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Level 4 – Coastal sailing

Small boat near a rocky cave with people swimming, clear water

🎯Objective: Coastal navigation

👨‍✈️ Accompaniment: You are the captain

👨‍🎓 Audience: Level 3 member for 1 full year wishing to enjoy coastal navigation

✅ Program: There is no specific program since you are autonomous in coastal navigation.

Example of coastal navigation: Going to the La Mala anchorage

This very pleasant navigation is reserved for the most experienced members of the Club because the distance to be travelled is greater which requires a better understanding of the sea.

Thus, the prevailing winds blowing from the east, you will probably encounter a counter-swell and a starboard wind side. You therefore have an interest in aiming at the Cap d’Ail (more to the right) which compensates for the drift. If you don’t do it, it’s not a problem at all, in fact the drift will make you marry the course of the Coast which is also charming. You will then enter the beautiful bay of Eze, which we will talk about in another article. However, your travel time may be extended. It’s up to you to see depending on the motivations of your crew.

On the return, and always in the hypothesis that the dominant wind is from the east, you will be under a favourable pace, especially since you will be pushed by the Ligurian current. This current runs along the Mediterranean coast from Liguria in Italy to Gibraltar… Well known to sailors or fishermen, this current of a knot fluctuates according to the seasons.

Navigation map from Beaulieu to La Mala

You will also dose the speed according to the comfort of navigation with the waves. Probably at 3-4 knots on the way, you will go a little faster on the way back thanks to the current. This is how it takes 1 hour to go by headwind when returning a little into the Bay of Èze, and a little more than half an hour, on the way back, depending on all these parameters and sunshine. Remember that you must return the boat loaded, it is even possible to return it at 100% load!

Plan a few extra minutes for port manoeuvres and clean the boat as you found it.

Quiz

Try this quiz. This will give you a better understanding of security issues once you are a captain. We hope you will enjoy it, as much as we did to prepare it for you for free! At the end of the test, you can evaluate your results, anonymously, with the other answers.