Preparations 2: Getting used to the Good, the Bad and the Downright Ugly!

How many of you find that your mood is affected by the weather?  I have a very definite tolerance level for wind, rain and cloudy weather - it's LOW!  I left warm and sunny skies in Australia to pursue an 'endless summer' and so far have experienced mostly Aussie winter weather - okay, so it's not snow and ice but it's still miserable.  Mother Nature was kind this week, however and sent us some sunny afternoons, with a couple of really warm days at the end of the week just in time for Tad's son, Patrick's arrival from the USA.

Progress has been slow (or so it seems) with Tad and me making regular visits to our favourite chandlery at the top of the boat ramp.  It's probably worth mentioning that Thierry from Accastillage Diffusion does give boat-buyers a great deal - he offers bulk-buying discounts as well as assistance for VAT refund on purchases.  His patience with us has been endless, although it has to be said that the same has also been the case - he is another case of 'tomorrow' when asked about our supplies supposedly ordered (and deposit paid) back in March!

It is important to understand that buying a new boat is not like buying a new piece of clothing, a bicycle or a car - you don't just go to a shop or a dealer, choose your make/model/size/colour and then walk/ride/drive off having paid in full.  Boat-buying is rather more complicated!  Of course, had we chosen to spend a great deal more money, we might have contracted an agent in Australia to do all the 'hard work' for us, and then employed boat preparation people to unpack, check and fix everything for us.  Alternatively, many Aussies use their preferred agent to purchase their boat, spend a small fortune having the vessel shipped back to Australia and then have the work done there.

Our decision was to have a certain amount of work finished by the factory, a small amount of post-factory work completed by "Uchimata" (see previous blog post), and Tad and myself to do the rest (well, mostly Tad as he is the handy-man!).  While being financially more lucrative to do things our way, the compromise is time… and time is something we are reluctant to spend in La Rochelle, pretty town though it is.  But the decision was made and we are up to our eyeballs in wires, cables, conduits and even holes in various parts of the boat (none below the waterline I hasten to add).

The good news is that I was able to clean and organise most of our possessions rather quickly so that we had access to clean clothes, a comfortable bed and of course fresh food from the market.  Our first meal on board was grilled fish from the market with some sliced tomatoes - nothing flash but very tasty.  The bicycles we had ordered had not arrived, but with a little pressure on Thierry, a couple of rental bikes were suddenly found and this made moving around a great deal easier.  The boat is presently moored on the 'professional pontoon' (where work is constantly being done on all the boats around us) which is noisy but also more conveniently located to the Old Town and the shops than the pontoons in the main marina area.  The compromise is that we have another Helia owned by fellow Aussies rafted up to us and they need to traipse across our bow to reach their boat - including hauling their daily purchases which are not few.

More good news came in the way of a brief taste of summer - three days of sunshine and warm weather - shorts and t-shirts came out and we finally had the chance to christen "Bisou" with a bottle of Veuve Cliquot obtained while in transit in Singapore on our way here.  Tad had marked the boat earlier in the week but we wanted Patrick to join in the celebrations and for the weather to be a little more appropriate for the pouring of the champagne.

Sadly, the warm weather did not last and was followed by more strong winds, cool weather and rain which has stayed with us.  The locals have reassured us that this is not 'normal' weather for May, and others around Europe have expressed similar sentiments, so we are not the only ones longing for summer to arrive.

The Bad: along with the extended lunch hours and Sunday closures, the month of May has this year been the unwelcome (to us anyway) bearer of more than its fair share of  public holidays - worse still, the public holidays are predominantly falling on either Thursdays or Mondays, and as you would expect, this means that Fridays are generally taken as holiday as well in order to create a long-weekend!  There will have been three of these in May alone!  April was apparently almost equal with Easter and something else disrupting people's efforts to get their boats readied for departure.  We are smilingly reassured by various locals that June will be much better - we do not wish to be here in June!

In spite of the Downright Ugly weather, we are cosy and safe on board "Bisou". While on shore power, we have good hot water supplies for showers and washing up; we also have a good gas supply for cooking both on our Aussie BBQ (www.marinebarbecues.com.au) as well as the oven and stove inside the galley.  So while I whinge like a princess about the weather, it's really not that bad…or am I getting used to it?

One of the pluses of our many visits to La Rochelle has been the unique friendship we have forged with a widow (we had met her late husband on our first visit to the area) here - she has been so incredibly helpful from providing information for us via email, to offering her late husband's workshop and tools for Tad to use should he need them.  She was even kind enough to chauffeur us about in her car last weekend to various shops which were both out of reach of our cycling abilities (not to mention our carrying abilities while on our bicycles); in addition she accompanied me to the markets and introduced me to her favourite vendors while also pointing out various cuts of meat and poultry and how to cook them.  Her coup de grace was inviting us to a dinner at her home - she is a marvellous cook and was thoughtful enough to remember my taste for 'lapin' (rabbit) which she prepared for our main course.  The appetisers and dessert were equally delicious, and together with champagne to start and a bottle of St Emilion (red) with the meal, we were all pleasantly happy by the end of the evening and fortunately the streets were empty for our ride home on our bicycles!

