Cote d'Azure Aug/Sep from 'down under'

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J12345T

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Hi All,

Just putting the feelers out for cruising tips/ convoys in the CDZ this Aug/Sep. We purchased a Princess 50 currently located in Port Grimaud. We are from New Zealand and the plan is to cruise the CDZ for a couple of months before delivering the boat to Genoa for shipping home to NZ.

My plan is to stay fairly local to the gulf of St Tropez for a couple of weeks to get the feel of the place and iron out any squawks with the boat then head west to Cassis. The plan will be to stop off in Le Lavandou and Ile de Proquelles then hopefully have a good look around the Calanques from Cassis.

We plan to be back in Port Grimaud at the end of Aug before setting off east up the coast towards Genoa. Plenty to see along the way including going further past Genoa to Cinque Tera and Levante etc. but we have to be in Verazze around Sep 20th for the start of the shipping window.

Any hints or tips would be appreciated or if anyone is in the area at the time it would be good to catch up and compare notes. Boat's call sign is 'Laser'

Cheers,

James.
 
Given limited time I would do porquerolles but nothing further west than that. Calanques are nice enough but far from the best of the locations you're close to. I would head east and do Lerin islands, cap d'Antibes, antibes itself, cap ferrat, (=villefranche, st jean cap ferrat and Beaulieu) Monaco, menton and finally San remo. It will be busy in July/August but that's because you're in wonderful cruising grounds. If you get time I would head to Corsica too- 100nm from the places above- and I would cruise st florent, saleccia/loto beaches, round to Calvi, then Girolata, then back to CDA. Or if you have time continue another 60nm down to bottom of Corsica w coast. Don't bother with Corsica E coast.

This itinerary is 100x more beautiful than your porquerolles/calanques/cassis/Le lavandou strip, imho, which involves very little turquoise water and is a much windier region generally . Admittedly I make that comment from the point of view that it is all about the turquoise water.

This is all of the above mentioned Corsica NW places st florent down to Girolata) in one video. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-10hYALKaAQ

And this one includes places south of Girolata https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hTaY6iGIw5Q. The turquoise place where the Laser is being sailed is Cala d'orzo at the NW corner of golfe de propriano

Plenty of folks from here will be there in July/August so feel free to post your rough itinerary.
 
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Hi James,

You will find plenty of help here. We are based in Beaulieu Sur Mer which is between Nice and Monaco. I recently did a trip report on our week long Beaulieu to St Tropez and back which you will find with a simple search or if you can’t find it I will put in a link.

We will be down for the last week of August and the first week of September so happy to see if our paths can cross, although I warn you I am from the big island to the west of you and so I would rather not talk about either Rugby or Cricket right now.

Your plan sounds great and I hope you keep people up to date with the odd post here.

Let me know what things you would like to know and I am more than happy to help.
 
James sounds a good plan ,
New to you boat there’s plenty of engineers / repair yards on the strip Marseille to Genoa .—- just in case !
There’s also sufficient turquoise water around the Porquerolles and nearby too .
Try bay Estagnol W of fort Bregancon ( presidents summer house on the mainland ) Indeed even to the E and a nice stray roofed restaurants on the beach .
Sanary Sur Mere to the W is also a nice bay and port to visit alond with Point m d Allon another beautiful “ turquoise “ sandy bay “

Calanque s too are nice the middle one has a turquoise Anchorage called Sormiou .
Escape Au Frioul is worth a call in and rest ( ferry to Marseille ) it’s about as far W you need to go .

The book you need is called
“ les plus beaux mouillages “

Here
https://imgur.com/a/WtSFcfg

E of Menton the coast suddenly becomes flat and tbh boring , ie no bays to anchor .
San Remo is a note worthy stop over .
Your Cinq Terre ports are a no goer in a 50 , so don,t go there .- sea is rough and it’s unprotected, no safe anchorages .
Pack in in Varezzi - that’s nice btw .

Corsica - wild and remote and windy too lacks shoreside sophistication unpredictable winds .
I know of a few guys stranded waiting for boat parts to arrive - your risk , personally with Familly on a trip of a lifetime ( by the sounds of it ?) - give it a miss imho .

