It was exhilarating to be sailing again and I was delighted to be free of land and back at sea
There’s a storm coming. Better stay in harbour until it’s gone through.’ That was the warning from fellow yachties the day before we left Port St Louis, in the south of France, and headed towards Corsica. And it was true. The online forecasts showed strong northwesterlies funnelling down the Rhône valley and blasting across the Golfe de Lion, with gusts of up to 60 knots. Trouble was, not only had we already spent two nights being bitten by mosquitoes in Port St Louis, but we were also running late. Three more days’ delay would almost certainly destroy any chance we had of reaching Greece in the two weeks I’d allocated.
Before the mistral arrived, however, there was a 24-hour window to get out of Port St Louis before the serious stuff kicked off. If we could get past Toulon, 50 miles to the southeast, then we could hug the coast for the next two days and get some easting while the wind blew itself out. That was the plan anyway.
And so we found ourselves heading out across the Golfe de Fos early one morning at the beginning of July 2022. There was a boisterous Force 4-5 blowing off the land, and even under double-reefed main immediately took off, quickly notching up 6-7 knots on the GPS. I had spent five weeks
