Port Miou and Holy Cow it's Windy in France!

The passage from Isle de Frioule to the Calanques (Cassis) was pretty calm and uneventful. We powered for two hours and covered the same distance that it took us 7 hours to complete the day before. It was nice to enter one of our favourite spots from last year yet again, and tie up in familiar territory front to back against the calanque wall. Much cliff jumping into the rather cool water (there is an underground river that enters the calanque).


Tara at rest in the Port Miou Calanque

 After hanging out at the Calanques for a day the kids decided that they had enough cliff jumping and said that we should move on. The wind was supposed to be a nice force 4,  16-21 knots, from behind so we were keen to make our way to our next stop... Hyeres. Marina and I got up at 9am, the kids got up at 10 -- we made it to the office ... had breakfast got ready to go and at around noon we headed out of the mouth of the Calanques.

We powered for about 20 minutes to get into the wind ... then we pulled out the genoa and started the 35 mile journey in about 20 knots of breeze from a broad reach or run. The waves were about a meter and through the journey they grew to 3 meters or more.



Ross and Matt working on the jib furl.

 Somehow when we unfurled the genoa the furling rope came out of the spool, so Ross and I spent a half-hour rethreading it. Hayden steering while we were up on the bow set the speed for the day at 8.5 knots.

Matt at the helm.

Matt not wanting to be outdone took the wheel and in a few minutes hit 8.9. After a number of runs into the mid nine knots, Marina made lunch and took over driving ... and promptly hit 10.0 knots -- a new overall record for Tara. the wind continued to build and Matt took the wheel again and on one big surf achieved 10.3 knots. About a half hour later we hit 10.8 knots -- and then chickened out and we rolled up some of the sail, though we still hit mid-nine's regularly surfing waves.

As we entered Hyeres and gybed for the last time onto port-tack we headed up towards the anchorage. While the waves abated behind the spit, the wind continued to blow 25-30 knots. Ross donned his harness (jolly jumper) and swung from the rigging right as a big puff hit and he was swinging 20-30 feet outside of the boat hull -- causing the boat to heel and I was as close to losing the rudder on Tara as at any other time in 6,000 miles.


The wind blown look on Jessie and Hayden.

 We brought him back in and rolled up the genoa, but unfortunately, we still had about 5 wraps to do .... so Ross and I went to the bow of the boat and rewrapped the furling drum again. We'll do 5 more later before we head out tomorrow and see if we can fix this problem once-and-for-all.



Hyeres waterfront boardwalk.

 Once anchored Marina and I headed into town to do a little grocery shopping while the kids setup the spinnaker pole and did their patented release-shackle drop - AKA the Hellivator -- where they winch themselves up to the level of the first spreader attached to a harness and then trip the load-release shackle and drop into the water -- a far different and scarier scenario than jumping from the same height.

We settled down to an evening of burgers and salad -- made by Jess and had a quiet evening at anchor. Nearly a week into our trip it's starting to feel like normal.