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.
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.
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