Day 4: Rain and Spending - Port des Minimes, La Rochelle

I am typing this update from a decidedly soggy La Rochelle airport. I am on my way back to Preston after a hectic few days on our boat. I have written up the events of the handover below, pictures to follow soon. I am afraid that time has been short for updates before now.
Today Alex and I had a well deserved lie in after our long day yesterday. Bernard rafted beside us in his new Mahe finally got me out of bed running his engines for hot water, which is probably fair enough as this unseasonal bad weather is hard for him as he is from Martinique. We had a croissants for breakfast then a walk in the rain to the chandlery. We are fitting a Seagull filter for drinking water and Kevin needed a fitting for the connection to our cold water supply. Of course we ended up buying a crystal dehumidifier, jerry can, Q Flag and gas lighter (first casualty of the trip) while we were there, the spending really is on full flow recently this being one of many recent trips. That was the extent of my activities this morning is I needed to head to the airport to get home for work next week. I am flying back via Southampton as there are no direct flights to Manchester on a Sunday.
Kevin is continuing with his list of jobs, the most pressing of which is the addition of the boat name. Apparently failure to show this plus our UK Registration number and Red Ensign (UK Flag) could result in a 4000 Euro fine, which we have been warned is closely monitored here and certainly we cannot leave the marina without. Kevin spoke to our Delivery skipper Tim Basset yesterday too. He needed to move our delivery date to the 1st May, which actually seems sensible due to the work remaining. He is also insisting that the 50 hour service of our new boat engines is complete before departure too. This is not going to be cheap as there are two, so this adds more pressure on Kevin to get the fitting out done so we can get the engines run in, so the extra week will come in handy.