Back to the Lerins Islands and a Surprise at Cannes!

We left Golfe-Juan on the 23rd August to sail the short 5NM’s to the Lerins Islands where we stopped briefly on our way through but never got the opportunity to go ashore.This time the forecast was good although we had totally underestimated the number of boats that would be at anchor! We dropped our pick where we could and later when most of the day boats had left we repositioned to a much nicer spot to watch the sunset and have a good night on board.

We did chuckle, here the French have picked up on the Turkish theme of boats cruising this beautiful playground selling ice-creams. We had a pizza here last time, cooked on a Catamaran anchored in the bay, this time we could have partaken with steak and langoustines on another boat which was cruising around and tied up alongside any boats interested to cook their dinner!

The following morning we went ashore to the smaller of the two islands, Saint Honorat, which is home to a monastery and nothing else, but wonderful walks around the island.

Saint Honarat, Lerins Islands

The Monastery was beautiful, and somewhat entertaining, as we have never known monks produce and sell their own wine before!

A pic pinched from the internet to show the Monastery off properly…

We then dinghied across to Sainta Margherita hoping to go ashore there too, but there was no landing spot for the dinghy, at least not this side of the island and to go around was too far for our little dinghy! So we went back to Seaclusion, and this intrepid paddle boarder went across, weaving through the hundreds of boat, with phone in a sealed back, and my mask and snorkel. You may ask why?

The South Shore of Sainta Margherita where no boats can anchor…

Again why?

Well there are 8 immense submerged statues of the artist Jason de Caires Taylor. He made  6 statues, each 2 metres high and weighing about 10 tonnes, and plunged them under 3 to 5 metres of water. A few fathoms from the beach, you come face to face (so to speak), with the moulded faces of real Cannes residents, aged 7 to 78. These sculpted faces are a fascinating link between land and sea, Man and nature In addition to being original, these sculptures have an ecological objective. Made of specific marine material, they are a refuge of choice for aquatic life. Little by little, algae, shells, corals and fish settle in and bring the place back to life.

With my paddle board tied to my ankle I went in search for them and found them, rather easy as the give away were the number of snorkelers hovering above each one. Sadly my phone wouldn’t take any pictures so I have had to again pinch some images from the internet to show you.. they were stunning and well worth the effort!

When I got back to the boat, Alan and Karen had joined us in their yacht and we spent the afternoon teaching them how to paddle board and generally mucking about in the crystal clear waters. Alan had also told us about the end of season fireworks that were happening in Cannes so in tandem, we motored the 2 miles to Cannes Bay before the sunset to get a good spot on anchor…just as well we have never seen so many boats at anchor, close enough to touch almost, waiting for the show.

Cannes Bay

The guys came over to us, Alan being a keen cook, with dinner, prosecco and beer in hand.. David picked them up in the dinghy and it was a bit of a challenge getting them and the food on board without losing any of it, but we did and had a fab, rather alcoholic evening watching the stunning display that went on for a good half an hour!

We think we retired sometime in the wee hours, but not sure exactly when, although David, after more than a few drinks, did manage to get them back to their yacht in one piece, but it was a night to remember for sure!

24th August 2024