Court Short

Two days after going on the market Ocean Rainbow was under offer!  Not what we'd expected and a real shock to our system.   Luckily, on returning from a wonderful family wedding in UK, we were able to take OR off for a week's sailing before we went for sea trials.  Needless to say OR […]

Well we’ve bitten the bullet and faced the fact we’re getting older.   Ocean Rainbow is looking for new adventuring owners while her current ones are still enjoying their sailing.   We’re not sure how long it will take to find someone who will continue to lavish love on Ocean Rainbow and take her to […]

What a way to end the first part of this season’s sailing!    8.2knots over the ground for protracted periods with a reef in!   Way to go Ocean Rainbow!!    In case you haven’t gathered we had an absolutely cracking sail back to Port Napoleon from Marseille.  We are now about to leave OR […]

We are managing to get about in between the Mistral onslaughts.    We escaped Port Napoleon and sailed to Port Pin (via Frioul) where we had hoped to stop but we weren’t happy about anchoring in such a narrow gorge with strong winds forecast.    So, off we went to the next calanque and took […]

We are having a very varied season so far in terms of weather!  One minute it’s glorious sunshine and the next it’s almost as cold as an English winter.    We’ve had no wind and been bobbing at anchor in true South of France fashion, then winds gusting 53 knots (saw it with our own […]

We’re sailing again and have made our escape to Port Cassis.   According to Frédéric Mistral, ‘He who has seen Paris and not Cassis, has seen nothing.’  Well it is very picturesque and friendly with its harbour surrounded by tall, colourful, shuttered buildings with terracotta roofs but Paris it is not!!  There is a magnificent […]

While England roasts in glorious sunshine we are battling strong winds, overcast skies and rain!  Our anchorage became untenable with 40 knot winds - and stronger winds forecast for the night - so we moved.   We hoisted the tiniest bit of sail and rocketed 6nm across to Carry le Rouet where we surged into […]

After exploring Frioul, we set off eastwards with great hopes of reaching a new destination on Easter Sunday only to be trounced by weather and plastic fatigue! A handful of sliders on our main sail decided to break taking the main sail out of commission, which meant either motoring into strong winds with lumpy seas […]

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 […]

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 […]