We had a lovely time in Sete, apart from the dog poo on the streets, it is a lovely city. We spent our time relaxing here, taking in the sights and doing a bit of cycling.
On Tuesday evening, we had a celebratory meal out to mark us reaching the Med 6 months exactly to the day we left Largs. As Sete is very much a fishing port, we plumped for a Seafood Feast and enjoyed Marinated Smoked Salmon/Mixed Seafood Salad/Moules Mariniere/ Grilled Sardines/Monkfish Aioli/Mixed Seafood Plate (Stuffed Squid, Stuffed Mussels and Prawns), which were all fresh and delicious. Apple Tart and Ice Cream rounded off a lovely meal.
We spent Wednesday morning at the Market buying fresh vegetables and spices for Friday Night’s Halloween Dinner Party with Martin and Julie on GG and I cooked a spicy home made chilli on board in the evening, in preparation for Friday.
On Tuesday evening, we had a celebratory meal out to mark us reaching the Med 6 months exactly to the day we left Largs. As Sete is very much a fishing port, we plumped for a Seafood Feast and enjoyed Marinated Smoked Salmon/Mixed Seafood Salad/Moules Mariniere/ Grilled Sardines/Monkfish Aioli/Mixed Seafood Plate (Stuffed Squid, Stuffed Mussels and Prawns), which were all fresh and delicious. Apple Tart and Ice Cream rounded off a lovely meal.
We spent Wednesday morning at the Market buying fresh vegetables and spices for Friday Night’s Halloween Dinner Party with Martin and Julie on GG and I cooked a spicy home made chilli on board in the evening, in preparation for Friday.
We left this morning at 10am, heading South down the Canal Maritime, under the last 3 swing bridges and out into The Med! We then took a course of WSW to Cap D’Agde, 13nm away.
The Force 3 forecast, gusting to a 5 later in the afternoon, was nowhere to be found……..by the time we were 5nm offshore, we were in a Force 6 at least, gusting higher, which just came out of the blue. It was terrible, seriously terrifying. One minute there was no wind, the next our flags were horizontal. We had the option to turn back but we didn’t see the point as we were almost half way there. The waves were huge (2.5m), breaking over the bow and the fly bridge. To be honest, this is the worst sea state we have ever been out in and Jim coped admirably with everything thrown at him. There was one point when we were hit on the port side with such a force, we both thought that we were going over. I have never prayed so much in my entire life and thank God, they were answered. We slowly (7kn) and carefully made our way to Cap D’Agde arriving, physically and emotionally exhausted at 12.20pm and our friends Julie and Martin were anxiously waiting for us, to take our lines at the waiting pontoon. We then had to move the boat around into the marina and into a space - easier said that done. I threw a long bow line to Martin who secured it and then we could not for the life of us get the stern around due to the wind. We had to take another long line and fix it to our mid-ships cleat and then throw this ashore and a passing jogger had to assist to literally haul us round whilst Julie and I were frantically trying with all our strength to keep us away from a yacht on the finger pontoon next to the alongside berth - me on board GG and Julie having got on board the yacht to push off with her feet! - thankfully we both managed successfully to avoid disaster. Once we were safely tied up with about 4 lines ashore, Julie and Martin then made us coffee, pastries, Pastis and sandwiches aboard MyTime - just what we needed after a harrowing trip. These guys are true friends.
Sorry there are no photographs of our trip from Sete to Cap D’Agde, it took me all my time to stay upright never mind think about taking pictures!
We had our Halloween Party in the evening with games after dinner including fishing for frogs which Martin won. It was a lovely, relaxed evening with good chat.
We will stay here until next Wednesday at least as the weather forecast for the next few days is gale force winds and very heavy seas, so we will wait till then and make sure the sea is flat before we move to Port Camargue, where we intend making our base until February next year.
Cap D’Agde is 43’16’.402N 003’30’.516E and we travelled 13nm today.
The Force 3 forecast, gusting to a 5 later in the afternoon, was nowhere to be found……..by the time we were 5nm offshore, we were in a Force 6 at least, gusting higher, which just came out of the blue. It was terrible, seriously terrifying. One minute there was no wind, the next our flags were horizontal. We had the option to turn back but we didn’t see the point as we were almost half way there. The waves were huge (2.5m), breaking over the bow and the fly bridge. To be honest, this is the worst sea state we have ever been out in and Jim coped admirably with everything thrown at him. There was one point when we were hit on the port side with such a force, we both thought that we were going over. I have never prayed so much in my entire life and thank God, they were answered. We slowly (7kn) and carefully made our way to Cap D’Agde arriving, physically and emotionally exhausted at 12.20pm and our friends Julie and Martin were anxiously waiting for us, to take our lines at the waiting pontoon. We then had to move the boat around into the marina and into a space - easier said that done. I threw a long bow line to Martin who secured it and then we could not for the life of us get the stern around due to the wind. We had to take another long line and fix it to our mid-ships cleat and then throw this ashore and a passing jogger had to assist to literally haul us round whilst Julie and I were frantically trying with all our strength to keep us away from a yacht on the finger pontoon next to the alongside berth - me on board GG and Julie having got on board the yacht to push off with her feet! - thankfully we both managed successfully to avoid disaster. Once we were safely tied up with about 4 lines ashore, Julie and Martin then made us coffee, pastries, Pastis and sandwiches aboard MyTime - just what we needed after a harrowing trip. These guys are true friends.
Sorry there are no photographs of our trip from Sete to Cap D’Agde, it took me all my time to stay upright never mind think about taking pictures!
We had our Halloween Party in the evening with games after dinner including fishing for frogs which Martin won. It was a lovely, relaxed evening with good chat.
We will stay here until next Wednesday at least as the weather forecast for the next few days is gale force winds and very heavy seas, so we will wait till then and make sure the sea is flat before we move to Port Camargue, where we intend making our base until February next year.
Cap D’Agde is 43’16’.402N 003’30’.516E and we travelled 13nm today.
No comments:
Post a Comment