Day 3

Slow progress. Visit to M. Bricolage for white spirit and bought hose nozzle that turns off. (I know this won't mean much to you, but picture hi-pressure water, sleeve type connector that requires both hands, ladder ascent to boat... and you might begin to grasp how important this is.
All ready for anti-fouling tomorrow - promised to be fine in the morning, maybe showery in the afternoon and wet later. Will try to finish job in the morning and then maybe allow myself to have lunch at the cafe. Except that for some perverse reason, wednesday is fish day.... no day is vegetarian day. They do egg & chips any day.
Left it a bit late last night, gets cold at sunset and too late to eat. I have a fantasy that one of my friends is back at the boat cooking supper. Sally's turn tonight, I think (Lynda last night.) Hope you're all reading this! I'd like to tell you about my anode adventure, but it'll have to wait. Will try to do better with the pix!

Day 3

Slow progress. Visit to M. Bricolage for white spirit and bought hose nozzle that turns off. (I know this won't mean much to you, but picture hi-pressure water, sleeve type connector that requires both hands, ladder ascent to boat... and you might begin to grasp how important this is.
All ready for anti-fouling tomorrow - promised to be fine in the morning, maybe showery in the afternoon and wet later. Will try to finish job in the morning and then maybe allow myself to have lunch at the cafe. Except that for some perverse reason, wednesday is fish day.... no day is vegetarian day. They do egg & chips any day.
Left it a bit late last night, gets cold at sunset and too late to eat. I have a fantasy that one of my friends is back at the boat cooking supper. Sally's turn tonight, I think (Lynda last night.) Hope you're all reading this! I'd like to tell you about my anode adventure, but it'll have to wait. Will try to do better with the pix!

Jobs

BLOG

Day 2 on Snork Maiden. Not yet marina crazy, but won’t be long. Have been listening to cricket on radio 4 LW. Bangladesh vs England. I think England are winning. There’s not much commentary on the cricket, more like listening to 2 old geysers having a chat. One of them has a wife buying a summerhouse at Chelsea Flower Show… other one has house on Isle of Wight with a painter on the roof… so he uses some of the airtime to chat to him. Somebody’s wife has just had a baby. Can’t quite understand why it isn’t on radio 5 – I thought that was for sport. Maybe cricket isn’t sport. They also moan because there’s not enough cricket in schools, nobody is playing competitively, Lords is half empty…. Even public schools aren’t all playing cricket.
Why was I listening? Because I was doing a little job, re-sticking headlining (like ceiling wall paper for boats) over aft berth. But it turned out not to be a little job – all the foam has crumbled into fine black dust, and the glue I bought hadn’t the faintest chance of working. Resorted to gaffer tape – not really pretty but it worked. Had to borrow a vacuum cleaner to deal with black dust. Next job was to paint rust spots on the keel with Hammerite. Went to chandlers but they were out of white spirit (to clean brushes) so postponed this one until tomorrow when I can visit my friend, M. Brocolage (DIY supermarket). I want to do this before anti-fouling so it can dry. Hammeriite I brought with me, since it seems like such a very British product that I couldn’t imagine it being sold here.
Cricket finished, Count Arthur Strong on radio. French are displaying alcohol units on cans of beer, and trying to discourage smoking. Village post office is closed because of some sort of social disruption – I will check out exact wording on next visit. Maybe France isn’t as immune to the modern world as I’d hoped.
Good news is that showers, that used to cost 2€ are now free. Bad news – they aren’t very warm. Not a perfect world, but it’s a sunny evening with a clear sky.

Jobs

BLOG

Day 2 on Snork Maiden. Not yet marina crazy, but won’t be long. Have been listening to cricket on radio 4 LW. Bangladesh vs England. I think England are winning. There’s not much commentary on the cricket, more like listening to 2 old geysers having a chat. One of them has a wife buying a summerhouse at Chelsea Flower Show… other one has house on Isle of Wight with a painter on the roof… so he uses some of the airtime to chat to him. Somebody’s wife has just had a baby. Can’t quite understand why it isn’t on radio 5 – I thought that was for sport. Maybe cricket isn’t sport. They also moan because there’s not enough cricket in schools, nobody is playing competitively, Lords is half empty…. Even public schools aren’t all playing cricket.
Why was I listening? Because I was doing a little job, re-sticking headlining (like ceiling wall paper for boats) over aft berth. But it turned out not to be a little job – all the foam has crumbled into fine black dust, and the glue I bought hadn’t the faintest chance of working. Resorted to gaffer tape – not really pretty but it worked. Had to borrow a vacuum cleaner to deal with black dust. Next job was to paint rust spots on the keel with Hammerite. Went to chandlers but they were out of white spirit (to clean brushes) so postponed this one until tomorrow when I can visit my friend, M. Brocolage (DIY supermarket). I want to do this before anti-fouling so it can dry. Hammeriite I brought with me, since it seems like such a very British product that I couldn’t imagine it being sold here.
Cricket finished, Count Arthur Strong on radio. French are displaying alcohol units on cans of beer, and trying to discourage smoking. Village post office is closed because of some sort of social disruption – I will check out exact wording on next visit. Maybe France isn’t as immune to the modern world as I’d hoped.
Good news is that showers, that used to cost 2€ are now free. Bad news – they aren’t very warm. Not a perfect world, but it’s a sunny evening with a clear sky.

