Hyères we go

Are you telling me that we will have to swim to and from the boat for the whole trip?” My crew demanded incredulously. I shrugged. “It’s possible, yes.” Sailing trips are beset by minor challenges I find. It’s part of the charm I suppose. That said, I hadn’t anticipated that the problems would present themselves as early as they did on my recent trip to the Îles d’Hyères on the French Mediterranean coast. Just to kick off, I was only able to start the trip by swimming to the boat because my tender had been stolen. Me and my crew were therefore forced to decant all our belongings into waterproof bags and take the plunge into chilly waters before a sail had been raised in anger.

But let's recap because I’m guilty of clapping on the sail before the anchor is out the ground. I had planned a leisurely cruise from my home port of Sète in France to the Îles d’Hyères (better known by French people merely as Porquerolles) over the summer months. It’s a journey of some 110 nm and, due to work commitments I had ended up leaving the boat at Port Miou, a beautiful calanque or carstic fjord just east of Marseille. It’s a spectacular stopover; a hidden port cut deep into the white limestone cliffs topped with fragrant pines that crackle and buzz to the hypnotic rhythm of the cicada through the summer months. To save money, I shoved my boat on one of the mooring buoys (17 Euros per night for a 28ft boat) and left it there for three weeks. This was not a problem but I also left my dinghy in the dinghy dock and now, returning all set for a week long sail to Porquerolles, it was most definitely absent. This was trying. I have long had a bad relationship with this dinghy. It replaced a superb Avon dinghy that rowed like a dream and, unfortunately this coracle-like craft did nothing of the sort. I was therefore not broken hearted to see it go.