.....Where the hell is 10 - 12 qai papacino, 06300 Nice France
I flew to Nice, France on 28th March 2007 after spending a week in Kuala Lumpur with my wife Pauline and family. It was an emotional departure from KL leaving my wife and totally unsure of what would happen during the ensuing weeks. The looney process to date had been to pay a deposit on a yacht site unseen (except for some possibly airbrushed photos of the yacht!!). I arrived at Nice Airport after a transit stop in Amsterdam. The language barrier, no local currency and no real idea of where 10 - 12 qai papacino, 06300 Nice, France was from the airport was not daunting.
............beautiful port de nice
...... the super yachts, the restaurants the working port de nice
It was a beautiful sunny spring day (almost) in the Mediterranean. How lucky am I. The Gendamerie were helpful (always helpful as I found out during my stay in France and later in French Polynesia) and I bundled my gear into the cab for the thrill seeking ride along the Avenue des Anglaise to Nice Harbour.
..............Avenue des anglaise looking to nice.
....port de nice, france
......Bonjour Monsieur Cyril Lelievre
My contact to find my mythical cyber yacht was a gentleman who was the selling agent for the owner. I had spoken to Cyril on many occasions from Australia and swapped copious emails and *.jpg's. Did he really exist or was this a less than elaborate Russian Mafia / Nigerian Money Scam that was about to explode into a costly finacial embarrassment. Cyril existed, the sales agency wasn't a front for the Russian Mafia and I had my first french coffee in the French Riveria. This is a blast, sitting at Port de Nice (the most beautiful Port in the World) sipping coffee and my french vocabulary is rapidly exploding towards 8 words!! I receive a welcome kiss on each cheek from Cyril (not so kool) and again from the lovely Cecile Lecuyer (so very kool!!). We talked yachts, France, Australia, kids, wives,; it was such a welcome to the city of Nice.
Sailing a 50 ft yacht ............how hard can it be?
It seemed to be a reasonable strategy when talking to these seasoned yachties to keep my lack of sailing experience/knowledge/ability to the background. As I was probably going to be manouvering a large heavy yacht in and around the exquisite Super Yachts in Port de Nice it would help avoid angst among the Nice yachties if they were not aware of my shortcomings. When I say inexperienced I do have extensive knowledge of running tinnies on Moreton Bay and I did sail Peter Mann's 14ft Mari Cat a few times in the Tweed River. How hard can it be....?. Should be easier, Pete's Mari Cat didn't have a steering wheel, the Beneteau 50 has two.
.... decision time .... do I commit
Cyril and I arranged to meet the next day at Golfe Juan, near Juan Les Pins. (Those who remember the 70's song "....where do you go to my lovely.....at Juan Les Pins by Peter Sarsted.) I travelled by train, Cyril motorcycled. Golfe Juan - boat heaven. At the end of one of 100 fingers is my dream my Beneteau 50! This is decision time. Do I go back to Australia with tail between legs or be a lunatic and proceed with the purchase.
Lets get a survey done, a haul out and make the final decision. A local Marine Surveyor Phillippe Degoussy unlocked the mysteries of below deck/under floor compartments of yachts. Phillipe explained the intricacies of chain plates, standing rigging, diesel engines, sea cocks, rudders and geaboxes. I winched my first body up the mast in the Bosuns Chair. This survey business is so educational. I feel more qualified now after seeing what makes up a Beneteau 50 behind the panels, under the bunks and below the deck. To a person, the french are proud of their french made Beneteaus. I was warming to this beautiful, big, strong Beneteau 50.
... the haulout
So here I am alone in a tiny hotel room in a 2.5 star hotel in the backstreets on Port de Nice. What the hell am I doing here? It is 5.00 am the next day. The Bordeau and moulle from last night have been digested. I have a clear head. You loon, you are alone in a strange city, you can speak 8 words of their language, you are intending to buy a big yacht that you have never sailed (don't even think about the EURO!). Lets get the haul out done and see. Whoa this is interesting these straps are going to lift my Beneteau out onto the hard? Impossible!
