S/V Spindrift

Lourmarin – Watering Party

and the Three Happiest Men in the Luberon

Sailors have always gone ashore in parties. A watering party for supplies, an exploring party for the lay of the land, liberty for everything else. Readers asked for more pictures, so this is that. Ten photos from one trip ashore, and a list of what came back aboard. Numbered, because there will be more.

THE REASON

S/V Spindrift was at Cannes and we were ashore in an apartment. Thursday we drove north into the Luberon for produce and wine. Two nights at Le Mas des Romarins in Gordes, four wineries, one of them a mistake, and Friday morning down the hill to the market at Lourmarin. The plan was to fill the lockers, and we filled them. Two cases in the back of the car, a young Comte, and too much melon. That is what we went for. What I brought back instead was a question about three men and their folding tables.

THE TEN

Le Mas des Romarins, Gordes, the pool and what is behind it. A room with a view, which I repay by sleeping nine hours and seeing none of it.

Domaine de la Citadelle, Menerbes. Light Grenache and Syrah that go down like something much more expensive. The Gouverneur Saint-Auban 2022, $29, built for a piece of meat.

Marche de Lourmarin, Friday morning. It runs the whole length of the village. Nobody is interested in our French, and pointing works better anyway.

The cheese lady. We buy a young Comte because Rick’s friend Lisa (https://krustykrabadventures.com/2026/05/01/andratx-to-andratx-old-friends-calm-seas-and-the-orange-bomb/) taught us the difference. Lisa is a thousand miles away and gets the credit anyway.

Tomatoes. That is the entire table. He works three languages at the people in front of him and never once looks hurried.

Garlic, and nothing but garlic, and firm views on which braid we ought to take.

Avocados, and nothing else again. Three men, three single crops, no hurry. Grow one thing well and a hundred daily choices collapse into one, the exact opposite of how I spent forty-one years.

Lunch, assembled on the go from whatever came out of the bags. Nothing here was bought with a plan.

Mas des Infermieres, the front entrance. Ridley Scott’s place, and he draws every label himself, a dog on each one. The winery after this one was a recommendation, and the less said about it the better.

La Trinquette, Gordes, and the valley going dark off to the right. A trinquette is a staysail, which settles where we eat. Nobody says much, and that is the review.

THE MANIFEST

• Twenty-four bottles, stowed below decks, including the Gouverneur Saint-Auban 2022, $29 a bottle
• Two Domaine Chasson Luberon rouge already gone
• One 50cl bottle of olive oil, first cold press, Ferme Haute Prairie, bought from the Carlin family at the market
• A young Comte, plus many more
• Enough tomatoes, garlic and avocados to embarrass us at the dock
• One Dyson V8, and no price is too much for a clean boat
• No bottles from the fourth winery. The owner was drunk and the wine had turned to vinegar
• An answer to which of the three I would rather be. The avocado man, for no reason I can defend beyond liking avocados more
• One question still open: should we sell the boat and become fig farmers. Sarah really likes figs. The answer is no. Not yet.