This weekend sees us packing more stuff away for the boat and still shopping for those must haves.
Also this weekend we helped Jonny and Kate with a few jobs on their boat, as they are hoping to have their boat back on the water before this weekend. It was good to be around the boat yard and a reminder of things to come.
We are now making good progress on clearing things down, it has taken an entire day just going through paper work and assessing what we must keep and what we don’t need anymore, the amount of documentation we do not need anymore was by far and away the biggest pile.
A decision was finally made on the radar, we have decided that it will be worth while having, along with the chart plotter, gps (another one) plus digital charts and the mast mount for the radar. These have now been ordered and I just hope it arrives in time and we can fit it all into the van for our journey to La Rochelle in just over a weeks time. Not long now!
Another plan is to have a final leaving party on Friday or Saturday night, giving us plenty of time to recover before the serious side to our adventure begins.
Monday, 31 March 2008
Thursday, 27 March 2008
Last Day!
Well yesterday was my last day at work, the time is still dragging by, but that marks the end of an era, 13 not 14 years I was reliably informed, which is about what you serve these days for committing murder.
It is a very odd feeling saying goodbye to people you have worked with for so long, can't really explain in it words, I guess you can only experience it for yourself and come away with your own conclusions.
What was totally unexpected was a small presentation, which I received a personalised log book for ‘Invincible’ and a bottle of Pussers Rum (Admiralty Strength). Excellent!
I really enjoy surprising people, practical jokes etc. but in this case the tables were turned and I was on the receiving end with a former work colleague grinning from ear to ear, watching me slowly die of embarrassment, we know who you are and it will never be forgotten.
The day ended on a high with a few light refreshments at the local watering hole, where a few more goodbye’s and well wishers said Bon Voyage, except for one who expressed his terms by asking me to leave in jerky movements, whilst demonstrating the Nescafe bean advert. I wouldn’t expect anything else from a Wiganer.
Anyway it’s now back to organising the departure from dear old blighty, packing stuff and ordering the final bits of equipment.
Living the Dream!
It is a very odd feeling saying goodbye to people you have worked with for so long, can't really explain in it words, I guess you can only experience it for yourself and come away with your own conclusions.
What was totally unexpected was a small presentation, which I received a personalised log book for ‘Invincible’ and a bottle of Pussers Rum (Admiralty Strength). Excellent!
I really enjoy surprising people, practical jokes etc. but in this case the tables were turned and I was on the receiving end with a former work colleague grinning from ear to ear, watching me slowly die of embarrassment, we know who you are and it will never be forgotten.
The day ended on a high with a few light refreshments at the local watering hole, where a few more goodbye’s and well wishers said Bon Voyage, except for one who expressed his terms by asking me to leave in jerky movements, whilst demonstrating the Nescafe bean advert. I wouldn’t expect anything else from a Wiganer.
Anyway it’s now back to organising the departure from dear old blighty, packing stuff and ordering the final bits of equipment.
Living the Dream!
Wednesday, 12 March 2008
Back and Forth
Another update from an early morning train, this time from a very wind swept North West heading to Leeds.
As Kev readily updates me every day he has 13 days left at work and now with the slight delay on delivery we have 29 days before we set off in a van to our boat!
The closer it gets the more difficult it seems to be to believe it's really true. It is especially strange Kevin starting to say goodbye to friends. So apologies if we seem unenthusiastic, but it just seems surreal at the moment. My guilty pleasure is reading other people's sailing blogs who are already out there doing it, which is a great reminder of why we have embarked on this mad scheme!
Other news is that in the theme of other recent plan changes we are reverting back to plan A on our house sale too. After advice from our bank manager and accountant last week relating to capital in the bank with interest versus housing market plus rent, we have decided to sell our house rather than rent. So we have an agent coming on Thursday, which will be a challenge to make the house look uncluttered with all our packing at the moment. Also what looked like a few free days for Kevin between finishing work and collecting the boat has now been earmarked for decorating! It also means that we will have to be especially ruthless on our house clearing as we won't have any spare storage- so eBay it is then.
As Kev readily updates me every day he has 13 days left at work and now with the slight delay on delivery we have 29 days before we set off in a van to our boat!
The closer it gets the more difficult it seems to be to believe it's really true. It is especially strange Kevin starting to say goodbye to friends. So apologies if we seem unenthusiastic, but it just seems surreal at the moment. My guilty pleasure is reading other people's sailing blogs who are already out there doing it, which is a great reminder of why we have embarked on this mad scheme!