Mission is to arrive @ Genoa when called
 
markc said:
Hey Porto - where's the best place to pick this book up?
Click to expand...
It's in many chandlers in CDA and also the big Relay book/magazine shop in Nice airport landslide departures T2. There's a series of them: versions of the book for Corsica, Sardinia, etc
 
jfm said:
This itinerary is 100x more beautiful than your porquerolles/calanques/cassis/Le lavandou strip, imho, which involves very little turquoise water and is a much windier region generally . Admittedly I make that comment from the point of view that it is all about the turquoise water.
Click to expand...
Tend to agree that that area is more windy but since the OP does seem to have a whole 2 months and won't be coming back anytime soon, why wouldnt he do the calanques and the Porquerolles? The latter are beautiful IMHO and are worth visiting to experience a slightly different SoF style.

Just to bung another idea in, yes the Italian coastline between Menton and Genoa is pretty boring although there are some quite interesting ports like San Remo, Varazze and Imperia but why not go on beyond Genoa and take in Portofino and Portovenere which are jewels worth visiting. In fact if it was me I'd be thinking about jumping off from the French coast after visiting Monaco and then doing Girolata/Calvi/St Florent, then across to Elba and then head north to Genoa via Portovenere and Portofino

Depends really how adventurous the OP is of course but an itinerary like that would give him a real taste of the W Med
 
Yep that's a nice itinerary. I clearly said he should do porquerolles. The bit he shouldn't do- entirely imho- is the strip west of that. Calanques are ok but not exactly to die for, compared with say w Corsica. All imho.
 
Portofino said:
Corsica - wild and remote and windy too lacks shoreside sophistication unpredictable winds .
I know of a few guys stranded waiting for boat parts to arrive - your risk , personally with Familly on a trip of a lifetime (by the sounds of it ?) - give it a miss imho.
Click to expand...
LOL, Corsica "wild and remote"? Just in case you didn't notice, the OP said he's from NZ - should I say more...? :D
 
Deleted User itinerary is good , but the drag and it is a drag up to Portofino is a long one from Pisa .
[That’s only a short train ride away from the marina btw ]
If it’s blowing from the E there’s not much shelter @ Porto except in and it costs mega €€ .

Op needs confidence in his new to him boat though .
Corsica has more turquoise anchorages , but no 100 x for a newby than what the OP is proposing, I,d say 1/1/2 or 2 x tops .
Anyhow he not asking for a specific water colour .
Here’s a place only a few miles form Cannes .Cannes btw is worth a stop over too for a newby
It’s typical and there are loads like it
https://imgur.com/a/zOZmbl4
 
AndieMac said:
sort of like the end of the world you mean? :D
Click to expand...
LOL, naah, that sounds more like Tas! :D :D
Actually, I just meant that everything is relative in life, and I wouldn't expect someone used to NZ, at least anyone who travelled a bit of it, to find Corsica that much wild...
 
Hi All,

Thanks so much for all the fantastic replies. There are a lot of unknowns for me and to be honest with a new to me boat in a completely unfamiliar cruising ground I think I'll be keeping it 'coastal'.

As much as I'd love to get down to Corsica I'm just not going to have the time, confidence or familiarity with the area to head that far out into the brine.. As one post said, the aim is to get the boat to Genoa for shipping whilst making the most of what the CDA has to offer on the way but a lot will depend on how well the boat performs out of the gate.

I went to Le Lavandou last year to do the inspection/ survey and sea trial and it was lovely. I'd like to get back there for a quick visit and as a hopping off point to the Porquerolles but I'll likely take JFM's advice and leave it at that. By the sound of it St Tropez to Menton holds most of the attractions.

A quick question. I have the berth in Port Grimaud booked and paid for until the end of August and was hoping to play it by ear from there until ~18th of Sep when we are due in Varazze. During Sep; typically how much advanced notice does one need to book marina berths on a nightly basis? Do I phone the day before, two days before or do you just pitch up and ask on the day?

Many thanks again.

James.
 
Hi JFM,

I've been lurking on this forum for a while now and even though I've seen those videos before they are truly stunning... Makes me wonder why I'm shipping the boat home..

Cheers.

James.
 
J12345T said:
A quick question. I have the berth in Port Grimaud booked and paid for until the end of August and was hoping to play it by ear from there until ~18th of Sep when we are due in Varazze. During Sep; typically how much advanced notice does one need to book marina berths on a nightly basis? Do I phone the day before, two days before or do you just pitch up and ask on the day?
.
Click to expand...
Sept is after the really high season but its still busy in the SoF so its always worth booking ahead for a visitors berth and the further ahead you can book the better
 
J12345T said:
Hi All,

Just putting the feelers out for cruising tips/ convoys in the CDZ this Aug/Sep. We purchased a Princess 50 currently located in Port Grimaud. We are from New Zealand and the plan is to cruise the CDZ for a couple of months before delivering the boat to Genoa for shipping home to NZ.

