After a couple of months of good skiing, end of March it was time to start Petite Lune up again. She went on the hard in Puerto Sherry and with some delay because of bad weather and Semana Santa she was cleaned and with new anti fouling,  and a brand new bimini - as we lost the old one on the Belgium coast - she was ready for a new season. We sailed to Barbate for some wonderful tuna and reached Gibraltar safe and sound without encountering any killer whales. As it was still pre-season we decided to go to Puerto Banús so we sailed all the way with the wind getting stronger and stronger. Very friendly staff in Puerto Banús and lots to see around the port. After Puerto Banús we tried to get a mooring in Málaga but they were full (??), asked Benalmádena, but for the xxth time they tried to sell us a bigger berth (for a higher price) saying they had no availability for our length, which is not true as they have plenty of space, so we went straight to Motril for the night, anchored the next night around Cabo de Gata (a bit too roly), from there on to Garrucha to buy and grill the famous gambas rojas which we bought straight from the fish market, left in reasonably good weather and arrived in Cartagena with showers, where the next day we had a visit from family who were touring Spain in their camper van.

We left for Torrevieja and finally had some decent weather so we went for a long walk along the boulevard and had a lovely dinner in a traditional restaurant. Next stop was Alicante where we had not been before, we walked all the way up to the castle and enjoyed walking around the beautiful city. The next stop was Denia, also a first time for us and from there on to Valencia where Frank joined us. We did some provisioning and left for Ibiza where it was great to be back pre-season. We visited a new anchorage in Formentera, very beautiful and very quiet, rounded Ibiza and went back to Valencia. We left briefly for Holland to celebrate Christopher's 21st birthday. Coming back we motored all the way to Castellón de la Plana and were pleasantly surprised by the good feel of the town so decided to stay an extra night. Next was the marina of Benicarló where the harbour master helped us mooiring, we could have done without his help as we were not in a straight line. We found out later why as he asked us if we had any beer on board and if he could have one, I gave him a Corona... The next day we walked all the way to the beautiful village of Peñíscola where we had lunch and walked all the way back. Our next stop was the Badia dels Alfacs near the town of La Ràpita where they farm oysters and mossels. We visited one of those places where we treated ourselves to oysters and a drink.

After passing L'Ametlla de Mar we stopped in Cambrils which we found such a nice place that we asked them if they had a winter mooring for us, unfortunately not. Cambrils is close to Salou, a very popular holiday spot for Dutch people so we walked over there to see why it is so popular. We went into port in Tarragona and decided to stay one extra night to visit the old town which was worth it. Sitges was our next stop, with the port at walking distance from the very lively town. And from there on it was into Barcelona as Alexandra was flying in for a three week holiday. We took her on her first night to a posh restaurant in a tower but not before making sure she was tipsy on the Sangria with cava. After Arenys de Mar we went to Blanes, another popular holiday spot with the Dutch, where we climbed the rock and went for a swim in the sea. The next day we walked to Lloret de Mar, an interesting place but not for us.

Palamós was our next port of call, arriving there with strong winds and we needed the help of a marinero in a dinghy to moore Petite Lune. We had been there in winter to see if it was any good for a winter mooring but we decided that we needed a safer port. Roses was also a port we considered but they only had places on the outer ring where we now stayed and again we decided that we do not want our ship there in winter time. To visit this time of year it was certainly okay and Alexandra and Saskia had a feet fish spa to make sure our feet were summer ready. For the next night we had a mooring bouy booked in the picturesque village of Cadaqués. In summer time this is a bit of a rip off as you can only arrive after 17.00 hours and have to leave at 11.00 or so, or you can stay for the day but have to leave for the night, so they charge double for the buoy. But not being busy we were allowed to arrive at 12.00 and could leave the next day before 11.00 and only pay once. Cadaqués was beautiful, albeit touristic. We had a rough night due to swell coming in. The next day we made a swim stop in Port de la Selva where Ernst had been a long time ago on a family holiday and later that day we crossed the French border into the town of Port Vendres.

After Port Vendres our next stop was Sète where we had come at the right time as there were festivities going on with boats. Two bigger rowing boats pass each other and whilst doing that two higher seated persons have to try to throw the other off using a spear. The next day we went on a dinghy tour on the Bassin de Thau behind Sète where we saw similar boats so it must be a local or regional sport. We wanted to go to Marseille but the port was full so in quite strong winds - we had to drop the main sail without guidance - we arrived in Port du Frioul where luckily a few strong men from a catamaran helped us mooring as there was no port assistance in sight. The next day we went on a boat trip (took the ferry) to visit Marseille and were pleasantly surprised as we expected a run down city but it was pretty neat. Île de Ratonneau was a beautiful island, probably very popular in summer time. The tiny port of Cassis was next where we had to enter the port slowly due to dept and busy traffic. Cassis feels a bit like St Tropez but is less of a hype. A lot of restaurants and little shops around the port and a lot of tourists but very pretty. From Cassis onto Île de Porquerolles, again very popular with tourists. Anchoring was a bit difficult with someone complaining we were too close so we moved to the mainland, only to discover that the complainer was in the swell the next morning, so karma.

