The Story of Vibe ·
A full day on a catamaran out of Le Grau-du-Roi
The community's second trip out to sea, this time on a modern catamaran with room for up to twenty people: a full day on the water, from eleven until five, with lunch cooked on board.
| When | |
|---|---|
| How many came | до 20 (вместимость катамарана) |
| What it cost | €45 per adult, €20 per child from six years up |
| What was on | 11 am to 5 pm: departure from Le Grau-du-Roi, swimming and snorkelling, paddleboard and inflatable platform, lunch on the plancha at sea, a landing on a wild stretch of shore |
Photos from the meet-up
Photos are published with participants' consent. How to have your photo removed.
How this trip grew out of the first one
A word about sources first. This outing happened after we had finished collecting the community’s chat archive, so there are no quotes from the chat on this page — everything below comes from the organiser’s own account of the day.
A month earlier, on 2 July, the community went out under sail for the first time: someone found a skipper with a sailing yacht and twelve of us set off from the port of Carnon. The boat was booked for three hours and we stayed out for about five — sails, wind, the sunset, then the stars and the lights of the big beach seen from the water. That evening went down so well that the next trip was agreed on before anyone was back on dry land.
The repeat kept the spirit and changed the scale. Instead of a sailing yacht for twelve, a modern catamaran with room for up to twenty; instead of an evening around sunset, a whole day; instead of everyone chipping in for the boat, a ticket per person. That gave the community a second sea outing and, in practice, a small series of trips under sail — the first one is written up in full on the sailing yacht page.
What was on board
The catamaran was chartered for the entire day, 11 am to 5 pm, leaving from Le Grau-du-Roi. What really set this trip apart from the previous one was the kit: on board there was a fridge, a plancha, masks and snorkels, a paddleboard and an inflatable platform you could simply lie on in the middle of the sea.
The practical consequence matters more than it sounds: nobody had to bring equipment along, because everything for the water was already on the boat. Lunch was not prepared in advance on shore either — it was cooked on the plancha out at sea, which made it part of the day rather than a pause in it. On the July yacht trip, dinner was a shared potluck; here the food and the gear were included in the price of a place on board.
How the day went
Six hours at sea went on swimming, snorkelling, taking the boards out and lounging on the inflatable platform. There was a landing on a wild stretch of shore too, to the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack — which, for a daytime sea trip with children aboard, is roughly the right register.
The most impressed of the lot, by all accounts, were the kids: they started asking when the next one would be before the day was even over. That is probably the best review this kind of format can get, because the adults in the community are long used to the sea and to beach meet-ups near Montpellier, whereas a full day on a catamaran turned out to be an event of a completely different order for the children.
What it cost, and how to get on the next one
Taking part meant buying a ticket: €45 for an adult and €20 for a child from six years up. That is a clear departure from the community’s usual meet-ups — picnics, hikes and barbecues, where entry is free and food is a potluck. At sea you pay for your place on board, but the price covers the gear, the lunch and the catamaran with its crew.
Sea outings are not a one-off here but a format that comes round again: the first was in July, the second in August, and after each one the chat starts talking about the next. Announcements appear where both of these trips were born — in the community chat, usually a week to ten days before the date — and the number of places on a boat is limited by definition. If you live in Montpellier or nearby, there is really only one way to get on a trip like this: be in the chat when the announcement lands.