I had intended to be more active on the blog this year with at least weekly updates and yet here it is a month in. Lilou and I had a fairly routine trip over only marred by one of the wheels on my suitcase giving it up after one to many stairs. This made the 1km trek from the station to the boatyard in 34C heat more of a chore than I anticipated. Armida was tucked up tightly so I peeled back the rear cover, got aboard, made a quick meal (no restaurants open until 7pm) and crashed. Right on cue at 1am Lilou started barking for a walk and dinner. This year I was prepared and poked a bowl of food at her and went back to sleep.
The agenda for the first week was working on the bottom of the boat. This involves scraping away any flaking paint, sanding back loose and warn areas treating any rust pockets, priming,, sanding and coating with antifouling, most of which involves lying on your back on the gravelly ground. In addition I sanded and repainted the waterline marker and patched some cracks in the filler. Not my favorite job and I did find myself wondering a couple of times why I was doing it - the answer was “because I can”, for now. Marine products are expensive and take a lot longer to dry. With recoat times of 6-7 hours there was a lot of watching paint dry. The weather was lovely with nice sunny days and warm nights and our position in the far corner of the yard was great except for the long walk to the bathroom. Lilou loved sitting high up on the back deck and barking at passing dogs from a great height.
The port was pretty lively with many boaters returning to prepare for the end of the season, as we were just beginning. I declined the invitation from the Kiwi contingent to go to the local bar to watch the rugby between NZ and Australia because I don’t follow the sport. It was probably a good move as Australia thrashed them in the first game and were thrashed themselves a couple of days later. Neither is a good situation to be a lone Aussie in a bar full of Kiwis. Lilou was popular as always and there were always eager pet sitters if I had to go on a longer errand. On several social gatherings she was the object of the “pass the puppy” routine.
After a week I was pleased with my accomplishments but they were covered up as Armida was craned into the water. We then motored around into the marina. You could see the nice new waterline if you looked closely. Then it was on to above board stuff like cleaning, waxing, a new windshield wiper motor, battery monitoring system, a time delay relay for the shower pump so you don’t have to hold the drain button and a myriad of other projects that all take longer than expected.
The weather warmed backed up a bit and the late afternoons were quite hot down in the marina out of the breeze. The hottest day of course was the day Terry and Rosie arrived as the “Canicule” (heatwave) made a short reappearance. Their trip was not as uneventful as ours with LA traffic making for a rush through LAX and Air Tahiti Nui’s new 787 aircraft reducing the under seat space so that Rosie’s well used carrier no longer fit which made an long trip more uncomfortable without floor space. Then it was an hour bus ride to Paris and hot steamy walk to the train station. But they made it and I met them in a rental car at Dijon.
The dogs were happy to see each other and quickly settled back into the boating routine. We kept the car for a few days to do some shopping trips for food, wine, parts and a new chair for the wheel. It was fortunate we had it for our day of excitement. See the post Part 2 for the story.
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