Other news is that in the theme of other recent plan changes we are reverting back to plan A on our house sale too. After advice from our bank manager and accountant last week relating to capital in the bank with interest versus housing market plus rent, we have decided to sell our house rather than rent. So we have an agent coming on Thursday, which will be a challenge to make the house look uncluttered with all our packing at the moment. Also what looked like a few free days for Kevin between finishing work and collecting the boat has now been earmarked for decorating! It also means that we will have to be especially ruthless on our house clearing as we won't have any spare storage- so eBay it is then.
Congratulations!
Congratulations to Kevin for passing his Ocean Yachtmaster exam last night. It has been a long and difficult course and the study has been a challenge to fit in with all of our other preparations, so well done! Also well done to course mates Paul, Alan and Adam for passing too as I know they are readers of our blog.
Monday, 10 March 2008
Hull Number 86
Well this weekend has been another busy one, we have been in contact with Maggie and Ivan who are also buying a Mahe 36 (Hull No 75) and will be picking up the boat at the end of April from La Rochelle, Maggie had sent us an email with contact details to have a chat and discuss what experiences they have been having, Jo had a long conversation on Sunday morning and hopefully, we will get to meet them before we both set off.
Karen form M.I. Cats has confirmed our hull number (86) and the serial numbers of the Volvo engines. Karen also informed us of the new delivery date, which has now changed from the 28th March to the 10th of April, this has caused some major changes to our plans, we had flights booked etc, which we now need to cancel. Plus we will need to re-arrange the van hire and the ferry tickets. More money!
Oh, yes we have also paid for the boat, some 5 weeks in front of the contracted date, which states that the final payment is due 7 days before delivery. Apparently Fountaine Pajot need to book the services of the police escort from the factory to the commissioning key and this now changes any previous agreement on the final payment. Hmmm 5 weeks interest on that amount of money probably will pay for the police escort!
I have also booked the services of an experienced skipper, Tim Bassett, who runs a company called TB Marine. Tim will be assisting us from La Rochelle to the Canaries. Tim has done 100,000 delivery miles on various vessels. After a few conversations and from what I have managed to read about Tim, he seems to be the perfect choice in joining both Paul and myself before we set off on the 25th - 26th April across the Bay of Biscay, weather permitting of course.
It is all now beginning to seem very real, we had some friends come round last night Laura and Ash, who basically came to take us out for a meal and spend some time with us before we set off to pick up the boat. Enjoy your skiing holiday you two and don’t break a leg!
Karen form M.I. Cats has confirmed our hull number (86) and the serial numbers of the Volvo engines. Karen also informed us of the new delivery date, which has now changed from the 28th March to the 10th of April, this has caused some major changes to our plans, we had flights booked etc, which we now need to cancel. Plus we will need to re-arrange the van hire and the ferry tickets. More money!
Oh, yes we have also paid for the boat, some 5 weeks in front of the contracted date, which states that the final payment is due 7 days before delivery. Apparently Fountaine Pajot need to book the services of the police escort from the factory to the commissioning key and this now changes any previous agreement on the final payment. Hmmm 5 weeks interest on that amount of money probably will pay for the police escort!
I have also booked the services of an experienced skipper, Tim Bassett, who runs a company called TB Marine. Tim will be assisting us from La Rochelle to the Canaries. Tim has done 100,000 delivery miles on various vessels. After a few conversations and from what I have managed to read about Tim, he seems to be the perfect choice in joining both Paul and myself before we set off on the 25th - 26th April across the Bay of Biscay, weather permitting of course.
It is all now beginning to seem very real, we had some friends come round last night Laura and Ash, who basically came to take us out for a meal and spend some time with us before we set off to pick up the boat. Enjoy your skiing holiday you two and don’t break a leg!
Tuesday, 4 March 2008
Factory Vist MKII
Thursday and Friday had been set aside to visit the factory in France to see the progress of the boat, we had originally booked the visit for the 7th of March but was persuaded to go earlier due to the factory being on time with the build and the requested photos I would need may not be available due to the two halves of the boat being joined together.
I had wanted to visit the boat whilst in manufacture to get some photos of the exact location of the pipe runs and cable runs so that when we start to fit out we have a good idea of what is behind the various panels and walls before we start to fit out the boat. Well that was the plan.
I was accompanied on my journey by Paul, who is a keen sailor and is interested in the Mahe 36, we set off early on a Thursday morning to catch a flight from Stanstead London to La Rochelle, the drive down went smoothly and after a non-stop drive of 5 hours we were standing outside the airport with time to spare. Good Start!
The plane was on time and we had a good flight over to La Rochelle, upon landing we picked up the hire car a small bright red Citroen C1, which was fine for our purposes and we set off to La Rochelle, This being Paul’s first time I thought it would be good to get straight down to the marina and see if we could see a Mahe in the flesh, Paul had only ever seen photographs. We pulled up just out side the Fountaine Pajot marina office in Port de Minimes and set of down the pontoon to view the Mahe. Paul’s first comment was how much bigger it was in the flesh and that the pictures do not do it justice. We had a good look around and then decided to go to get a room for a couple of nights at a local hotel in the centre of La Rochelle, easier said than done!
