Leaving Italy for France: Bormes-les-Mimosas (Terry)

Not the way we had anticipated an entry to the French Riviera…

At about 2am, motoring along quite happily in light airs, we suddenly had no forward progress.  Engine running, no sound of clogged anything.  I raced below and checked the engine bay.  Front fine.  Checked the rear – the prop shaft was not turning and there were three hunks of metal, that once were drive shaft bolts, in the well.  The three had sheared off completely, leaving their stubs in the engine side.

The passage started out well...

Oh well, it is a sailboat.  However, there was no wind so we bobbed about for a while until a tiny breath of air came along and we began to make progress.  Common Sense needs about 15 knots of wind to make a decent way, and this was 6-to-8-to-10, if that.  We crawled along at about 2-4 knots.  By midday, we had reached St Tropez, or the bay entrance.  I wouldn’t go in without an exit possibility, as I didn’t want to get caught in there with no way of manoeuvring.  We rang the marina/s there to see if a tow was possible but nobody had any clue – the one guy who did have a towing service reported back to the marina that he couldn’t tow a yacht because he only had a dinghy.  This is a towing service?

We continued on past St Tropez to Bormes, where our friends on Scarlett had hauled out earlier in the year.  Phone calls to the marina confirmed that they had a place and once in the marina they could tow or push but they were forbidden to do so outside the marina confines.

On we went, with poled-out genoa and winged main at 4 to 5 knots with the wind behind.  We reached the marina entrance on 7pm and dropped the sails in the fairway.  The marinero hooked up alongside, smiled and said “I drive, you steer.”  It was a wonderful reception as we ghosted to a side-on tie with 3 marineros waiting to take our lines.  17 hours on the wheel, coaxing everything possible out of the boat and we were both very tired.  We didn’t even care that French Riviera in August meant €86 a night!

Finding every bit of wind we could...

It was a superb marina, with great staff and facilities.  Room for 950 boats!!  And it was near full, although we were told by the mechanic who came to fix our shaft that in two weeks it would empty until next season.A word on the mechanic.  He is located in a group of 4 shops just outside the haulout area.  Something simple like ‘Marine Services’.  He was on the boat midday-ish next morning  He looked at the damage, looked at me and said “no problem.”  You can’t imagine how much that cheered us up, as we thought we might even be looking at a haulout (maybe €1,200) to even work on it.  He started to pull the shaft out immediately and then ran into a small issue – he needed about an inch more clearance.  No problem.  I put on the tank we had recently purchased in Palermo and went under, twisted and pulled the prop, stuck my head up and he said “enough – I have it.” The tank just paid for itself in one dive!

Off he went, with the housing.  Next day, he was back.  He had drilled out the 3 snapped bolts, machined up 4 new bolts (US threads, not EU!) and was ready to refit.  Brilliant.  All done an hour later and I said how much?  He said $250 which seemed mightily fair to us.  Off we went to the ATM to get it.  Great workmanship.We had no inclination to move off our side-tie and into a stern-to so we didn’t tell the marina we were fixed just yet...

Amongst the delights of any seaside town in France ...

We wandered off to see what delights Bormes held and discovered a great bar alongside the Petanque rinks.  A litre of Paulaner for €13.  Well, French Riviera in the high season, you just pay up and drink in the atmosphere.  At 7pm, the rinks were suddenly invaded by about 30 players, in pairs, for what we discovered was the nightly championship among the holiday makers.  Great fun all round.

Evening boules next to the bar