Yesterday was a fine day -- blue skies and winds 12 to 15 knots. We sailed Skylark to Ile D'Aix which is south of Port Des Minimes. Abeam Ile D'Aix is Fort Boyard, an abandoned prison built on the water, a kind of French Alcatraz. Anchored off a beach and lunched on nicoise salad and pate campagne preceded by the now mandatory glass of Pineaux Des Charente. The sail back to Port Des Minimes was quite spectacular -- many sailboats out and a national sailing championship at the same time. Nice winds. Skylark whizzed along reaching 8.5 knots in 12 mph winds, overtaking some fast looking boats. Back at the marina at 6 pm, just in time to meet with friends from Paris, Thierry, Claudine and son Mathieu who brought a wonderful bottle of Ruinart champagne.
The weather turned ulgly today -- rain and dark skies, not much wind. We stayed in port and studied various pieces of equipment. Ed enjoyed a visit to the engine room, Francois solved an issue with the Furuno chartplotter's tide data which the dealer's rep couldn't explain (plotter came with US Eastern Standard Time set as the default. Richard filled the water tank...not sure how he got 1000 litres into a 900 litre tank. That's all for now but we shall return.....