Waiting, Waiting, Waiting
Hi All,
This is a test blog from my email to see if I will be able to update the blog at sea - so sorry no photos.
It has been an interesting time since arriving back in France. On the drive down from Paris, we got a call from the manager of the company doing the work on our boat for us to tell us that some boats in the work yard had been broken into over the weekend (ours being one of them – so he wasn't just ringing to chat) but it didn't look like anything was taken. We organised to meet at the boat the next day and unfortunately, he was wrong. My laptop, PDA phone, multivitamins (that mum shipped to the Canaries) and more distressing the duty free alcohol and cigarettes we had bought in the Canaries and neatly packed were gone. Nothing nautical or any
tools were touched – they could of at least taken the E120 chart plotters that have been giving us grief since day one, but no. So this created a whole new adventure for me.
We are staying in the ResidHotel apartments in Les Sables d'Olonne and I got an email from the Gendarmes in St Gilles Croix de Vie where the boat was being worked on asking me to come into the station. After explaining I did not have a car he suggested that I catch a bus. I thought that this could not be too hard so off I go to the auto-bus gare to find out when it goes which was at 7:38 in the morning and returning at 5:00pm at night except for Wednesday when it is a bit more regular, but the officer was not rostered on, on Wednesday, so Tuesday morning I got up and tramped off in the cold dark and waited on the east side of the station with everyone else, but by 8:00 when I was the only one left I figured I had missed the bus, so I headed home in the dawning light, frigging cold and trying to figure out how I would explain to the police that I hadn't slept in and really did try and catch the bus.
After trying to catch a lift from a friend I opted for the bus again on Friday and this time in the rain I headed off to the station and happened to see a rather attractive French lady waiting on the west side of the station, which was quite fortunate. As my eyes followed her (in a respectful way of course), she stepped onto a bus heading for St Gilles! The perv gods smiled on me!
Once I arrived in St Gilles, I fired up the Sat Nav and worked out where I had to go. 2.5km – no problem I thought as it started to rain again. I arrived at the Gendarmerie (a tip - BIS in addresses obviously means "at the rear of" in French) to find the investigating officers' combined English was only marginally better than my French. So after 1 ½ hours I had managed to introduce myself, establish I was Australian and the owner of WhereII that had been burgled and what was missing (that had already been emailed to them in French). At the end, we all smiled and I left with no real hope that I would see our gear again. As I left, the rain started coming down properly as I made my way back to wait the 5 hours until the return bus.
This delay wasn't a big problem for me as the antifouling was completed, this was the day Where II was being slipped, so there she was sitting on block on the slip way in the middle of town waiting for the tide to come in. I hung around and watched the crew tie her and another boat off and then went and found lunch – I had a Royale with Cheese, just like in pulp fiction, in my first visit to the golden arches since leaving Aus! I then returned and watched them float my boat – it was a good feeling to see her on water again. So this week we are getting the final checks done and a few repairs completed from the trip up and she should be good as gold for the re-start of our adventure.
Meanwhile we have been struggling to get gear we need / want for the trip without a fixed address. I have managed to get my replacement laptop delivered from England (no qwerty keyboards here and the English one is slightly different) and a chart, but we are still waiting on a para anchor and the crossing guide. The Aussie made para-anchor is being shipped from Holland, but TNT believe that this address doesn't exist (even though we are here and other parcels arrived) so it may be heading back to Holland.
On to the trip:
We have finalised the crew and the passage plan, after agonising over some really great people and finally making a decision on crew we got an email from a Kiwi with experience who was interested in making the trip with his partner. We spoke on the phone and decided that Mark and Priscilla would be the ones to make the voyage with us and they are currently making their way from Lanzarote via Madrid and Paris. They should arrive on 10th December.
We will then aim for a 2 stage passage to Barbados, via Las Palmas Gran Canaria. We will take a broad turn around Finisterre to avoid the shipping lane (about 50Nm off) and then run down to the Canaries non-stop (wind, weather and boat permitting). This should take 10days allowing us to arrive just before Christmas. We will then re-provision and refuel the boat and have some shore leave after our longest and before the longer trip across the pond. From there we will follow the typical trade wind route with a planned landfall in Barbados – hopefully 17-20 days later. If you see this email based blog, then we will update our position and experiences on a regular basis on both passages. I will then post any interesting photos (probably, water, sky, clouds, sunrises, sunsets and hopefully some Dorado) when we hit port.
Anyway, now that I have a computer back I will start to fill in the blanks in the blogs while we are waiting waiting waiting....
Cheers
Matt & Karen
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This is a test blog from my email to see if I will be able to update the blog at sea - so sorry no photos.