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..... my Beneteau at the mercy of the "hard" master.
I look knowlegable and nod at the right times in discussion with the "hard" master. (I really must add more words to my french vocabulary). It comes out easy, it dosen't come crashing down on the hard. Jesus, ......... are they all this big out of the water?
A water blast, a check for moisture and osmosis. An affronted "hard" master informs me that Beneteaus DO NOT have OSMOSIS ...EVER. I have insulted my new friends.
Humph... What do I do. She looks good. Cyril and I negotiate the end of his responsibilities and the start of my (financial) responsibilities. OK. Here is the deal. Stand her on the hard, I will antifoul, Cyril will make the minor repairs noted by Phillipe my surveyor. I hand over the EUROs. It is easy. I am thinking kool I can move out of my EUR90 hotel and onto the yacht. This has got to be value considering the hard costs EUR15 a day. Cyril and I spend an engaging week repairing, antifouling and lunching at the Port de Nice taverns and eateries. Baguette, cheese, onion, tomato, moulle and a Bordeaux. Macoronade, the best seafood/pasta dish in Nice (maybe the world). Apart from the early morning panic attacks (see above ... the haulout) this is a great place to be. Coffee on deck on the hard next to qai papacino 6300 Nice France. Looking out over the French Riveria and Port de Nice. Summer is on the way. Maybe today I will look at the charts and see how far it is to Australia .....cerainly from the world map it doesn't look so far.
A side trip to Napoli.... what a good idea
I have become a part of the riviera society here after 6 weeks. Bonjour Cyril, Bonjour Cecile. My french accent is now becoming very ......... french. Without exception my voculabary of 8 french words is now clearly understood by all I meet. I have become an acknowledged yachtsman in Nice because I have bought a yacht and I am sailing to Australia .... he must know what he is doing. I am still planning my inaugral sail in the Beneteau.
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.............Me Cecile and macoronade
My growing reputation as a sailor has reached the ears of a delivery skipper in Brussells. He wants a first mate to help deliver a new 38ft Robertson & Caine cat from Nice to Napoli, Italy. This should be fun and also a chance to see how to do a passage. It is unfortunate that the wind followed our every move and we motored for 5 days into a head wind to Napoli. It was cold wet and bumpy.
My skipper is a master chef, cooking simple french meals each day. My culinary education has started. I learn how potatoes,a block of cheese, bread mix, onions, tomatoes and pasta can be infinitely mixed and matched to make a tasty meal. A nice Bordeax ... always to top it off.
We arrive in Procida, an island off Naples and delivered the cat more or less in one piece. The trip resulted in my first understanding of passage making. I match my navigation laptop with the onboard Raymarine plotter and became comfortable with the program, charts and reliability of my chosen navigation package. For those interested I use a DELL laptop, Software On Board (SOBMax) supplied by DIGIBOAT.com.au (thanks for fabulous support from Simon Blundell of Digiboat!!) and C-MAP on SD cards (again fabulous support from Peter Webster C-MAP Sydney Australia) and Admiralty Charts. The two bibles, Cornells World Cruising Routes and Cornells World Cruising Handbook are the go.
I highly recommend Napoli to any person who has a hankering to be a scam artist/pick pocket/vagabond. Napoli is the place to do your apprenticeship. The redeeming feature of Napoli is that McDonalds (the unavoidable golden arch)serves draft beer and pizza.
..................lets sail the Med
My Beneteau is clean and antifouled. The paperwork is done. I have fake insurance documents to satisfy the Capitanerie (read Harbour Master). I have a mate Allan Sharpe now on board. Lets do it! Cast off, out of the Mediterranean style mooring turn right and we are weaving through about 15Million EURO of Super yachts per 100 mtrs. Out we go through the Port de Nice entrance and out into the Med. Go boys!! The wind is a stiff 30 knots so there were no other yachts out. All sail up the Beneteau handles the weather beautifully. we go east towards Monaco, past Cape Ferrat and do a circuit back. It is a pleasant first sail in the yacht.
my neighbours on the hard.
