Snork Maiden redux

Monday, May 26, 2008 Snork Maiden, Marans Grand Designs Well. Well. On Saturday morning Al woke up and said that he had a proposition. No, not that. He said that he thought we should abandon sailing (not ship) for a few more days, while we got the ‘buying a French ruin’ idea out of our systems. After all, we have been planning this for almost 2 years now. First sell the flat in London and then buy a ruin in France, make it habitable and green, then go and live there when the work / money runs out. Low overheads, keep chickens and a goat, stay in touch with friends (that’s you) over the web etc. Some of you might remember that an early incarnation of the idea in more optimistic times was to buy a building plot and install a beautifully built and cheap kit house from East Germany. That one fell at a number of fences, including the fact that most building plots are too small, too remote, too expensive… and most of the best sites have already been developed. So we decided to do the...

Apologies fore ignoring comments! I have only just worked out that I have to look for them. So to all you eagle eyes - yes, that was a fibreglass repair on the skeg, now completed and (we hope) good as new. And we will survive on last year's Ziplocs. And yes, do keep sending blog links. And you can always e-mail me on shark@thesea.co.uk . Hopefully outboard motor now working - off to test it after trip to la Rochelle this morning. If you had wondered what the pace of sailing is - this is it. Meanwhile pic shows that Al has arrived. Also the crane wot did it.

Thursday, May 22, 2008 Still in Marans The view from the top… and the bottom Yes, I know, it seems like a long time and not going anywhere! But we expect a week or two sorting out annual maintenance things and dealing with the unexpected. And its probably true that we don’t advance at full throttle either. Last year we managed a short trip out to the Glennans Islands then went back into port for another round of fixing things and waiting for weather before getting away on the 2nd June. Well, there is a real prospect of leaving Marans in the next day or two if there are no more unexpected events. Al is just now calling the lock-keeper to find out if we can catch the lock tonight and wait on the other side until the morning. Lots of boat owning is about bricollage – as I think I have said before. The toilet biz really came under the annual maintenance heading, It is a ‘Blakes Baby’. They cost around £1,000 when manufactured and are now made by hand, to order! It’s true you can b...

Sunday, May 18, 2008 Café, Marans Al here – I have invited him to write a guest (b)log and he’s thinking about it. That might take a while. The instruments are working, the boat is clean, only a couple more small jobs to do and we can go sailing soon. It is rumoured that the French fishermen are blockading the port, so that would be exciting. We can have a rerun of the Napoleonic Wars, starring the brave ship Snork Maiden. Yes, I’m reading Patrick O’Brien again!

Saturday 17 May Café, Marans Al arrived Thursday lunchtime and it’s all been a bit mad since then! More socializing, less (b)log I suppose. My excuse right now is that I am waiting doe laundry to dry in the machine – it’s pretty showery today. Picked Al up at the airport and we went into La Rochelle for lunch at Minimes marina, then shopping for boat bits and boat shoes. Take a deep breath, Sally – I bought some Crocs, and so did Al. They do work well as boat shoes. Mine are very pretty – lime green with a strap and a flower. Al Has classic ones with a crab! Yesterday was a mad dash to be ready for the boat to go into the water before lunch. Managed to change fuel filter, dab on the rest of the anti-fouling and do a million other things before launch. We are sneakily on a pontoon that belongs to someone else. (Carol – it’s somewhere near where we went in.) It’s lovely down that end, with ducks, people fishing, lovely trees… and electricity AND water on hand. Paradise. Not r...

Monday, May 12, 2008 Aha – it’s what we used to call Whitsun, whatever that was… It’s been busy in the boatyard and at the cafes today. This afternoon I decided to have a go at cleaning the hull. Tricky because a) no stepladder and b) hosepipe not long enough. Anyway, had to do the top bit hanging down from the deck and the lower part standing on a chair. Lugged a few buckets of water from the tap. Can’t clean the deck and cockpit until we can get a hose, so will have to wait until we are in the water – nice job for Al! I was going to service the winches today but got caught up with why the compass light didn’t work… took the compass apart but couldn’t work out how to change bulbs – seemed to be firmly stuck in there. I even resorted to the handbook, which said helpful things like ‘take out the old bulb and put in a new one’. Har! It’s important to have at least one compass light (better 2) so that you can see your direction at night. Otherwise you have to give it a shot with ...

Sunday, May 11, 2008 Snork Maiden Le Depot After a good start, the day went a bit downhill. Al stressed and grumpy on the phone, plagued by a list of unreasonable requests from me and badly behaved email. I haven’t been receiving any because when Al turned my computer on, Entourage gobbled it all up off the server; he’s used to Mail which apparently doesn’t. He’s now heroically attempting to pick out my personal emails and forward them to me. All this has happened because we decided that I would take my old 12” so as not to put the newer, bigger one at risk. But the envisioned seamless transfer of Entourage from one machine to another didn’t quite happen that way, probably because the old one has OSX 10.3 and the newer one 10.4. This bears out the feeling that computer companies don’t really give a stuff about the end user, so long as the boxes keep walking of the shelves. (I hear you PC users sniggering but I have heard that you have your problems to with XP and whatever followed...