Port la Foret

Sorry about this year’s blog – never as late as this! I usually manage to let you all know what our plans are, but this year seemed difficult for some uncertain reason. Anyway – you’ll all be glad to know that I’m in France, it’s warm and sunny, at least today it is. Snork Maiden is just as beautiful as when I left, with the washing up right there as ever was. I don’t know why it surprises me so much. It also looks as though some kind person has cleaned the decks – thanks to the sun, rain and winter winds. The first hour or so on the boat is great, it’s clean, tidy and peaceful, then along comes the job list and unloading to mess it up.

For all those interested in visiting / crewing / hanging out with us, our plan is to get in the water asap and take off south, coast and island hopping on the way. At the moment the return ferry is booked for approximately mid-July. We will aim to get to Marans, our favourite port near La Rochelle, where we can leave SM until we come back in late August, perhaps to bring her back to the UK as per last year’s plan.

That’s it for now… pix next time.

If you want to take a look at where we are - here it is, even a webcam.

Port la Foret

Sorry about this year’s blog – never as late as this! I usually manage to let you all know what our plans are, but this year seemed difficult for some uncertain reason. Anyway – you’ll all be glad to know that I’m in France, it’s warm and sunny, at least today it is. Snork Maiden is just as beautiful as when I left, with the washing up right there as ever was. I don’t know why it surprises me so much. It also looks as though some kind person has cleaned the decks – thanks to the sun, rain and winter winds. The first hour or so on the boat is great, it’s clean, tidy and peaceful, then along comes the job list and unloading to mess it up.

For all those interested in visiting / crewing / hanging out with us, our plan is to get in the water asap and take off south, coast and island hopping on the way. At the moment the return ferry is booked for approximately mid-July. We will aim to get to Marans, our favourite port near La Rochelle, where we can leave SM until we come back in late August, perhaps to bring her back to the UK as per last year’s plan.

That’s it for now… pix next time.

If you want to take a look at where we are - here it is, even a webcam.

Snork Maiden Lifts Out

Snork Maiden Lifts Out
Monday, September 21, 2009
Equinox, Port Le Foret

Equal day, equal night. It must be a propitious time to crane out. Here at PLF there is a very posh travel lift. Apart from a slightly botched exit from the pontoon, when SM took me quite by surprise, rearing across two spaces like a frightened horse! I spoke quietly to her, released the last moorong line, and we were off. Nice entry into the lifting bay - it looks like a concrete canyon, especially at the lowest of low tides. Herve and another of the matelots jumped on and Snork Maiden was soon cosily in the slings. I jumped off - well, sort of more like a gibbon really - reaching for the ladder on the side of the canyon and swinging over the gap. Then the lift trundles away at slow walking pace - always reminds me of a funeral, although this was more like a frisky wedding with the lift driver threatening to squish a couple’s car on the way.

We rumbled into Technical Area 1, where the Figaro boats live, so SM will be in good company. I am parked next to a tree (as is almost always the case) and, oh joy, next to the electricity and water box. Life is sweet. It’s quiet here at night, not too far to the loo, although peeing in a bottle is practical at night. If you envisage a boat that has a 1.5m keep under her, and a transom (backside) of around a metre, you’ll understand the necessity for a ladder (and a bottle to pee in). Everything has to be transported up and down the ladder or sometimes over the side on a jib sheet (rope to the landlubberly).

I am getting to like Mr Least Heat Moon and his River Horse more and more. He talks about how people change, and how the man planning the trip across America was not the same man making the trip 6 months later. I think I know exactly what he means. The other side of this coin is something I have only recently started to notice and that is that when I conjure up people who I have known for a long time (and we’re talking decades here) I see them as multiple images of themselves at different times. I see my Mum as the forty year old woman she was when I was four years old and at the same time I see her at 80 on her way down to Spain with my Dad and me in the old Citroen, sitting in the back like the Queen. I see Dexter as a baby, as a 3 year old, as a teenager, all at the same time. I see Al with long dark hair at the same time as I see his silver ‘wings’. And I see myself like this too. The only thing that puzzles me is that I never noticed it before.

Well, it’s dark outside now. I’ve finished my supper, but the washing up can wait until morning. (More life without plumbing.) Time to turn the table into my bed, and join the crew of the River Horse. It’s odd how 120 square metres of house seems not enough at home, but here rather less than 20 square metres of boat seems perfectly good for bedroom, living room, kitchen, bathroom, office, workshop, garden shed and spare room! If only we could transplant the trick, we could sublet the rest of the house to five other families.