In an extraordinary combination of wind and tide we managed to reverse to the dock and tie up ........ like we had been doing it for years. Med style mooring is something to behold. Pick an opening, reverse in, use enough power to force the opening to increase for your beam. Sardine mooring is more descriptive rather than med mooring.
......st tropez, cannes, antibes, Nice to Las Palmas Mallorca Spain
My friends have arrived. ed and Anne, Allan. here we go we have crew, enthusiasm, a full tanks of diesel and supplies. We leave port de nice for a shake down cruise west along the french riviera. cnnes, antibes, st tropez and all the small frwnch provincial towns between. this is a blast the weather is warm and still we eat baguette daily, croisants french wine. We are early for the cannes film festival but it is easy to understand the koolness of the cote d'zure and all that is quintessential french. The crew are doing well. We sail a bit we motor a bit. I confidently enter the port of St Tropez and immediately leave. Hell these super yachts are SUPER i am not going to prang into one. I am still unsure of the behavour of MEN BATI, particularly going astern. we anchor west. Here we are anchored for the night. The charts show a crossed anchor but I am sure they are wrong. We dine and sleep. it is 3.00am the wind has come up I am sure we have moved. yes we are heading ashore despite the anchor. Ed get up we are moving. I know it's cold (and dark) lets start up and head to the other side of the bay. Cruising slowly we get to a quaint village and slink around in their harbour looking to tie up. I have learn't my first lesson in docking. ALWAYS in a new port go boldly to the fuel dock and tie up. It is the safest and mmost accessible place in every marina. Always pretend you intend to but lots of diesel (gasoil in france). hey in the light of day this is a great town. Anne loves the arte and antiques, we eat baguette and croissant and danish. A hot shower warms the bones./p>
We leave and head back towards nice. The weather has returned to the other end of the med spectrum (too much or too little wind). The sea is oily smoothe, the sun is shining, the waft od diesel fumes gently permeates. Anne succumbs. Ed (a good husband to Anne) is not a puke person. I do the honorable skipper thing and provide/recycle the chunder bucket for Anne. Mal de mere is a very personal thing. I mean no one else gives a flying french stick for those suffering. I have lost two crew for the nice - mallorca passage.
............... first Mal de Mere casualty.
It is blowing a dog off a chain at nice the day we (my remaining crew Allan and me) plan to leave for Mallorca. The capitanerie explains that we should wait for 2 - 3 days. We wait, explore the culture and clubs of march aux fleur in the old city of nice. It is our last nite. Maybe we should call into this quaint pub, Le Skipper, for a jar before dinner. 9 hours later, betrothed to the bar person, (Zippy, a lovely Kenyan student) my best man and I decided to admit defeat and retire to MEN BATI. It is certainly wise to wait for the weather .... but in the med don't wait too long. The low had passed the seas were oily calm once again and MEN BATI motored to Las Palmas mallorca over the next 3.5 days. It is a lovely trip to Mallorca and I lost my remaining crew member. Allan decided it is too quiet on deck watch at night. The 400nm or so was enought to know that 13,000nm was not going to happen. We compromised and Allan is staying until Gibraltar.
................ Al and me. Watch change Nice - Mallorca
More travels to come ..... more to come .... more to come .... more to come!!!
..... Ibitza, Fromentera, Spanish Coast
............ Arrive at Gibraltar
........... Canaries...Turn left at Atlantic (keep dirt to port)
..... the first big cross teneriffe to guadaloupe caribbean.
......Aruba - ABC islands
.........panama yacht club, colon, panama.
............crossing the panama canal.
......bliss at balboa yacht club, panama city, panama
...........onto galapagos
...............its spiritual ... 3,000nm to hiva oa!
......tuamotu archipelago
....... tahiti, morea, bora bora huahine
.........cook islands, tonga noumea
......... brisbane town and home.
uat.