Genoa — La Grande-Motte
Boarding in: GenoaBoarding on: 07.03.2018 16:00
Departure: 08.03.2018 10:00
Port of destination: La Grande-Motte
Arrival: 15.03.2018 10:00
Debarkation before: 16.03.2018 10:00
Days on board: 9
Participation fee: 595€
300 nautical miles
The French Riviera – Gulf of Lion national parks – Competent Crew course – Tall Ship Festival
Sum and substance
You know these places from news and expensive travel agent ads. Cannes, Nice, Monaco, Saint-Tropez. It’s time to see the French Riviera from a tall ship, get ourselves into the Cannes and Monaco local news for entering the port with a friendly cannon salute.
In 9 days, we’ll be able to rest and relax, warm our bones in hot South sunshine, ride the Mediterranean swell and, of course, learn some basic seamanship. For everyone interested, there’s going to be an additional Competent Crew course with the IYT syllabus and certification (the course fees are not included in the trip cost).
Sail training
Everyone aboard Shtandart – no exceptions – will be assigned to a watch. Every watch takes a 4 hour period, one in the day and one in the night. Every watch has its’ own little gifts. Some will get to see every sunrise, some – fierce sunset colors. But most importantly, every watch will get an abundance of training. Sail training that is. By the end of the trip you’ll be familiar with words such as “navigation and Sailing Directrions ”, “tack”, “course” and will know exactly what to do when you hear “hands to the main topsail braces” or “ease up the fore sheet” or even “mizzen topsail sheet”. For everyone interested we’ll also teach a course that becomes a first step towards the yacht master certification.
Itinerary
On March 7th we meet aboard Shtandart in Genoa and after the initial safety and sail handling training off we go. Course South-West, leaving Savona, San Remo, Nice and Saint-Tropez on our starboard. We’ll visit a few of these ports, but the exact plan is up to the weather.
After Toulon – the French naval base – we’ll turn North, into the Gulf of Lion. Weather allowing we’ll anchor up by the sandy beach of the Camargue National Park and, of course, go ashore to enjoy the views.
Camargue is a unique national park in the Rona estuary. The landscapes include salt- and cane- marshes, sea lagoons, sclerophyll woods, sand bar islands. The grassland part of the park is the only grassland in Europe that remains unchanged. Tourists come here to see pink flamingos, there’re more than 15000 of them, and amazing white Camargue horses that live here in the wild.The trip will end in the town of La Grande-Motte, our arrival there will mark the start of the first Tall Ship Festival in 2018.