After booking into the hotel and parking the car, we set off around the town to sample some of the local produce, which as ever was fantastic.
The morning was soon upon us and I was now getting excited by the fact that today I would actually see our boat, not the factory boat or some else’s, but our boat!
We made our way out of LR and headed towards the factory, we did not have much trouble in finding the factory, after all there are only 2 roads in that general direction. We arrived at the factory about 10 minutes early and tried to make our way to the company car park, no chance, this space was taken by Orana 44’s and Mahe 36’s , they were everywhere, not much spare space left anywhere outside the factory, a good sign for any manufacturer, we went to reception to meet Jean-Vincent and register our arrival.
Jean-Vincent came out to welcome us and then said something, which really did surprise the both of us…
Why are you here…?
To see my boat!
Ah yes I think it has come out of the mould, follow me and you can see.
At this point my heart sank and I knew that we were not going to what we expected to see and to cut a long story short, we didn’t, the boat had not long been out of the mould and they were beginning to fit the bulk heads, very little on the cable and pipe run’s, so from my point of view a complete waste of time. Paul could clearly see my disappointment and then he went off to talk to Jean-Vincent to find out were the communication had gone wrong, which it clearly had.
Jean-Vincent, then explained that we were a week early and if we came a week later then that would have been ideal, the boat would have been at the stage we needed for our required photographs.
I photographed as much of the boat possible, and then went back to the car and drove back to LR, to watch some of the boats being commissioned on the commissioning key, to achieve a better understanding of what will be facing us in the now very near future and also to salvage something from this visit, which was now clearly a total waste of time and money.
I have not bothered to try and establish were the problem was in the communication breakdown between the factory and our dealer M.I. Cats. No point as we are now running out of time and the boat will be finished by the 28th of March, 24 days as I write.
Paul and I wondered round the marina’s and chandlery’s for the rest of the afternoon, then decided we would drop the car off at the front of the hotel and go for a beer, things started to look up!
Again a fantastic evening followed and we both made our way back to the hotel after a very long day.
In the morning I got up to go and put a parking ticket on the car as in LR between 9.00 - 12.00 and 14.30 – 18.30 you need to pay and display, no problem, well that’s what I thought, went outside to find the hire car gone, been towed away very early this morning, went back inside the hotel to enquire about the situation and was then told that car parking was not allowed on Saturday morning at the front of the hotel, great, so now we had to get the hire car out of the car pound before dropping it off at the airport, then flying home.
We managed to sort out the car and make our way to the airport with loads of time to spare, so no panic!
The flight was delayed due to weather in Stanstead, now the weather gods are having a go, we eventually get back to Stanstead and pick up the car for the return journey set of down the M11 to the A14 and onto the M6. Just a meer 5 hours and we will be home, not quite so, fate had not finished with us yet. The big digital signs on the M6 were telling us that junction 18 to 19 had been shut, well Paul just seemed to accept that this is now the norm and did not say a thing.
We took a diversion, which did not seem to delay us to long and before you know it we were both home safely, much wiser for our experience.
I had wanted to visit the boat whilst in manufacture to get some photos of the exact location of the pipe runs and cable runs so that when we start to fit out we have a good idea of what is behind the various panels and walls before we start to fit out the boat. Well that was the plan.
I was accompanied on my journey by Paul, who is a keen sailor and is interested in the Mahe 36, we set off early on a Thursday morning to catch a flight from Stanstead London to La Rochelle, the drive down went smoothly and after a non-stop drive of 5 hours we were standing outside the airport with time to spare. Good Start!
The plane was on time and we had a good flight over to La Rochelle, upon landing we picked up the hire car a small bright red Citroen C1, which was fine for our purposes and we set off to La Rochelle, This being Paul’s first time I thought it would be good to get straight down to the marina and see if we could see a Mahe in the flesh, Paul had only ever seen photographs. We pulled up just out side the Fountaine Pajot marina office in Port de Minimes and set of down the pontoon to view the Mahe. Paul’s first comment was how much bigger it was in the flesh and that the pictures do not do it justice. We had a good look around and then decided to go to get a room for a couple of nights at a local hotel in the centre of La Rochelle, easier said than done!
After booking into the hotel and parking the car, we set off around the town to sample some of the local produce, which as ever was fantastic.
The morning was soon upon us and I was now getting excited by the fact that today I would actually see our boat, not the factory boat or some else’s, but our boat!