As I write this week's offering, Tad is busy providing entertainment for the assorted boats and nationalities surrounding us by drilling holes in our roof!  The holes are in the canopy covering the cockpit area (outside) and are to accommodate the cables for the solar panels; the holes will ultimately be covered and water-proofed, however the spectators are not to know this for the time-being and are bemused by the actions of the strange Aussies who appear to be destroying their brand-new boat in front of their very eyes.  I, on the other hand, look out the window at the large black clouds scudding our way and am hopeful that the holes will be at least temporarily stopped up before the next squall comes through.

                                                    "Bisou" on the pontoon

                                                    Our first meal on board

                 
                                                    Sunset at 9:45pm!

Preparations1: The Good, The Bad and the Downright Ugly

When you buy something new, be it a small appliance or a new home, the first thing you want to do is get it set up so you can use it.  There is nothing that frustrates a new owner more than delays, whether avoidable or unavoidable and due to external factors such as weather, lack of instructions, and missing parts!

After organising our 'plan of action' the first step was to reserve rental vehicles for the Saturday (to collect our gear from the storage unit and deposit this on the boat), as well as the following Tuesday (for the drive to Nantes to collect our air-freight cartons, and do a little extra 'large item' shopping).

We collected the van first thing Saturday morning and headed first to Homebox to collect our stored goods - from there it was on to the Centre Commerciale Puilboreau-Beaulieu to visit the hardware emporium, Leroy Merlin as well as the sporting goods store, Decathlon before rushing back to meet our agent's representative to handover the boat.

Paul, from MI Cats in the UK arrived punctually at 2pm as planned and took us to "Bisou" for our first look around on board.  Tad was so excited to finally be on board the boat and inside to have a good look around.  We needed to go through the check-list to make sure that all the factory options had been included/installed as well as the extra items (e.g. water maker, TV antenna, and other bits and pieces) we had organised for post-factory work by a local marine company - Uchimata - sounds Japanese?  The owner of the company is a keen judo competitor and apparently the word "uchimata" is the name of a judo move/throw.  Pierre and his crew of very competent marine technicians (they seem to be able to do anything boat-related) are very much in demand in the port of La Rochelle and most Aussies who purchase their boats here have Pierre do their post-factory work.

As we had to have the van back to the depot by 6pm, Paul was kind enough to 'allow' us to unload our goods onto the boat (although we had not yet officially signed our 'acceptance').  No unpacking allowed just yet!

Sundays in La Rochelle are generally pretty quiet - the market is open for a couple of hours in the morning, but otherwise the streets are empty.  It's a good time to get laundry done at the local laundromat, so I headed out to wash our new sheets and pillowcases in anticipation of our first night on the boat on Monday.  The rain continued to pour down and the wind continued to howl - the weather in this part of the world has been and continues to be, downright UGLY!

Tad and Paul went back out to "Bisou" to continue with the inspection.  All seemed in order and except for a couple of minor things which were fixed up on Monday, we were able to sign our official handover document and the boat was ours!

The good: we checked out of our hotel for the last time - at this point I really need to once again mention the incredible kindness and helpfulness of the staff at Hotel St Nicolas.  They went out of their way to make our stay comfortable, including printing documents which we had emailed to them, receiving goods on our behalf, offering for us to come back anytime to use their internet free of charge in the lobby and so much more.  After four visits in 14 months, the hotel was beginning to become very familiar!

Of course, before unpacking all the goods cleaning was in order due to the factory dust everywhere!  It was good to get things packed away which was actually achieved rather quickly (we were SO pleased that we had taken the opportunity to make all our purchases when we were here in March), and making our bed was very exciting (I know it doesn't SOUND all that exciting, but remember, this is our first night on the water and in our new boat!).

More good news: Tuesday was my excursion to Nantes to collect our air freight shipment; I collected the car and somewhat apprehensively headed out of La Rochelle.  I say "apprehensively" because we really did not know what to expect - we had been told by a fellow 'yacht' that the best way to send goods to France was to have them air-freighted to a small airport where they didn't spend too much time worrying about customs and duty payments.  Nantes was the airport our friend had used, so we chose that as well. It took about 2 hours to drive there from La Rochelle, but the roads and highways in France are a real pleasure to drive on - well marked/sign-posted, well-paved and the speed limit on the highway (actually a toll-way to Nantes) is 130km/hr! People are very respectful and do not hog the overtaking lane(s) and as the sun was shining all was well with the world!

