Isla de Porquerolles

This is the approach to the first island of the Hyeres Island group, Isla de Porquerolles. It was beautiful, but completely deserted.

For those of you from Wisconsin – think Door County in the winter (but without the snow). For those of you from Michigan, think Mackinaw Island in the winter (but without the snow). Now that I think of it – why is the Mediterranean ever deserted?? In any season it is better than Michigan or Wisconsin! (My apologies to our loyal mid-westerner friends.)



We arrived very late in the afternoon, after the Captainery (Harbor House) had closed. We considered our options. There was a long pier that we could tie up to without having to do the “Mediterranean Mooring” – backing into a “parking slip” tied stern to with mooring lines holding the bow out. This form of docking (which is how they do it everywhere in Europe because there is not enough dock space for everyone to tie up to a pier) was uncomfortable for me because you somehow had to get from the stern of your boat to land. It often was a longer distance than my short legs were comfortable with. Most boats in the Med carry planks that they use to get to the dock, but we did not. It was not as bad as I expected, but I did have some embarrassing moments where Scott had to half drag me onto the dock.

Luckily good sense overrode my desire for easy debarkation. There were many slips available for doing the Med Mooring and so we did that. Next morning we woke and saw huge barges, ferries, and work ships tied to the pier that had so tempted us the night before.

As I said, it was very deserted. Most of the cafés and hotels were closed. Very few people. Some minor construction under way…

An example of a tree tortured and twisted by the Mistral.

An olive tree.



We only stayed one full day at Isla de Porquerolles and then we were off. We had planned on continuing east to St. Tropez, but learned that it would be very difficult for Armando to get to St. Tropez from Marseille where he would be returning in 2 days. Looking at train schedules it was obvious that the best place to meet him would be Toulon.

The next day we left for Toulon.