My plan is to stay fairly local to the gulf of St Tropez for a couple of weeks to get the feel of the place and iron out any squawks with the boat then head west to Cassis. The plan will be to stop off in Le Lavandou and Ile de Proquelles then hopefully have a good look around the Calanques from Cassis.

We plan to be back in Port Grimaud at the end of Aug before setting off east up the coast towards Genoa. Plenty to see along the way including going further past Genoa to Cinque Tera and Levante etc. but we have to be in Verazze around Sep 20th for the start of the shipping window.

Any hints or tips would be appreciated or if anyone is in the area at the time it would be good to catch up and compare notes. Boat's call sign is 'Laser'

Cheers,

James.
Click to expand...

This is a very good itinerary. Cassis and the Calanques are wonderful, Porquerolle is a gem and also think about the Paul Ricard islands. And there’s a lovely anchorage opposite Porquerolles called Leoube. So many places to see, and all very beautiful, it’s true it’s not the traditional end of SoF but it’s of equal or greater beauty.
 
G'day James, hope the cruise/shipping thing all goes well, and congrats on the acquisition of the boat.
There seem to be plenty of Brit built boats coming into our Antipodean area, particularly Princess and Fairline.
Just to add some vessel familiarly and identity to the post, would you like to do a quick story with pics, mainly because I'm interested, but also the SoF guys will then know your boat, cheers
 
Hi AndieMac,

My pleasure. I purchased a 2003 Princess P45 in 2009 and we've enjoyed boating on her in the Marlborough Sounds at the northern tip of New Zealand's South Island; a place where I grew up boating and simply love.

Our daughter is now at an age where she has better things to do than go boating with Mum and Dad so we're transitioning to boating with friends and although the P45 is a great boat it doesn't have the volume and cabin space we're now wanting.

So early last year I started researching replacements. We love the Princess quality and the layout suits us well albeit we wanted a centre master cabin. Long story short we finally settled on the Princess 50 mark 3 as the best compromise for volume, performance, layout, style and cost; and so the search began. There was an example in Melbourne that we flew over to look at. One in Dubai and one in France.

From the info/photos the example in France looked the best kept and well priced. I flew over in Oct 2017 to inspect, survey and sea trial and quickly realised that she was in really nice condition and pressed ahead with the purchase. Not for the fainthearted but all went fairly smoothly. The broker was associated with SMN in Port Grimaud and organised the berth and the transfer. Although I've been in regular contact with them I haven't seen the boat since Oct last year so...

Anyway, Laser (apparently French for relax??) is a 2008 Princess 50 mark 3. Strangely enough when I emailed Princess to get some marketing shots of the 50/3 for my desktop they sent me some beautiful shots of..... Laser.. Seems like they used her for marketing before they delivered her to her CDA owners in '08!

Happy to provide more info if desired and will continue to post as the adventure unfolds..

Cheers

James.
 
Hi James , you probably know this the Princess France Cote d Azur base is in La Napoule along with technical support .
DLB yachting run by the DeBrun family.
Stuff from Plymouth arrives daily .
It’s the first pic above btw .They like most dealers have berths but like them all will be busy around the Cannes show ( must see ) as show stock arrives and the nearby marinas receive the contents of Cannes because they clear it .
So bay of Cannes will be busy around the show , but you could anchor off in the Lerins for a few days and either tender in or catch a ferry back in .
Another tip - Monaco has no VaT so actually is a cheap place to hold up and kill a few days in Sept , but they too have a show towards the end of Sept after Cannes .You won’t see another like it ! Or pay as much either for the Monaco show .
As said 1hr up the coast to San Remo allways has room for 15 M and some nice shoreside shops , nice old town nice modern high street ( smart shops ) and nice intro to good Italian restaurants.
Irony berths per night cost more than in Monaco .

There’s a nice SLAM shop for “ crew uniform “ and general boats clothes on the short walk from the marina to town in San Remo - stock up .

Genoa show last year was late Sept ( think it’s move fwd a week this year? ) - again potential for berth disruption.
Then show enterage arrives and adjacent marinas accommodate the tipping out of the show hoster .

So if anything at this stage it might be worth plotting on a map the three show dates in the three cities and going from there - ie booking nearby places .

https://imgur.com/a/k5U2asQ

Porto
 
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