Sailing the french riviera in winter

Le Lavandou, usually buzzing with summer vibes, was a great place to be after the dirt of St. Mandrier. After a few weeks though we noticed the town was winding down. It felt like hitting a brick wall! Half the town closed down, and the locals weren't exactly rolling out the red carpet for us out-of-towners. Fair play to them though, they work hard in the summer and deserve a break, but it wasn't exactly a friendly scene.

Don't even get me started on the airport situation. Reiss still had work which meant flights to catch, but the nearest airport was a solid three-hour trek away. Talk about inconvenient! So, we decided we needed to get our boat closer to one.

We started the search for a marina closer to the airport. We hit up about ten places, but winter wasn't doing us any favors. Half of them didn't even bother replying, and the other half were fully booked for for the winter. Our boat size then really comes into play. Most marina's have only a few berths for a boat the size of Bolongo.

But luck was on our side when one marina came through with a spot. Port Gallice in Antibes was the ticket. It wasn't as close to the airport as we'd hoped, but hey, it beat a three-hour drive any day.

So, with a spot secured, we just needed to wait for the right weather to set sail to Antibes.