Lavender's blue dilly dilly

Back late yesterday evening after a lovely two days in the hills, first at Valensole and then on the Montagne de Lure, which we had hiked over (more than three decades ago). The lavender fields were, well, lavender coloured: almost boring after a while, and on a massive, industrial scale that took away part of the charm. Occasional imperfections, such as a splash of bright red poppies, gave grounds to forgive. The Lure, on the other hand, was as massive and steep sided as we remembered it. Boy, we must have been fit then...

Sharecropping

The nice thing about Antibes is that everything grows, even in flowerpots. My dwarf tomato plants are fruiting furiously, and the basil is sprouting faster than we can eat it. Basil and fresh tomato, now that's a nice combination!

Polishing Detail

I have spent quite a few mornings (it's a bit cooler then) polishing the lifeboat to make it look spick and span. Nowhere near RNLI standards, but not bad for a single-handed effort.

PS The monstrous superyacht in the background is the Katara, all one hundred and twenty something metres of her, flying the Qatari flag. Who owns her is anybody's guess. I don't think we could tow her with the lifeboat...

Beepless Alert

I had a rendez-vous at the Lifeboat Station. Michel, Lulu and Yours Truly were to get a small outboard-driven RIB into working order and cross the port to bring it to the old fishing boat we are restoring.

Arriving there, I found quite a few lifeboatmen listening anxiously to the VHF. There had been an aircraft accident out at sea, and a large-scale SAR mission was under way. We were on standby, the next level down from a 'shout'. So our beepers hadn't sounded. The radio traffic between the aircraft, helicopters and search vessels was none too optimistic. A few unidentified debris, perhaps not even from an aeroplane.

It began to look unlikely that we would be tasked, so Lulu and I took the RIB across the harbour and moored it next to the fishing vessel. Checked the fishing boat's VHF for any further developments, and then headed back to the Lifeboat Station.

When we got back, there was black humour galore. The plane had been found, and also, sadly, the bodies of the people on board (British, apparently). But it had crashed into a mountain, not into the sea. It was not a place we could easily go with the lifeboat, even if tasked, so we were stood down.

Family Ties

Just back from a visit to Brussels to see part of the family. In the dark days this winter, prowling none too elegantly the corridor of the surgical unit in Mougins with a urine bag and two vacuum drains in tow, I thought this moment wouldn't come round again. But it did, and it felt doubly precious.

Brussels felt as live-able as ever, and seeing everybody was a joy. I can't think of anything less like a chore than taking kids to the park.

La semaine du golfe

Just back from a week's (lateen) sailing in the sheltered but very tidal inland sea of the Morbihan. The occasion was the 'Semaine du Golfe', and the opportunity to sail was provided by the jolly crowd from CaraMed, which brings together all the nutcases who want to sail on traditional mediterranean craft. It felt funny, as a Welshman, to be representing the Med in Brittany.

Still, we brought mediterranean weather with us, swapping it, apparently, for Breton-style damp and cold which hovered over Antibes the whole week we were up north.

I sailed on the Catalina, a lovely blue and yellow pointu with a nice turn of speed. The only time she let us down was when motoring to a difficult berth with a six-knot tide. We missed the sound of splintering wood only by a liberal dose of heaving, rowing and fendering. Still, it was fun...

The final parade of boats was madness, with the current rendering most craft unmanoeuvrable, and the indiscipline of some crews creating really dangerous situations. Some boats were sunk, and certainly a few injuries were tallied up. Our friends in the SNSM up there were kept really busy.