“Your website hasn't been updated .... As you have so much time on your hands you should be able to update it more often.” Or “How is your extended holiday going .... all that lounging in the sun.” It's a common thread in the emails I have been receiving, and it's one that invokes a sense of indignation.
My reply is along the lines;
“We have had about as much time available as we had on the days immediately before our departure. The to do list goes on for 2 pages, and gets longer every day. We usually get to bed about midnight, rise about 8, and start working at 9. Recently we found a Carrefoure (big supermarket, think Cornelscourt times ten) - and spent 2 hours there, mostly noting what they have rather than buying the few bits that we got - and then had to carry everything home on our bikes. Before that I had to fix a puncture on my bike & Catherine's needed a bit of adjustment. Getting internet access is a daily challenge. I've been spending an hour or so every day trying to track down someone that can fix the fridge, or fit a new one. I am still working on fittings to attach the Dinghy to the back of the boat.
“We're enjoying it, and certainly not complaining, but "As you have so much time on your hands you should be able to update it more often" is a bit wide of the mark. And absolutely I am not looking for sympathy. If you're going to have an enforced stay somewhere, La Rochelle in June sure knocks the socks off rainy Dublin”.
We met an English couple on their boat here and they told us that they'd stopped here on their way south, but a succession of domestic issues brought them back to England repeatedly, until it was too late in the year and the weather was too bad. Three years later they're still here, and they're not complaining either. La Rochelle is the sort of place you could hang up your boots in for quite a while, but three years is not on our plan.
Then we went up the mast to change a light, and in the process managed to break 2 winches (long story), we're still waiting for the replacement parts. When I say "we" - I was up there for half an hour and came down knackered and in need of fresh underwear, it's sixty foot up a narrow pole. When I got down I realised I'd put the trilight on back to front. Catherine went up the second time, and in doing so elevated herself to Ellen MacArthur heights in the eyes of the entire marina.
The fridge is proving an interesting problem, I have been told quite emphatically that there is only one company in La Rochelle that can fix fridges, and I have found them both! One has told me that mine has to be replaced, the other is due in the morning, so we'll see. If what the first chap told me is borne out, I have a dilemna. Should we stay in La Rochelle for a third week and get the type of fridge we were going to upgrade to anyway? On the surface that seems like the right idea. But it will mean another week's marina charges plus a lift out, which between them cover the cost of the common or garden version, and then there's the further week's delay. In the meantime, the compressor is located under the floor of the cockpit locker, so I have ropes, buckets, anchors, and various other junk strewn around the deck to keep it accessible to the repairmen.
On the plus side I have, I think, sorted out my davits. As I type the dinghy is suspended from the stern. I'll see how it works when we go to sea. In addition, we have made quite a dent in the to do list, to such an extent that I am down to the things that will have to wait until the Algarve, and the chicken list.
So perhaps I will have some time on my hands to update the website after all .... Naww, I'll just spend my time lounging in the sun.
Copyright © Pat Egan 2008, all rights reserved.
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