It’s Sunday night, almost a week after delivering Zen’it back to Marseille from St. Tropez. I think we motored the entire way as we were racing the onset of a Mistral with no wind and what little wind we had was in our face. It about 8pm and I am watching Christian Williams solo sail to Hawaii on YouTube for the 5th time. I like his philosophical bent and general good humor while sharing how to fix things and providing some possibly slightly inebriated entertainment. (Link to his video is here: https://youtu.be/Oz8wpl9YG1o?si=Z6B427JLPu6PRhpr) Today is my first day alone quite possibly since my last trip here for my solo 100 miles. I spent most of the day on Zen’it making lists, cleaning and fixing things. She is the recipient of a new main halyard that I bought in St. Tropez. I wanted to put it up after splicing an eye splice but the outer core is so tight that I have to tug at the core creating quite an un buryable mess. I opted for a halyard knot instead which along with whipping all my bare-ended lines, make for a delightful day in the sun with needles and line.

Martigues to Marseille – Shakedown and Friends Arriving

I landed in Marseille a few Mondays ago just after 10am post a double sausage breakfast in Frankfurt. The airport is very close to Martigues, actually just on the other side of a large lake. Zen’it has been stationed in the water since last December when Pierre delivered her for a long 8 month rest. Long enough to collect a few barnacles. I got to the boat after a taxi ride that was astonishingly priced. Next time, take the bus for $10!

I spent the day inspecting Zen’it and making plans to lift her out the following day just a mile or so away where they have a travel lift. The Captinerie folks are really nice here and have been awesome in helping me get a lift out early in the morning. Ideally, we want to get to Marseille Tuesday night so we can get one good sleep prior to the delivery to St. Tropez leaving Wednesday mid day. I found some groceries in the small town with many bridges, saw a couple mini 6.50s and tucked in early with some jet lag dreams sleeping on Zen’it. I was surprised and relieved that she was in great shape outside of a light dusting of some red sand and obvious wear on the fenders having done their thing in a few heavy weather moments. I forgot – I did wind up moving Zen’it to the other side of the river following inaccurate advice that there would be power and a hose over there. The engine started right up! Not used to that! lol (Sorry Flight Risk!)

The following day, Tuesday morning, I delivered Zen’it a mile or so down the river to the yard where she was to get a serious belly rub and a new paint job. I also didn’t realize that there is a slightly ackward channel that I had to take to the life area but I found out the hard way by touching the sandy bottom on the way in. Arg…

Lisa and Vlad arrived right around noon and we all made fast work of cleaning Zen’it. Pierre joined as well and we meet his friend parked next door who was friends of Eeryan. Small world!! We just made the 4:30 last call for the daily dunk and meandered out of Martigues into the Mediterranean and the Bay of Marseille, arriving at SNM guest spot around 10 or so.

Our Route from Martigues

Marseille to St. Tropez

After a quick sleep, some victualizing and gathering our stuff and loading up the ship with our goods and provisions, we heading out to to sea en route to St. Tropez. The slight bummer was that there was very little wind and for some reason, what wind there was was on our nose. (Yes, this is a recurring theme…) We started shifts and log entries changing every two hours. Lisa was not feeling well and spent most of the trip down below trying to gather strength for the racing days ahead. Right around Porquerolles island and I am guessing about midnight, we got some good wind that we could use to squeeze close hauled between the islands. The gusts were quite sprightly and sleeping was quite a challenge trying several different contortions on deck and below. Vlad and Lisa had the sunrise shift and I joined shortly afterward for the rip to St. Tropez.

We got into port around noon as the Captinarie folks were out for lunch. Vald and Lisa wound up finding accomodation in town and we wandered around exploring for most of the evening interspersed with some co-working at the club place. The local folks are really cool and welcoming. Nothing opened for dinner until 7:30 so I did a bit of a re familiarizing walkabout, had a couple negroni’s and wound up with some Thai food in my belly. I was extremely exhausted.

Prep Day – A bit too windy for on water practice

Friday was intended to be an on water spinnaker practice day but it was still blowing 15-25 so we just walked thru workflow for set, gybe and douse. It was a nice time getting the team familiar with the maneuvers and we wound up at a nautical bar for dinner and a drink overlooking the St. Tropez Vieux Port.

Race Day

Saturday was race day and we are hoping to get in 3 races. It’s been awhile and my memory is a bit foggy but I believe we came in close to last but had a lot of fun. We only got in two races before heading back into town and out for dinner. It’s definitely cool to be racing against the same boat. Oh, I also purchased a used sail from a friend of Jerome’s who asked a friend of his to deliver the sail to the race. The only small issue is that the new (used) sail came off a boat with a mast track and Zen’it has sliders.

Storm Is Coming – Tough Choice

Mistral As Cause for Concern – Decided To Head Home Early

There was no wind on Sunday. We went out with the fleet and bobbed around the bay of St. Tropez for awhile hoping we would get in at least one race today. It wasn’t do be. While we were cleaning up the boat Vlad’s dad pingged with some concern that we might be caught out in the Mistral that was blowing in. After careful inspection of the pending weather, we realized that if we were to leave on Monday evening, that we would be caught in 30 plus knots sometime early Tuesday morning which would force us into shelter somewhere about half way home. With light wind predicted for Monday’s races, we made the tough decision to head home early in order to get back to Marseille before the heavy winds made their way across our path. Unfortunately the calm before the storm was very calm and we wound up motoring most of the way back to Vieux Port.

Mirimar and On Water Practice

Back in Marseille and between the high winds we would up getting in a few practice sessions around Friole Island. We practices some spinnaker launches and some man overboard maneuvers. One of the curious highlights of the Vieux Port scenes is a visit to Miramar Restaurant for some good eats amid strange surroundings as I find the vibe and staff interplay there particularly unusual and interesting. The kind of place that lends itself to making up you own backstory to the drama behind the scenes there. Vlad and Lisa had an epic Bouillabaisse and I took one for the team and an Janices abscence I managed an entire Rossini by myself.

Alone with Zen’it – Dawn of Gnarley Spoke Sailing Experiences

Vlad and Lisa had to head home which left me with a couple weeks to reflect and get in some intimate maintenance time with Zen’it. Vald and I took the new sail up to the loft and left things there to get converted for Zen’it’s mast and after the crew was gone I had some time to give Zen’it a thorough inspection. I also took a quick trip to the medical clinic and they recommended that I go for an utra-sound to check to see if I was experiencing some blood clots. Apparently I had a superficial clot in my left calf. Not an emergency but an indicator that I should keep to the plan and take blood thinners as prescribed. They also recommended that I wear leg compression. Ack!

Other cool notes to mention are that I got a chance to catch up with Ereyon my first sailing instructor in France and I got to hang out with Mimi and my friend Neils as well. I also got a great spot for the winter at SNM.

One of the unexpected outcomes of this trip was my realization that I really love sharing sailing safety and competency and it got me thinking that I should do that professionally. The Yacht Master credentials have given me additional confidence and on water experience to take this to the next steps. Stay tuned for a future post on the Yacht Master experience as well as new sections of the site that will highlight my first ‘Safe, Fun and Fast’ sailing experiences coming 2025.

Sexy Boats and Adios

We’ll time to head back to Canada but before shutting things down for this post I thought I would share some boat porn and our adventure log. (I enjoy the process of keeping a log, both to keep things systemic on board but also to look back on the adventures of Zen’it. Until next time…