David's Diary: Tuesday, October 30, 2001

Port du Frioul, France

We were greeted in the morning by another bright day. We had planned on moving on to Marseille, but the fortifications on the cliff looked too interesting. So instead of moving on, we spent the day exploring. It was a rocky climb up to the Chateau and when we got there we discovered that it was completely in ruins with warning signs in French telling us how unsafe it was.

During our walk we passed several bays and with the nice weather they were quickly filling with local boats. We walked back down to sea level and then set out to explore the rest of Ile Ratonneau. We passed more beaches and bays becoming crowded with day visitors who take the regular ferry service from Marseille. We then explored the old quarantine hospital, which is currently being restored. On the NE corner of the island we saw old gun emplacements, which must date from the Second World War. We even saw what appeared to be bomb craters near the gun emplacements.

Morning at Port Frioul

Docking the boat yesterday proved to be a bit of a challenge. We are still getting used to Dragonsinger and the style of docking in France. When we approached the quay, I had misjudged its height. The fenders were tied too low and despite a careful approach to the quay, the wind pushed us faster than I expected and we hit the quay hard enough to make a one foot (approximately 30 cm) scrape in the gel coat (you can just see part of it in the bottom middle of the picture above). In more than twenty year's of boating this is the first time that I've scraped the gel coat. Fixing the boat shouldn't be difficult, but my ego might take longer to heal.

Allen and Kevin Go Fishing

After returning to the boat for lunch we were stopped by French customs. Fortunately they spoke English and after a careful examination of our Canadian ship's registration papers and our description of our plans for the coming year, they left satisfied that we should be allowed in France. This is one of our very few encounters with French officials and we hope that any other official encounters, in France or elsewhere in Europe, will be as pleasant.

Allen and Kevin made friends with the French fisherman who spent the entire day at the end of the quay. Allen and Kevin didn't catch anything, but their French friend did catch a fish for dinner. As the sun set, we looked forward to Halloween that we planned to spend in Marseille.