunday morning, after Darren had flown home, but 45 MPH winds convinced us to stay another day. A long hot walk from the harbor took us up to this rather magnificent church |
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| We had 3 lovely nights in anchorages between Marseilles and Nice. As we got closer to the Riviera we saw more and more of these monster super yachts. They seem to move in herds, sometimes we could see a dozen or more on the water around us. Amazingly almost every one flew the Red Duster; apart from Cara Mara almost the only UK flagged vessels we have seen on the French coast. The locals must wonder where the Brit's get they're money? |
