Rediscovering old photos is always refreshing, even when they´re already battered and bruised as these are. Like some of the other photos in my Rückblende-Series they are actually slides and seem to have suffered significantly from moving along, especially to those tropical postings. Here, some friends and me are on a sailing cruise along the French Riviera. We did a few of these sailing trips in the Mediterranenan from the late 80s until the mid 90s. One thing became very clear from the beginning: Choose your sailing-mates carefully. Do this kind of thing with good friends only, otherwise one or even two weeks on open water will truly test your social tolerance. Or from another angle: After a sailing trip, having being cramped into the confined spaces of a sailing yacht, having cooked together (cooking and eating were the toughest test) and having discussed the limits of rough weather (the rougher, the more fun), you really know your friends.

Main objective: tilt the boat and have fun!

Île Saint-Honorat, a monastery island

                                                                              The mountain village of Èze is considered one of

                                                                              the most beautiful towns in southern France.

The wonderful port of Nice. Along the Côte d´Azur it´s difficult to ignore the beautiful towns and cities, so we made a few calls at a port. When the weather is good one tries to stay away from ports as long as possible, in order to save port fees, and to have as much fun on the open water as possible. Fresh water refill is another reason for a port of call.

Harbour entrance at Nice

Afternoon mood

These clouds seem to indicate imminent meteorological danger,...

...but no wind came up, thus forcing us to motor along to our next destination.

Prepared for the perfect storm, but the trip had a happy ending.

More pics of sailing along the Côte d`Azur