La Ciotat & the tiny Île des Embiez

Early on, (we were on someone else’s berth and they wanted it back by 8am!) so we set off around the corner, under engine, as the winds hadn’t quite woken up yet either, to the bay of La Ciotat, we dropped our pick in sandy turquoise waters. You may recall we stopped here at the back end of our trip last year but the wind was very strong and sea was so choppy, together with our very unreliable outboard, we never went ashore, something we planned to correct this time!

So with time on our hands, we dropped the dinghy, now that we have one that appears very reliable and doesn’t put our blood pressure up every time we go to use it, we motored ashore to go for a wander. It was, as it happens, market day so there was lots of life around the old port and seafront.

La Ciotat

We weathered out some strong north westerly winds here, waiting for them to turn southerly so we could anchor off the tiny island of Embiez, where we had managed to source the parts we needed for our hot water heater and had our fingers crossed we might be able to find someone who could help us dismantle it and fit them!

So on the 4th June we had a lovely sail for all of 11NM’s and managed to drop our pick quite close to the marina despite the sea bed consisting of mainly grass, even though it took 2 attempts. We then jumped in the dinghy to go ashore, to explore and have a chat to the marina office. As luck would have it, she gave us 2 names of mechanics and one, Jean Claude, was available the next day.

We spent the next hour or so walking around the island, as that is all it took, (It’s so small that its main mode of transport is golf buggies) before heading back to Seaclusion for the night.

Île Des Embiez

The island is also known for the marina, which was set up by Paul Ricard, a French industrialist and creator of an eponymous pastis brand which merged in 1975 with its competitor Pernod to create Pernod Ricard. He was also the builder of the F1 motor racing Circuit Paul Ricard in Le Castellet, and his life was displayed on numerous placards along the main street, sadly all in French, so we didn’t really get all the detail.

We watched a beautiful sunset and had a very peaceful night afloat, no wind and almost no need for our fleeces!

The following morning, after feeding the fish and the duck that came to invade the party, we headed to the marina and moored alongside their outer quay, which made life easier as we could just hop in the dinghy to get to the side of the port where life was, rather than a 30 minute walk. Whilst we waited for Jean Claude, we took advantage of their laundrette which really was the furthest point from us, so the dinghy was the best option…

Well here’s another little tidbit, in all our time on Seaclusion, David has aways been the skipper of our dinghy, I have never driven it… but how hard can it be, especially with a new easy to start engine…hahahah. So off I poodle, laundry in hand, trying to get the hang of it… I might add the last time I drove a dinghy was my Dad’s, so we are talking 30+ years ago and that one had a steering wheel, as opposed to a tiller.. David stood watching, giggling away, and I must say there are probably easy places to learn than in a marina with lots of pontoons, boats and mooring lines to negotiate. Piece of cake I thought, I arrived at my destination, albeit a bit slower than David would have but without incident… I wish however I could say that for the return journey, all I can say is thankfully there was no one around, including David to watch, as I tried to reverse my way out of the channel and nearly came a cropper with a posh motor boats lines, it would certainly have ended up on Youtube had there been, Suffice to say, I walked when I had to go back!

At 3pm Jean Claude arrived and set to work, with David’s help, as it really was a 2 man job in a very tight space, and Jean Claude was not a small chap! Changing the element and thermostat meant partially draining the tank, and if you could see the space, you would see immediately that there was no choice but to let the water drain into the boat and let the bilge pump do its thing..hmmm, if only… we could hear the pump, but it wasn’t sucking. It’s a fairly critical safety part on a boat, so despite now having steaming hot water, we weren’t going anywhere until we got that sorted too…too late to do anything about it, we stayed put on the quay and decided someone else could cook us dinner tonight…good choice…washed down with a bottle of very nice local red wine, of course!

So morning arrived and we started to look at the issue…the pump had a bent hose and a leak…whilst it was serviceable, we couldn’t get the parts, only a new pump so we decided to swap it out, and keep the old one to be serviced and act as a spare for the future. But, if we thought the hot water tank was in an awkward position, that was nothing compared to the pump. Either Dufour use child labour or it was fitted before the deck was! Just take a look…blue circle highlighting where the old pump was that we removed….David in the first cubbyhole, me in the second on my back, trying to help without being able to see how I was doing. Certainly not a job for Jean-Claude and his rather large tum!

2 hours later, success or so we had thought. New pump in situ, pipes and electrics all connected, all we needed to do was turn it on..at this point, bruised and battered, we both nearly cried and uttered more than one profanity when the same problem persisted, no suction! We then started to trouble shoot from the other end, and discovered that it was the filter and non return valve which was the issue. Lesson to be learned, trouble shoot the easiest thing to fix first!!! After yet another trip to the very good chandlers, 10 minutes later it was all fixed!! Still at least we have a spare pump on board now!

Without further ado, we left the quay, too late now to set sail, but happy to be back on anchor away from the wash of the shuttle ferries that came into the port far too regularly! Fingers and toes crossed that is the end of this year’s teething problems for a while.

7th June 2024