After anchoring at Le Lavandou we arrived in the bay of St Tropez on July 8th and it was nearly time for Alexandra to say goodbye as her 3 week holiday was over. We spent her last days visiting St Tropez and had a lovely meal in Port Grimaud and arranged a taxi to take her to Nice airport. We filled Petite Lune up again with diesel and provisioned at the Auchan and motored to Pampelonne for a good anchoring and swimming spot. In the afternoon there was quite some wind and a smaller motor boat quite close to us started to drag anchor which worried us. As Ernst was holding the small boat off with the dinghy some help arrived from the guys that pick you up and bring you to a restaurant ashore. Luckily they were able to locate the owner who moved his boat. Île Saint-Honorat is one of two islands off the coast of Cannes, a beautiful anchoring spot but again very busy. Mandelieu port was next as Christopher was arriving, joining us for four weeks. We rented a car and picked him up from Nice airport and did some provisioning. We spent one night in the bay of Cannes, right in front of the famous Boulevard de la Croisette.

The next day we set off for Villefranche sur Mer when we heard a pan pan over the radio. As we were close we were on the lookout and saw the small sailing boat which had an engine failure - and there was no wind at all. So Christopher and Saskia jumped into the dinghy and on the owner's request towed him out to sea where he would try to get back to Nice. The next day we received a text from him to say he was towed by the French rescue service and was doing well and thanked us for our help. We were surprised that so may boats were in the area and nobody offered help. Villefranche sur Mer is a picturesque little village in a very secluded quite deep bay with a lot of maritime history. Which showed as we could not pull our anchor up. So Christopher and Saskia put on their diving gear and found out that our anchor chain was wrapped around an ancient anchor on top of which was a newer anchor and a lot of chain around it. We tried to free it but to no avail as the ancient anchor was too heavy. We then decided that the only solution was to sacrifice some of our chain and try to recover our anchor. We attached a small bouy to our anchor and were ready to cut the chain but suddenly we could raise more chain. Ernst had been moving Petite Lune around and that probably did the trick. We could pull everything up, including the ancient anchor, tied that off, free our own anchor and drop again the old one. We were very happy and moved to the Baie de Beaulieu where we anchored in 7 meter clear sand. As Ernst had work to do in France we parked Petite Lune in Nice where Christopher and Saskia stayed onboard in sweltering heat and Ernst took a taxi to Nice airport.

After Ernst returning to Nice we left as fast as we could to escape the heat and went back to the Beaulieu area. One place we skipped two years again was Monaco but this time we booked a mooring at the Monaco Yacht Club for two nights. Entering the port of Monaco is professional and very organized and also the docking was very professional. We walked around the F1 circuit, had coffee at Café de Paris and dinner at the Yacht Club where the men had to wear a jacket despite the sweltering heat. We borrowed an electric BMW i3 from the Club to do the food shopping, very convenient. The last French anchoring site was Menton, again a pretty village where we bought good olive oil with lemon (things with lemon are a specialty from Menton) and truffel tapenade. The next day we crossed the French/Italian border and headed into Imperia. We were moored a 5 minute walk from the beach so jumped into the sea and tried the new summer drink Limoncello spritz, nice but heavy the next day. After passing Alassio and Varazze we arrived in Genova on August 5 as Frank was about to board Petite Lune.

We treated ourselves to a very nice meal in Genova after Frank's arrival and headed towards Santa Margherita Ligure, a bustling town not far from Portofino where we booked a mooring the next day. We had to wait for quite some time before we could enter Portofino - even had to ask if they had not forgotten us - but were professionally helped mooring and there we were, in the middle of this famous little village. We walked around, had drinks, dinner and coffee the next morning and set off to Sestri Levante, a buzzing seaside town with a good feel and quite some tourists. The next stop was picking up a bouy at one of the Cinque Terre, the first bouy area was full but at Vernazza we were lucky and spent the night there after a quick visit to the small but beautiful town. The thing with the Cinque Terre is if you see one, the rest is pretty similar, beautiful but full of tourists. Our next goal was Porto Venere, a good and protected anchorage where we wanted to buy some really tasty pesto. Again it was very hot and humid, so not good for a long walk around town, but at the end of the day the temperatures got better and we had a nice meal in the evening. Swimming was unfortunately not so good as there were quite some jellyfish and Christopher being bitten some time earlier made us very wary of them. Next stop was Viareggio where Frank's and also Christopher's holiday came to an end, so we waved goodbye and went food shopping again in the nearly unbearable heat. 

We set off towards Elba but the weather had changed completely. We unfurled the jib while motoring but had to furl that in again as we had 40 knot gusts and had to put on our foul weather gear, life vests and life lines. We anchored at Porto Azzurro where we tried to get a mooring in the port as some bad weather was coming in, but it was full. We moved to another, more spacious and less crowded anchorage the next day to wait for the bad weather to pass. We had some heavy rain, luckily no hail and saw a fair bit of thunder but nothing too serious.