10 May 2008 evening Snork Maiden Le Depot Bonsoir tout le monde I have had a busy day – getting ready to put the anti-fouling paint on the bottom of the boat tomorrow. For those of you who don’t know, this stuff has to be renewed every year, since its job is to deter marine life – barnacles and stuff - from growing below the waterline. It’s designed to waste away so has to be re-applied before the boat goes back into the water. It’s also toxic, so have to dress up in paper suit, gloves, mask and goggles to sand down the old stuff and paint on the new. Preparation is a bit of a bore, but painting part is quite good. Best that the weather isn’t too hot and it’s been just right today with an easterly wind but no rain – well, just a very few drops. Now it is 9.30pm – still light. I have had a shower at the harbour – first one since the ferry and I smelt like a monkey after that hard work. Also had fish soup, salad and a glass of Muscadet at the Café Thalassa. Cooking on the boat ...

Saturday, May 10, 2008 Depot Marin Marans Short one this morning – much to do! Bike to the loo, check the weather forecast, get bike tyres inflated, buy eggs at market, get into paper suit, mask, goggles and gloves and start sanding the hull. If it’s dry all day, I could get the anti-fouling done (I have a 1-coat product this year, yippee!). My favourite job under the boat is getting the barnacles off the propeller with the electric drill and wire brush attachment. I like it so much that I bought a special circular brush to get into the crevices. It’s very satisfying to watch the bronze emerge and get shiny again. Small pleasures! I am trying to make a video clip of the yard so you can get an idea of the immediate surroundings. I’d like to show you Marans too, but that will have to wait for another day. I may have a very nasty, jerky pan to upload… watch this space. (The proper video camera won’t import to Mac at any price. In fact it inflicts permanent damage. Hope to circ...

Snork Maiden, Marans Boat Yard Friday, May 9, 2008 It always takes about 24 hours to settle in, write lists, get electricity and water on board. When she’s in the water, it’s fairly easy, but out of the water everything changes. Land is not her element. Everything has to be carried up a ladder or hauled up on a jib sheet. The toilet doesn’t work (no water, no exit) and any wastewater has to chucked into the bushes behind me. When I arrive, the lockers are all open, upholstery upended everywhere to minimise damp in the winter. The good news – the boat is fairly dry, and clean. The bad news – none of the jobs agreed with the yard have been finished and only one has been started and now it’s a fete or ferie or something for 3-4 days, (something to do with Ascension Day, which I suppose is quite important if you’re a Christian.) More bad news, the yard’s hose is about 5m too short to reach the boat, so cleaning has to be done with a bucket. But it’s pretty quiet here, just birds ...

Wednesday, May 7, 2008 MV Pont L’Abbe Somewhere near Roscoff Not much to see this morning – misty or foggy. Not sure until I get outside. Last night slept very well. Not near the stabilisers, and just the gentle throb of the engines, the slight roll of the ship, the shushing of the water past the hull (somewhere below the car decks) and a little tinkling bell to wake you up in the morning. I really hope that Brittany Ferries NEVER exchanges this old-fashioned method for an electronic wake-up system. I had a glass of red wine in the bar last night and chatted to a chap who used to work for P&O as a navigator, mainly on the far east routes, but also worked on the tankers and container ships when they first came in (1960s). The ships got bigger but the harbours didn’t. They have now, but interestingly the cargo ships, he said, have not and still come in at around 1000 feet. He described coming down the channel, in fog, 3 men on watch calling buoys and bearings as they c...

PROPERTY SUPPLEMENT As some of you know, we have thought, and are still thinking, about buying a small spread in rural France. We are talking an acre or so of land and some falling down barns. We are looking to spend around 40,000 euros to start with and amazingly enough that would buy us something not too far from La Rochelle. Then we are not planning to do very much with it for a while, but eventually would sell for a different location or stay where we are and convert. We found a pretty good place last year – near Thouras in Deux Sevres, but couldn’t quite make up our minds in time – it may come on the market again, so we’ll have a second chance at indecision. We might also take some time to look around the Bordeaux area – but only if the weather is not good enough to sail! If any of you are interested in this kind of idea - and you like us ….. and now the (b)log This was written before the changeover to this genuine internet blog! Many of you couldn't receive it since the pix m...

This is the beginning of the new web-based blog. Sitting at my desk surrounded by un-ticked lists, fairly usual I suppose at this stage with only just over 24 hours to go. Some jobs haven't even made it onto the lists yet! This afternoon Carol and Sally coming down to check out Spike Island Open Day. People ask me if I have packed - not exactly, although I have a short list pile of clothes in the bedroom and a pile of cardboard boxes in the hall. More later - and I'll try to take you with me on my journey to France. Give me feedback and I'll try not to bore you to death.