Escale à Sète, The Arrival!

This morning (at o'dark thirty), we headed to the Môle (that's the breakwater to you and me) - we were heading out on a boat, on The Mediterranean, to watch the tallships come in! It was the Arrival Parade for the Escale à Sète, and there were a bunch of us out there to make sure they got in OK. :-)
Our group was via Voiles Auriques - there were 30 of us in 4 boats (what a friendly crowd!); We met at the pleasure craft marina, and headed out shortly after dawn

Yeah, I couldn't decide which picture to use either...

It was cold! But so worth it! There are 120 boats registered for the Escale, including the ticketed boats (you can go on board the tallships if you have a ticket; more on these later):
L'Hermione and
Le Krusenstern, Le Shtandart, El Galeon, La Grâce et la Nao Victoria

We saw in the arrival parade: L'Hermione (reproduction of the French boat commanded by  La Fayette), Le Shtandart (Russian reproduction), La Grâce (Czech reproduction), and (in the distance) Le Krusenstern. (And a whole lot of escorts like us)

L'Hermione:

A nice view of Sète, with our crew

The 4-masted Le Krusenstern in the distance

Le Shtandart:

La Grâce:

The parade:

Two lighthouses through the masts

Le Krusenstern at the quai

~~~
For more photos, see my Escale album here.