In the Mediterranean

On the 20th we left the canal at last and got our mast put back up by a
very obliging yard, Port Nautic, in Grau d'Agde on the Herault. This is
only the second time we have put the mast up with the tabernacle and it
was a bit fraught as we could not get the pin in to the mast step until
we eased the shrouds and released the mast from the tabernacle, it is
all a learning curve.
The following day we woke up to next to no wind (it was blowing quite
hard the day before)and frost on deck, which is apparently quite normal
when there has been a cloudless night. We manoeuvred Mango out of the
craning area and took her down to the public quay where we fitted the
mainsail, tidied up and then left the Herault heading south.
Our destination was Gruissan and we had a lovely sail there in a gentle
westerly wind which made it a fetch. The sky was cloudless all day, the
visibility fantastic and the water warm, a great introduction to the
Mediterranean. The visibility was so good we could almost see our
destination and there were tremendous views of the mountains behind the
coast. We put out the fishing lines but had no luck despite (or because
of) seeing what looked like a small school of dolphins feeding.
We sailed in to Gruissan harbour at about 1615. Gruissan is one of the
resorts built on the coast but looks OK and looks to have a lot of
wooded hills around it. We are hoping to base Mango here, but it turns
out that we may be the wrong size to fit in the marina, too wide for a
monohull berth and too short for one of their multihull berths.
Hopefully we'll find out if there is space for us in a couple of days
The forecast is for very strong winds on Monday so we will be here until
they drop off.