Anchorage

Baie de Sanary

4.0FranceVar

Shelter: NE, E, SE
Seabed: sand
Anchoring: Allowed

Sand anchorage in the baie de Sanary, between the Cap Sicié to the east and the Île des Embiez to the west, on the Var coast in Provence.

Beach

Guide

Approach and anchoring

Sand bottom, shelter from NE, E and SE, exposed to the W and SW where the mistral sets in with swell. In summer a 300 metre strip along the shore is closed to anchoring and to engines, so drop outside it. Off the breakwater the bottom is weed; better sand lies about half a mile south, where it is also quieter. A south-west swell often rolls the bay even in calm wind, and near the town nightclub noise carries until the small hours. Watch for the Sanary fishing mooring field on the northern edge.

Practical

Port of Sanary-sur-Mer 0.4 NM NW, with 650 berths, water and electricity at the pontoons and a fuel berth at the quay; dinghies tie up inside between pontoons 6 and 7. Port Méditerranée 0.5 NM SE.

Ashore

Sanary-sur-Mer seafront, Tuesday to Sunday morning market on the quai du Levant, and the 13th century Romanesque tour de Sanary. The restaurant La Bohème stands about 300 m from the port, and an Auchan supermarket is roughly 25 minutes on foot for a full provisioning. Notre-Dame-de-Pitié chapel on the hill overlooks the bay.

History

Sanary hosted one of the largest colonies of German anti-Nazi writers in exile between 1933 and 1940, including Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht and Lion Feuchtwanger. The aqualung was tested in the bay in 1943 by Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Émile Gagnan.