Set off from Marseille this morning at 0815. Before leaving I took the lines for a French guy who arrived next to us. He had come from Frioul marina and said the wind had been at 55kts yesterday. The decision to leave that anchorage gets better & better. While I was doing some stuff to the boat I had noticed that it was 38kts in our port which is really sheltered.
I got up at 0600 to do some stuff & wash all the yellow mud that comes out of the rain off the boat. By 0800 the sun had gone in but it was nice as we went out of the harbour with the mega yacht, Zenji following us. After 5 miles of motoring South into a gentle wind in the lee of Marseille we came out into a really big swell left over from yesterday and headed east between some islands. Mayuri had gone back to bed feeling ill, but even my stomach was being churned by it.
After a few hours the wind veered just enough to make a starboard tack and it rained a little - covering the boat in the yellow mud again. The veiws were really nice and for a full hour I sailed through a shoal of thousands of jellyfish. They were that thick I thought they might block up the engine cooling water intake.
I intended to anchor tonight as the wind is light but as we came into the bay riding the huge swell, the anchorages at both sides had big crashing waves as the water shallowed. So at 1345 we headed for the marina. I hadn't looked at it in the book as I didn't intend to use it and so hadn't noticed that there aren't many (any) visitor berths, but after berthing four times in different spots, the guy was finally happy at 1435 and after photocopying every bit of paper & certificate I had & taking my telephone number he took our 28 euros :-(
