TripSailor.com® Sailing Blogs

We drove east from the mouth of the Rhone through Marseilles and finally encountered the mythical crowded conditions of the Cote D’Azur in Cassis. Beautiful but completely full car and people traffic jammed from highway to beach, and we spent the whole day simply driving eastward looking for a hotel room (finally found one at 5pm off the highway in Toulon). Instead of more touristing we drove the next day for Bridget’s parents place near Antibes and we stayed on their Dufour 32 sailing every day of our five days there.

Sailing with Bridget’s parents on their boat was an interesting contrast for us having just come off cruising our own boat for over two months. We noticed immediately how relaxed we felt sailing someone else’s boat and how much more fun we were having as a result. No surprise really because Bridget’s parents took care of us so we no longer had to think about where we were going to sleep at night or where to eat or what cultural historic sights to go see so our entire life became incredibly easy, well fed and fun. In fact they gave us the five day French Riviera trip of a lifetime and we loved it.

Sailing the warm blue waters of the Med, swimming off the back of the boat, warm sleeping on the boat but not too hot at night, we realized why people vacation and sail here.  Now we are happy to be back in Washington, getting the schooner annual maintenance done and ready for a buyer coming to see it next week. Then sailing up to Wooden Boat Fest in Port Townsend and from there on the San Juans for a week. Final words of wisdom? Nothing new: Never ever become a two boat owner! The stuff we own owns us!