It has been an interesting time since arriving back in France. On the drive down from Paris, we got a call from the manager of the company doing the work on our boat for us to tell us that some boats in the work yard had been broken into over the weekend (ours being one of them – so he wasn't just ringing to chat) but it didn't look like anything was taken. We organised to meet at the boat the next day and unfortunately, he was wrong. My laptop, PDA phone, multivitamins (that mum shipped to the Canaries) and more distressing the duty free alcohol and cigarettes we had bought in the Canaries and neatly packed were gone. Nothing nautical or any
tools were touched – they could of at least taken the E120 chart plotters that have been giving us grief since day one, but no. So this created a whole new adventure for me.
We are staying in the ResidHotel apartments in Les Sables d'Olonne and I got an email from the Gendarmes in St Gilles Croix de Vie where the boat was being worked on asking me to come into the station. After explaining I did not have a car he suggested that I catch a bus. I thought that this could not be too hard so off I go to the auto-bus gare to find out when it goes which was at 7:38 in the morning and returning at 5:00pm at night except for Wednesday when it is a bit more regular, but the officer was not rostered on, on Wednesday, so Tuesday morning I got up and tramped off in the cold dark and waited on the east side of the station with everyone else, but by 8:00 when I was the only one left I figured I had missed the bus, so I headed home in the dawning light, frigging cold and trying to figure out how I would explain to the police that I hadn't slept in and really did try and catch the bus.
After trying to catch a lift from a friend I opted for the bus again on Friday and this time in the rain I headed off to the station and happened to see a rather attractive French lady waiting on the west side of the station, which was quite fortunate. As my eyes followed her (in a respectful way of course), she stepped onto a bus heading for St Gilles! The perv gods smiled on me!
Once I arrived in St Gilles, I fired up the Sat Nav and worked out where I had to go. 2.5km – no problem I thought as it started to rain again. I arrived at the Gendarmerie (a tip - BIS in addresses obviously means "at the rear of" in French) to find the investigating officers' combined English was only marginally better than my French. So after 1 ½ hours I had managed to introduce myself, establish I was Australian and the owner of WhereII that had been burgled and what was missing (that had already been emailed to them in French). At the end, we all smiled and I left with no real hope that I would see our gear again. As I left, the rain started coming down properly as I made my way back to wait the 5 hours until the return bus.
This delay wasn't a big problem for me as the antifouling was completed, this was the day Where II was being slipped, so there she was sitting on block on the slip way in the middle of town waiting for the tide to come in. I hung around and watched the crew tie her and another boat off and then went and found lunch – I had a Royale with Cheese, just like in pulp fiction, in my first visit to the golden arches since leaving Aus! I then returned and watched them float my boat – it was a good feeling to see her on water again. So this week we are getting the final checks done and a few repairs completed from the trip up and she should be good as gold for the re-start of our adventure.
Meanwhile we have been struggling to get gear we need / want for the trip without a fixed address. I have managed to get my replacement laptop delivered from England (no qwerty keyboards here and the English one is slightly different) and a chart, but we are still waiting on a para anchor and the crossing guide. The Aussie made para-anchor is being shipped from Holland, but TNT believe that this address doesn't exist (even though we are here and other parcels arrived) so it may be heading back to Holland.
On to the trip:
We have finalised the crew and the passage plan, after agonising over some really great people and finally making a decision on crew we got an email from a Kiwi with experience who was interested in making the trip with his partner. We spoke on the phone and decided that Mark and Priscilla would be the ones to make the voyage with us and they are currently making their way from Lanzarote via Madrid and Paris. They should arrive on 10th December.
We will then aim for a 2 stage passage to Barbados, via Las Palmas Gran Canaria. We will take a broad turn around Finisterre to avoid the shipping lane (about 50Nm off) and then run down to the Canaries non-stop (wind, weather and boat permitting). This should take 10days allowing us to arrive just before Christmas. We will then re-provision and refuel the boat and have some shore leave after our longest and before the longer trip across the pond. From there we will follow the typical trade wind route with a planned landfall in Barbados – hopefully 17-20 days later. If you see this email based blog, then we will update our position and experiences on a regular basis on both passages. I will then post any interesting photos (probably, water, sky, clouds, sunrises, sunsets and hopefully some Dorado) when we hit port.
Anyway, now that I have a computer back I will start to fill in the blanks in the blogs while we are waiting waiting waiting....
Cheers
Matt & Karen
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mail2web LIVE – Free email based on Microsoft® Exchange technology -
http://link.mail2web.com/LIVE
Hi friends,
after all what's happening to you, you still seem to be in a good mood. Chapeau! Unbelievable they broke into Where II, I hope the companies insurance will pay! Hopefully we manage to see you here on the Canaries, we'll help on refilling the duty frees ;o). Good luck
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