Rush arrived safely in Fos-sur-Mer, near Marseille, following her delivery by ship from Cape Town and we boarded her on June 20th. Full marks to Peters and May in the UK, Pronto Shipping in CT and the ship’s crew for a perfectly executed and communicated job. 
It was a slightly heart-in-mouth procedure as Rush was craned off the deck, swung over the side and lowered to ship’s deck level for us to board, then on down into the Med – with fingers crossed that the engines and everything would start and work as it had on another continent. We headed across the bay to Port Saint Louis where we’d booked a berth to moor alongside while we cleaned and re-rigged.
Our Swedish friends Lars and Anna-Lena on Odin of Sweden (we met and cruised in company in the Med on the previous Rush and did the fabulous Baltic Yachts Rendezvous on Odin last September) were coincidentally also heading to Port Saint Louis in late June. They’d been en-route from Italy via Corsica, set off from Ajaccio 36 hours before Rush arrived and remarkably, following their cruise from Italy and Rush’s delivery from Cape Town, we entered Port Saint Louis at exactly the same time and motored up the canal together. After all our hurdles and years away from cruising you couldn’t have made it up. It felt symbolic – We Were Back. A blow your cheeks out moment.
Rush and Odin were absolutely plastered in red Sahara dust, which is often a thing in the western Med but had literally rained down so badly that week that it made the French news! Cleaning it out of every nook, clutch, traveller and cranny took a full day…. then it came down again…. Joy.
The day after arrival was mid-summer, which Swedes celebrate in style. Lars and Anna-Lena (who is an amazing cook) arrived on Rush laden with multiple incredible dishes of gourmet traditional Swedish food and a bag full of appropriate beers and wines for each course. Having been light drinkers of late, we embraced the whole occasion – there was no rigging or sailing to be done the following day anyway, due to the wind!
Howling Mistral winds (another feature of that corner of France) also seem to be having a bumper year and it was about four days before we could even unroll the sails on the deck to re-rig, without fear of them taking off.
A week later we’d rigged, provisioned and had properly itchy feet so, towards the tail end of the Mistral, we convinced ourselves that it had dropped enough to head off on our first cruise…. a marginal call as it turned out that resulted in a bit of a baptism of fire. But it was downwind and, after rounding a couple of lumpy headlands with breeze in the high twenties, we sat at Rush’s saloon table for supper while surfing downhill, with a 360 view… and nothing sliding off the table!
Over the next couple of days we anchored off La Ciotat and La Madrague, swam in turquoise water, boat bimbled and dropped our shoulders. Old friends Mike and Ruth Austen then arrived from the UK to spend ten great days with us and, while we wouldn’t say the Côte d’Azur is our natural cruising habitat, the contrasts you get while cruising are a big part of the whole experience. We had a fabulous time on beautiful Ile de Porquerolles; sailed through an enormous number of crazy glam superyachts off Saint Tropez (including the hands down, most beautiful of them all, Faith designed by friend and neighbour Justin) – posing people-watched on a Friday night in Saint Trop; drank café in the square of surprisingly likeable Port Grimaud – explored its canal “streets” in Derek and chose our favourite house; enjoyed a fish supper treat from Mike and Ruth on the quay in Saint Mandrier on our 20th wedding anniversary and swam in the impossibly Bombay gin clear waters of Cassis.
It is amazing to be able to visit regions like this in our own “home” and hanging out at anchor on Rush is almost ridiculously comfortable – like living in a super-cool apartment with the best views and an all-round swimming pool. It almost felt unreal – “this can’t be us…” Mike, Ruth and Amanda all love to cook so the whole experience had it all!
Of course, all the typical cruising challenges bring you back down to earth… dodging strong winds and annoying boats that anchor so close they force you out of the perfect spot you spent ages finding etc etc. They aren’t much different whatever the boat!
Rush does, however, attract compliments and favourite from this trip came from a blond Norseman who dinghy’d over from his 70 or 80 foot Oyster to say something along the lines of “I raced a Tornado for Sweden at two Olympic Games and know a bit about catamarans. Is yours as good as she looks?” Well, all boats have pros and cons but we did think of that question a couple of days later when fetching in light winds with the Solent (not even the Code) set and Mike, at the helm, chuckled “OK, 7.5 knots boat speed in 7.5 knots of wind.”
Of course, Rush is new and we had some jobs to do following our first shakedown cruise. We headed back to Port Navy at Port Saint Louis where we’d booked for her to be lifted (cheaper and safer than staying afloat at this time of year) before we headed home to escape August Med madness and hide from Schengen Zone, post flippin’ Brexit, time limitations.
