In three weeks, we had gone
from Brixham to central France
and were about to join the
rivers again. From Chalon-sur-
Saône, we headed south to
Mâcon and had the boat lifted
to get her serviced and to check
the props, as soon we would be
heading out to sea and needed
to check that everything was okay. All that
low-speed running meant we had also hit
the hours on the engine meters.
Mâcon is a lovely town and we stayed ten
days. We met Ella, a Sealine S38, which was
going across to the Balearics the same as us.
We decided to travel
together for the next few
days, down the Saône
and Rhone, stopping at
Lyon, Avignon and then on
to Port St Louis – the last stop
on the river. This was a
memorable night with a
lunar eclipse and a music
festival on the quay, a great
way to celebrate the end
of France!
Next we headed out to
sea to pick up some speed towards Agde,
across the border into Spain and, fi rst stop,
Portbou (very quaint and pleasant). Chilaxin
was happy to be back in the sea and able to
get up to speed, having been limited to 6kts
on the canal system. She is not really designed
to cruise at that speed for long.
Palamos and then Barcelona were our next
BENETEAU ANTARES 8
Greyfi n, Mylor, UK.
Rick Channon details four safe
anchorages that he enjoys on
the River FalJEANNEAU LEADER 805,
Smuggler’s Blues 2,
Torquay, UK.
Nick Burnham reports on
the upgrades he made to his
Jeanneau over the winter and
the differences they have
made to life afl oatLANDAU 29,
Walrus 2, Poole, UK.
After a service and some
improvements on board,
Richard Krause crosses to the
Solent for a summer cruiseSome of the
locks were 3.5m
high (our height
was 3.47) – a
bit too close
for comfort
stops, before heading to Port de Sóller, Mallorca.
Chilaxin and Ella left early, as the sun was coming
up and we had a fl at sea in front of us. On the
crossing we saw pods of dolphins, pilot whales and
various sea birds fl ying close to us. We spent six
weeks travelling around the islands, with nearly all
the ports visited.
Palma was not as busy as we
thought it would be for high
season and it was easy to get
a berth each time. There is a
council-run system called
PortsIB (available as an app or
online) that you can use to book
marinas in advance. You just
enter your boat details and each
day you can see where there
are vacancies.
We had a night in Ibiza
before heading back to Denia on the mainland
and then down to Torrevieja. From there, after a bit
of a debate, we decided to transport Chilaxin
home by lorry (a four-day journey!).
Our trip had taken four months and was such fun
that we are already planning our next adventure:
Norway, Russia and the Great American Loop are
all on our wish list of places to go...OUR BOATS
SOON TO BE
FEATURED...
Cruising through
the heart of ParisCruising the Seine was a
memorable experience but
Chilaxin felt more at home
speeding around the Med