Yacht JACK TAR: More Riviera

This post comes from an anchorage off Juan les Pins, near Antibe, both very attractive towns. After two weeks at Cape Ferrat we finally managed to drag ourselves away and with a temporarily benign weather forecast, have moved further west. We keep a constant eye on the mistral, the wind that blows strongly out of the Gulf of Lyon. For the last six weeks it has been almost constant and at its worst has been 50 kts plus. So, we don`t want to get mixed up with that, and of course, as we sail west we get closer to that gulf. Back at C Ferrat we toured to Este, a high village overlooking the coast and which afforded spectacular views. We walked down from the village to the coast. And we fell in love with the village close to our preferred anchorage at St Jean C Ferrat, a beautiful, exclusive, sophisticated spot which retained a very natural atmosphere. Along this coast we have seen an extent of conspicuous wealth displayed which is hard to describe. Apart from the magnificent villas and chateaus on shore, the sheer number of large, expensive motor yachts is hard to describe. And the Ferraris, Rollers, Bentleys, Lamborghinis etc are a dime a dozen. Along the way we managed to duck into Nice and purchase a new outboard for the dinghy; the old one having reached the end of its useful life and so was buried at sea. The high season is now truly upon us and the tourists are everywhere. The air traffic into Nice is amazing with one every few minutes all day long and into the night. And the anchorages get very crowded during the day, but usually thin out each evening as most rush off to a marina