More traumas and some light relief in the town of Frejus!
So, all sorted, or so we thought, we spent a peaceful night (7th June) on anchor outside of Ile de Embiez, then set sail for Ile de Porquerolles, or Profiteroles as C kept calling it….and except for a short blip when the wind died, we had a beautiful sail in a gentle southerly Force 2 for 26NM’s and dropped our pick in clear turquoise waters just to the west of the port to chill out for the afternoon, watching some amazing beautiful yachts playing in the wind around us!
Porquerolles
Perhaps we should have gone walkabout on the island that day, because for the next 2 days, the wind decided to blow first from west to east, then east to west, with us swapping anchorages each time to get the best protection. We weren’t comfortable leaving Seaclusion on her own, on anchor. It was the right call because on the second day a small yacht ahead of us slipped its anchor, narrowly missing us, then headed out to sea, its owner somewhere ashore. We did our bit for the day, calling it in to the port, who weren’t interested, trying the coastguard, to finally getting hold of a french navy ship that was loitering offshore, who finally did something about it, securing it we think to a buoy somewhere in the bay. We would have hated to be the owners coming back to the beach to find our yacht missing, but somehow they were re-acquainted with her sometime early evening as we saw her being sailed towards the main port on the mainland.
Finally on the evening of the 9th, the wind dropped and we were floating on a millpond, so it should have been a wonderfully peaceful night. Sadly not, because as we were trying to drop off to sleep, all we could hear was water sloshing under the forward bed, it was water that was certainly inside the boat! With torch in hand, we lifted the mattress to see, sure enough there was water ingress around the bow thruster cavity in the bow, somewhere that should be bone dry! Certainly not good news!
So, with that, and the Mistral set to blow again, we set sail the 12 NM´s to Le Lavandou, to see if we could get some protection and assistance.
Le Lavandou at Sunset
Having done some tests to try to work out where the leak was coming from, we tried it just with the bow thruster in use, which was not so critical, but it appeared to leak at all times, which was a lot more worrying, so we contacted 4 potential ship yards around us, and luckily had a positive response from one, CNPF at Frejus, the downside was that it was a good 36NM’s away from us!
The following morning, whilst we waited for the Northwest winds to come to push us along (we certainy didn’t want to be heading into any waves at this point), we dinghied into Le Levandou for some provisions, a coffee and a croissant. We stopped here before last year, so if any one wants a catch up on this place, you can follow this link….https://www.yacht-seaclusion.com/a-taste-of-whats-to-come-in-2024-the-french-riviera-to-provence/
At noon on the 10th, back on board, we set sail downwind to get half way, at the tip of the Saint Tropez bay, before crossing the other side to Frejus.
Cap Taillat
Cap Taillat is beautiful, nothing there but turquoise waters, a sandy beach and wilderness, it should look like this..hahahah, not with a Mistral blowing however , with 40 metres of chain out to hold us secure. We will return for sure, at some point this trip, in somewhat calmer conditions!
However as the sun started to drop, so did the wind finally, and we had a giggle at this tasteful cat! Strawberry Blancmange comes to mind!
Early on the 11th we set sail for Frejus, arriving at 11am to the yard’s dock. Immediately they sent an engineer out to take a look and within half an hour, told us the bad news. The seal around the bow thruster cavity was disintegrating and she had to be lifted to be repaired. Complete failure would have proved catastrophic for Seaclusion and possibly us!
The Culprit
Whilst waiting for her to be lifted, we then set about manually draining the cavities under the floorboards which doesn’t naturally drain to our bilge, (the design by Dufour from this point of view leaves a lot to be desired), manually with a sponge and hand pump and then, without further ado, we watched her being lifted, something we didn’t think we would be doing until September, but at least we had a posh ladder!
After a good 16 hours drying out, the guys arrived at 8am the following morning to start work….. covering everything on site before they did.. a necessary precaution as they would be dealing with fibreglass and epoxy.
And we decided to head off to the town, stretching our legs for the 3 km walk, and leave them to it!
Frejus Old Town, now in the Côte d’Azur region of France.
A beautiful old town, with its colourful houses and life, well worth the walk! We then headed back to the port so see how the guys were getting on. The Port of Frejus is also beautiful, as ports go, very well kept with lots of posh boats too, but then we are now in the Côte d’Azur!
On getting back to Seaclusion and taking a peak, we soon realised that our initial thought of staying on board that night just wanted going to happen… we couldn’t even get to the fridge!
Luckily we are still early June and finding a cheapy hotel not far away wasn’t too difficult, so off we trotted, settled in and then headed back to the port for dinner out… steak and frites for David and steak tartare, thai style, for C, washed down by a much needed bottle of Brouilly.. Then dessert, yum.. we certainly wont be complaining about the food here in France!
The following morning was spent using the hotel’s wifi to download some client photos for a book, backing up iphones and updating everything that cant be done using our data roaming, then headed back to the yard at lunchtime, to be told that the work was finished and if we wanted, we could be lifted back in the water either at 5pm that day or 8am the following morning. Given by then the wind was blowing 30-40knots and would have been on our nose, we opted for the latter, and thank god we did, as we were soon crying for more help. We had lifted the floor to check our newly clean and dry bilge, or what should have been, only to find a considerable amount of warm water no less, ie from our newly fixed water heater!! … Fortunately it was a 20 minute fix for those who know what they are doing, Jean Claude had left a superfluous o-ring in the connection which was causing the leak, not so good for us though as we had to once again manually pump out the cavity yet again!
But finally, today, the 15th we are back on the water, with no danger of sinking, but a lot poorer, to head back towards Saint Tropez., with our fingers and toes crossed that the old adage of bad things happens in 3´s rings true, we have had our third now! please no more for this season!!!
15th June 2024
