Weather is a challenge this early in the season but we have left the Marina at Port Napoleon and are finally at anchor in the Frioul Archipelago. We had a cracking sail. Not exactly what one would have ordered for the shakedown sail (20+ kts) but everything worked beautifully. Our reef went in […]
About Claire
Started sailing a bit late in life, started blogging even later!
Another year, another adventure!
After an amazingly smooth trip back to Port Napoleon (via EasyJet & buses), we are now back on board Ocean Rainbow and ready to start another sailing season …. and this time we really will be sailing! OR required a lot of washing, cleaning and polishing but otherwise our return to the water was […]
And the pictures!
Reunited and restored to her normal self, here are the pictures that should have been with the last blog!!!
Restored to glory!
Ocean Rainbow is now reunited with her mast, her rigging is set, her boom is on and she looks wonderful. The team at Port Napoleon have been excellent. They’re professional, fast and so amazingly helpful. Jean-Jacques in his cherry picker was brilliant during the mast restepping. He helped straighten out the […]
From saline to salty!
After the most beautiful last day on France’s mighty Rhône River, we are now back in our familiar salty environment. We have spoken to our last lock keeper and negotiated his slightly tricky lock, said goodbye to monster barges and 200ft long floating hotels. We have closed our Guide Fluvials (Waterways Guides) and now […]
Ancient Arles
So we’re now at our last ‘sightseeing’ stop of our wonderful canal trip. Can’t believe it’s coming to an end but oh my goodness have we loved it all! We’re now saturated with ancient history and almost completely befuddled with the names of all the places we’ve been to and, as for churches, we […]
Sur le pont ….
We have just loved Avignon. 5km of walled city, Palais des Papes (the largest and most important gothic building in Europe) the famed bridge, wiggly cobbled streets, trompe d’oeil windows, towers, churches, fountains, water wheels and restaurants. It’s been a real cycle marathon but we think we’ve covered most things!! Great place to […]
Châteauneuf-du-Pape
We arrived in Avignon and the first thing we did was to go off in search of wine!! Rather special wine as it happens and a rather special day where we learnt even more about grape varieties, wine making processes and domaines. Châteauneuf-du-Pape consists of the remains of a castle, dozens of little “caves” for […]
From Valence to Viviers
We’re progressing down the beautiful Rhône with stops in marinas tucked out of the way of the wash from barges and other river traffic. Valence was a nice town with a lovely park but it’s Viviers that’s caught our imagination with ramparts surrounding the cathedral and ecclesiastical buildings dating from the 11th Century. We also […]
What a load of …… lovely bollards!
In our household cars and bollards do not have a happy relationship, however this is not the case with our boat and bollards! We’re loving them, they’re the floating kind and as fast as we go down, so do the bollards. Oh bliss! Mind you we’re descending at a pace and quite some […]
