Île Saint Marguerite to Villefranche (Ni

After our hasty exit from Cannes, we motored a very short distance to Île Saint Marguerite where we anchored for the night. There is a 17th century Fort Royal where the "Man in the Iron Mask" was imprisoned. His identity has never been established and the mask was apparently velvet. The anchorage was lovely and quiet with a few small power boats there for the afternoon and 5 sailboats for the night. Bob rowed us ashore in the morning and we walked through the pine and oak forest to the Fort. We had seen lots of kids on a small beach and there they were having breakfast outside after sleeping at the Fort! The French version of our outdoor school! We continued walking around the island then returned to our boat with me rowing us back. Lovely clear turquoise water. As we sailed towards Nice, we saw a large school of big fish jumping and splashing and a flock of birds flying and diving above them. No idea what they were but there were fishing boats nearby. As we were cruising towards Nice, there were planes overhead about every 2 minutes. As Nice is the 3rd largest city in France, it's no wonder. The runway runs along the water so we had a good view of comings and goings. We had a slight disagreement about whether to go the marina in Nice or to an anchorage just beyond. I wanted to do laundry and I knew the marina had facilities. Bob thought we could anchor and go by dinghy to the marina in Villefranche. Which we did but arrived 10 minutes after the Capitainerie closed. 🤦🏻‍♀️😡 The town centre and another laundrette are up a steep 10 minute climb so I gave up. Dirty for another day. ugh. A Celebrity cruise ship was at the entrance to the anchorage and, unbeknownst to us until later, was blocking the swells. They left and the rocking, rolling, up, down, swinging began! Bob put out another anchor to keep us lined up but the wind shifted all night so he was up adjusting and sleeping between shifts. I was just up. The night was neither happy, nor clean, nor restful! We had decided we were going to Corsica, a 95 mile journey, so set the alarm for 5 a.m. I needn't have bothered with the alarm!Read more