Location: St. Tropez, France
After a night of dreaming about Cannes’ stunning Bastille Day fireworks from the prior evening, the crew of Argo woke to another wonderful day off the coast of the French Riviera. After breakfast cleanup, we prepared the boat to sail as we weighed anchor. Then, for the first time on this trip, we set the mainsail. As always, two-sixing the main all the way to the top of the mast is a workout, but once it was set along with four of our five other sails, we were ready to make our way to St. Tropez. Even with the little wind that was forecast, we were able to shut off the engine on occasion and enjoy the sail along the coast. The twenty-plus-mile journey went by quickly, and soon, we were dropping anchor next to a beach filled with people and umbrellas. Following Basic Seamanship class, everyone was shuttled off to shore to enjoy an afternoon splashing about in the crisp Mediterranean waters. Once the crew was feeling nice and salty from their swim, we weighed anchor for the second time that day in order to move closer to town in preparation for the following day’s shore time. To top off another great day aboard S/Y Argo, we had an Oceanography class for dessert.