Day 120: 10th October 2017 Happy 7th Birthday Esmé

We woke up and quickly got Laurin ready for off. AJ wanted to take us out of the marina berth and as it was pretty still we decided to let him for the first time. I think his face shows a mixture of concentration and pure terror but he managed well!

Once out of the marina it was a little more windy than we had expected but we motored anyway for a while to get the kids confidence up and to get us out of the busy shipping channels.









We were all pretty happy to be out on the water again and despite the wind now dropping we felt the need to put some sails up and have a bit of engine off time for lunch.

After lunch the scenery got much more interesting as we sailed between some islands and the kids enjoyed some time on deck.

We were planning to anchor or pick up a mooring in Calanque d'En Vau but when we arrived, although spectacular to motor into and take a look at, we felt it wasn't as protected as we'd hoped and there seemed very little space to anchor... perhaps when we are more experienced at anchoring in the Med we might attempt something like this but for now we decided to go on to Port Miou where we knew there were definitely mooring balls to pick up.

Port Miou was pretty interesting. We opted to save 7 euros and pick up a mooring ball. Some time later the harbourmaster came and took one of our lines to the rock face for us and brought it back to us so we didn't swing around. 

The kids were desperate to swim so we let them, knowing full well it would be freezing as the water here is fed by a cold spring. Needless to say AJ didn't stay in long and Esmé had second thoughts after dipping just a toe in the water.

In the end both kids found comfortable spots to do a little reading before we had dinner.

All in all a lovely day for Esme's 7th Birthday!