Friday 27th September
Again strong westerlies and as is typical, exactly the direction we want to go. So after motoring for half an hour through the channel between Porquerolles Island and the mainland, we tacked a couple of times to reach the sheltered bay of Anse de Fabregas, just south of Toulon on the seaward side of the harbour, and picked up the only mooring buoy. Although sheltered from waves and wind from the west , we did encounter a swell from the south, so we decided to experiment with a kedge anchor from the stern to pull us round into the swell. After a failed attempt where the anchor dropped into weed, it set beautifully into sand giving us a very comfortable night.
It seems that a lot of sheltered anchorages in this region have laid mooring buoys, this is to protect the sea bed, particularly the posidonia sea grass from damage by slipping anchors. The buoys do appear to be good safe condition, and indeed as we left one the day before last, there was a work boat and diver actually inspecting them.