We made our way out of LR and headed towards the factory, we did not have much trouble in finding the factory, after all there are only 2 roads in that general direction. We arrived at the factory about 10 minutes early and tried to make our way to the company car park, no chance, this space was taken by Orana 44’s and Mahe 36’s , they were everywhere, not much spare space left anywhere outside the factory, a good sign for any manufacturer, we went to reception to meet Jean-Vincent and register our arrival.
Jean-Vincent came out to welcome us and then said something, which really did surprise the both of us…
Why are you here…?
To see my boat!
Ah yes I think it has come out of the mould, follow me and you can see.
At this point my heart sank and I knew that we were not going to what we expected to see and to cut a long story short, we didn’t, the boat had not long been out of the mould and they were beginning to fit the bulk heads, very little on the cable and pipe run’s, so from my point of view a complete waste of time. Paul could clearly see my disappointment and then he went off to talk to Jean-Vincent to find out were the communication had gone wrong, which it clearly had.
Jean-Vincent, then explained that we were a week early and if we came a week later then that would have been ideal, the boat would have been at the stage we needed for our required photographs.
I photographed as much of the boat possible, and then went back to the car and drove back to LR, to watch some of the boats being commissioned on the commissioning key, to achieve a better understanding of what will be facing us in the now very near future and also to salvage something from this visit, which was now clearly a total waste of time and money.
I have not bothered to try and establish were the problem was in the communication breakdown between the factory and our dealer M.I. Cats. No point as we are now running out of time and the boat will be finished by the 28th of March, 24 days as I write.
Paul and I wondered round the marina’s and chandlery’s for the rest of the afternoon, then decided we would drop the car off at the front of the hotel and go for a beer, things started to look up!
Again a fantastic evening followed and we both made our way back to the hotel after a very long day.
In the morning I got up to go and put a parking ticket on the car as in LR between 9.00 - 12.00 and 14.30 – 18.30 you need to pay and display, no problem, well that’s what I thought, went outside to find the hire car gone, been towed away very early this morning, went back inside the hotel to enquire about the situation and was then told that car parking was not allowed on Saturday morning at the front of the hotel, great, so now we had to get the hire car out of the car pound before dropping it off at the airport, then flying home.
We managed to sort out the car and make our way to the airport with loads of time to spare, so no panic!
The flight was delayed due to weather in Stanstead, now the weather gods are having a go, we eventually get back to Stanstead and pick up the car for the return journey set of down the M11 to the A14 and onto the M6. Just a meer 5 hours and we will be home, not quite so, fate had not finished with us yet. The big digital signs on the M6 were telling us that junction 18 to 19 had been shut, well Paul just seemed to accept that this is now the norm and did not say a thing.
We took a diversion, which did not seem to delay us to long and before you know it we were both home safely, much wiser for our experience.
Sunday, 2 March 2008
4 Weeks to go....
4 weeks today and counting!! It is all still slightly surreal to be honest, it’s still hard to imagine when you are feeling as if you are running at 100mph to think that sometime soon life will start to slow down. It’s still hard to imagine floating around the Caribbean in the sun this time next year particularly in the thick frost of the last week in England! We are both just so excited to get back out on the water having been boatless for some time now.
Kevin goes for his visit to the factory to take photos accompanied now with a friend from his Yachtmaster Ocean course, Paul. We will then have three weekends more together before we go to collect the boat! We are beginning to pack up the house too, because we need to get everything over to France that we plan to take with us or at least those I won’t need between now and August. We are dividing our possessions between the house and the boat, all DVDs are packed up in a zip up case (cases too much room to carry!), Kevin gets the crockery and cutlery and iPod and I get the house stereo and camping gear! As I’m away most of the week with work in hotels, we need everything we need on the boat rather than buy duplicates of everything after spending so many months trying to declutter our lives. We have had to upgrade our ferry ticket to a van since changing our plan back to travel straight to the Canaries with the boat and I have had to find a van hire company which allows hire from the UK to include France. Think we are getting there with all the preparations.
Kevin goes for his visit to the factory to take photos accompanied now with a friend from his Yachtmaster Ocean course, Paul. We will then have three weekends more together before we go to collect the boat! We are beginning to pack up the house too, because we need to get everything over to France that we plan to take with us or at least those I won’t need between now and August. We are dividing our possessions between the house and the boat, all DVDs are packed up in a zip up case (cases too much room to carry!), Kevin gets the crockery and cutlery and iPod and I get the house stereo and camping gear! As I’m away most of the week with work in hotels, we need everything we need on the boat rather than buy duplicates of everything after spending so many months trying to declutter our lives. We have had to upgrade our ferry ticket to a van since changing our plan back to travel straight to the Canaries with the boat and I have had to find a van hire company which allows hire from the UK to include France. Think we are getting there with all the preparations.
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