I arrived at the freight area of the Nantes-Atlantique airport at 11:45am desperate to get my boxes 'cleared' before everything closed for the obligatory 2 hour lunch, but was relieved to find that not only the customs authority was open all day, but, as it turned out, so was the freight area I needed to deal with.  The whole procedure took a grand total of 20 minutes, involved payment of about EUR 85 which included customs clearance fees of EUR 50 and the rest for storage since our boxes had arrived ahead of us!  When we mentioned our relative ease of obtaining our goods to our fellow Aussies here in La Rochelle, we heard a plethora of nightmare stories of sea-shipments going astray, huge clearance costs, etc. so we counted ourselves lucky!

As the road from Nantes back to La Rochelle went straight past our favourite Centre Commerciale (shopping centre), a stop there allowed me to collect an internet 'dongle' so we could stay in touch,  a few more items for the boat, and a few groceries.  All these were unloaded onto the boat and once again we were in a mess!  Would it ever end….?

The bad: not that we are complaining, but why is it that whenever we need something, it is always between 12 noon and 2pm (official closing time for lunch all over the country)?  Murphy's Law?  While the marine technicians and our favourite chandlery have been wonderfully friendly, they have this annoying habit of saying 'tomorrow' when questioned 'when' - apparently 'tomorrow' here in La Rochelle is the face-saving alternative to "I have no idea".  Whether it be when an item will come in to the store, when an electrician will show up to install/calibrate/demonstrate an instrument, or any other time-related question, you are more than likely to be told 'tomorrow'.  However, please do not be mistaken in thinking that tomorrow actually means the next day!  Equally irritating is their habit of not being willing to start something too close to closing time (whether it be for lunch, the end of the day or the end of the week) - if a job will take longer than a few minutes and it's after 5:30pm or 11:30am, it won't happen so don't expect it to.

Reading cruisers' forums, we had been warned not to be in too much of a hurry when arriving to collect our boat in La Rochelle - most Aussies end up staying at least 3 weeks and often more before being able to depart for their next destination.  This is double frustrating as we have limited time in Schengen Europe and want to spend it cruising, NOT prepping the boat!  However, what we are slowly learning is that this IS the way it happens, and unless you are willing (and trusting enough) to pay someone to do all the preparation work for you, expect to spend 3-4 weeks working on, in and around your boat before leaving for your first ocean leg.

Arrival in La Rochelle

Those of you who are regular travellers from Australia are very aware of the length of time it takes to get from Sydney to a central European city.  In our case, flying via Singapore, with a 2hr layover, the total travelling time was 22hrs 20mins from Sydney to Paris.  We stayed awake for the first leg and slept much of the second, making the trip relatively painless.  My only criticism of Singapore Airlines, which is otherwise an excellent airline, is that the choice of food has not changed in the 4 times that we have flown to Europe with them over the past 14 months!

Having retrieved our luggage from the carousel in Paris, we congratulated ourselves on having made it thus far…but we didn't want to be over-confident knowing we still had a bus and train journey to contend with and 90kg of assorted suitcases, dunnage bags and carry on bags!  We caught the airport bus to Gare de Montparnasse in Paris where we had a longer than usual wait for our train - not because of any delays, but actually the opposite!  Our arrival date into Paris coincided with 08 May, VE Day in France is a major public holiday and there was NO traffic whatsoever, so we reached the train station in record time!  Our train tickets were not changeable however, so we waited in the very comfortable waiting room at the station and I went shopping for some picnic goodies to enjoy during our journey.

Interestingly, many train stations in Europe seem to have done away with porterage services (although some places still have them), and we were lucky to find some baggage trolleys (similar to those you get at the airport) which enabled us to transfer our bags to the train quite easily.  The train was packed with holiday makers and once on board, we settled back comfortably for the 3 1/2hr journey to La Rochelle.

Although the weather was rather overcast with a chill wind, our moods were bright as we anticipated our arrival at our final destination (for now).  La Rochelle is one of those stations that no longer have either porterage or baggage trolleys, but we managed to find a side gate that was unlocked so that between Tad and myself we shuffled the bags two or three at a time to the taxi rank.  Normally we would walk the 10 minutes to our hotel, but with the amount of baggage this was not going to be possible.  I felt a little sorry for the poor taxi driver as her face fell when we told her our destination (a whole EUR 6 worth!).

The staff at the Hotel St Nicolas were welcoming and we were thrilled to discover that our favourite room (121 - one of only two with a lovely balcony, which we have yet to enjoy as the weather has never been co-operative!) was ready for us.  Not only that but we had had some items sent to us care of the hotel and they had been placed in our room ready for our arrival.

