When I read the agents email with the arrival information, there was a mention about a sailing race taking place during the day. That always gives me a bad feeling as it means most of the time, pleasure boats all around the ship, boats anchoring where they should not be, boats not behaving according to the rules of the road, speedboats creating wake along the tender platform Etc Etc.

Thus I decided to build in an hour leeway in arriving, just for the case that there was something unplanned going to happen. Glad I did. The sailing race taking place was called the Giraglia Rolex Cup 2007. Several races were taking place over a period of 3 days and they had scheduled one of their meetings at 11 am. in a location between the open sea and my anchorage. Our official arrival time was 11.30 but we sailed into the bay at 10 am. Just at the moment when the first big single mast sailing boat came out of the marina to take position. 20 minutes later the bay was completely closed off by all sorts of boats filled with spectators.

Next issue was to find an anchorage, I have been to St Tropez before and I have my favourite location, safe for the ship and a short distance to the port for our tenders. Ofcourse that spot was taken by a large yacht. The next best spot was clear of yachts but full with buoys that marked a long rectangular. According to our local agent, it were just fishing buoys, but the moment I stopped the ship to lower the tenders, the racing committee came on the VHF asking very anxiously if the “Viedamme” was going to anchor there. It must have been their buoys in use for an un-explained purpose. Then the agent enlightened us with the news that the harbour master had closed the marina for our tenders and that we now had to tender to a dock outside the breakwater. That meant for our tenders a route through all the yachts at anchor.

In the end I had to anchor far away from my intended spot, resulting in a twice as long a tender distance. However as the weather was beautiful, the longer tender ride was of no concern to the guests. The ride past all the yachts was very interesting and St Tropez is very scenic close up and from a distance. One of the yachts was called the Pink Gin and that generated a lot of photographic activity. Boogles my mind, these sort of names. This yacht was worth at least $ 25 mln. if not more, and then you call it Pink Gin.

At least the Veendam was the most expensive yacht in the harbour for the day. We stayed until 2300 hrs. and for those guests who went ashore in the evening, it was a very romantic ride. The wind had died down, it was a clear starry night and all the yachts were lit up as were the old walls of St. Tropez. Although we know St. Tropez as a mondain sea resort, frequented by the jet-set, the town was founded as an ancient fortified trading port with roots going back to the days of the ancient Greeks. The harbour is sheltered for winds from every direction except the N.E and that made it a strategic place for refuge and shelter.