Monday 18th September 2013
During the night the wind got up so Louis stayed up and did anchor watch whilst the rest of the crew hit the sac as they had decided to leave soon after 0500hrs hoping to get back in daylight.
We were away around 0600hrs but alas the wind that came late last night had “blown-out” by morning so back on engine, this will make it a long journey😡😡, still it was a lovely day!!
We soon lost site of Corsica as we headed to Frejus, about a 100-miles away but at 7 to 7.5 knots it would be dark, but about 2hrs into the journey we found some wind. No time was lost, the skipper issued the order and out went the main and jib, and immediately we picked up speed, cruising around 11 to 12 knots, touching 13+ at times; our ETA became earlier.
Though we had sufficient wind to power this massive craft, we were lucky with the “sea state” it was moderately calm and she sailed nicely with about 35-degrees of heel. This wasn’t a problem for anyone including Elton; he thrived on the adventure.
We arrived around 1830hrs, dropped the sails and anchored about 100-meters outside the port entrance, jumped in the tender and headed to the quayside. Unlike the first two hours, the rest of the time we made good progress to get back on schedule. Though we were back in the house in time to cook dinner, we had a rather interesting welcome; the dogs had decimated a number of things whilst we were away and spread everything around the pool area, a herd of elephants couldn’t have made more of a mess!!!
We thoroughly enjoyed our weekend and even the Friday night paled into insignificance, thank you Andrew for arranging this passage whilst we were staying with you, we had a fabulous time.