Of course no sooner had we deposited our bags into our room but Tad was ready to make the 2km walk to where our boat was berthed!  We found her quickly and easily but unfortunately she was all locked up with no key in any of the usual hiding places (probably a good thing).  We shall have to wait for the 'official' handover on Saturday in order to gain complete access.

We then went in search of some fellow Aussies with whom we had been corresponding through various cruisers' forums, who were also in La Rochelle to collect their new vessels and found them together with an assortment of other Aussies and Americans partying aboard one of the yachts.  In true 'yacht' style we were immediately welcomed to join in, handed a glass of red each and introduced all around.  With the evenings staying deceptively light until quite late it was almost 9:30pm before we made our farewells with promises to catch up again the next day.

The weather was our first shock to the system - having left Shoal Bay and Sydney under balmy mid-20s skies, arriving into La Rochelle with highs of mid-teens and lows in the single digits was an unwelcome surprise!  In addition, the winds were howling from the north east. Rainy drizzle greeted our first morning, however the benefit of the wind meant that the skies cleared for the afternoon.

Official handover was not until Saturday, so we spent our first full day in La Rochelle planning our strategy for collecting our goods from the storage unit, collecting our airfreight from Nantes (which arrived before we did!), and doing some shopping for large and heavy items (e.g. water and beer!).

The day would not have been complete without at least one trip out to the marina to check on "Bisou" and to greet our fellow Aussie friends!

Our bags are packed and we're ready to go!

When we last posted, there were still a number of items pending, not the least of which was finding a home for our beloved Tim Tam.  The playdate and sleepovers happened, and Tim Tam and his new little stepbrother, Boris, got along famously!  Our last day as a 'family' loomed and Sunday afternoon, 5th May, Tim Tam was dropped at his new home amidst floods of tears from Robin.  His  new 'Mum' had kindly organised for a bone for each dog, so Tim Tam was barely aware of our departure.  We are happy that he is relaxed in his new home and look forward to a visit and a walk with him when we get back to Shoal Bay at Christmas.  It still hurts like crazy to give up a pet who is more of a family member than your own flesh and blood sometimes!

As a result of getting our boat registered, we were able to obtain an MMSI registration (for the radio as well as the safety equipment such as the boat EPIRB, SART and personal EPIRBS).  We also had the boat name designs finalised and sent to us for fixing on the boat in the next few days.  Photos with "Bisou" officially emblazoned to follow soon.

One of our dilemmas was whether to air freight items to France or not - we had read forums where some Aussies had chosen to ship EVERYTHING but the kitchen sink, and others who chose to send nothing and had bought everything in France.  Our dilemma was that, as Tad had already had several vessels prior to this one, and had equipment that was still in excellent condition, it seemed crazy to leave it behind and try to sell it (no market for second-hand boat equipment whatsoever) rather than take it with us.  So we began to create piles of items that we would ship/airfreight if the price was right. In the end, after packing up 129kg of boxes which we had airfreighted to Nantes, the price per kilo ended up being just over $5 per kilo!  Of course we still have customs duties to pay at the airport on collection but we do not anticipate these being excessive since the goods are all used and should not be subject to VAT.  We'll see how we go with that one!  As you know from previous posts, we also contributed rather well to the French economy by making considerable purchases here as well.

In preparation for the air freight exercise, we had to be rather organised and had all our bags packed in advance for the flight as well.  Since we were flying to Paris with Singapore Airlines who are rather generous with their checked baggage allowance (30kg per person in Economy Class) and Tad had an additional 20kg due to his Gold Krisflyer status, we had a total allowance of 80kg.  In the end, due to mysterious 'additions' to the already-packed luggage, we were 10kg overweight at the airport!  We were informed at the check-in counter that we would have to pay AUD $79 per kilo if we didn't offload the 10kg somehow.  Through various devious means (which we will not divulge in this public place) we managed to divide the 10kgs into two carry-on bags which made everything legal, if rather tedious as far as carrying was concerned.

The final week flew by as Tad and I cleaned, scrubbed and generally tidied the house and cars inside and out, and finalised bank accounts, credit cards, bill payments and everything else likely to be an issue over the next 7 months.  Hopefully we didn't forget anything important!

We took the Port Stephens Coach service to Sydney (Tad had taken most of our bags to Sydney the week before when taking the boxes to the airfreight company, and left our suitcases at Jason's apartment), which was a convenient, comfortable and cost effective way for us to leave.  We overnighted in Sydney at Jason's place in Beaconsfield and were escorted to the airport the next day by Tad's brother-in-law who kindly drove us in.  It wasn't until we were sitting on the plane, ready to take off that we realised we were finally on our way!