Our plan for today was to help a fellow Englishman remove his mast... a cunning plan as we wanted to be as prepared as possible for removing ours. He was supposedly booked for 8am, but as we were eating breakfast, much to AJ's dismay, we saw the Polish boat leave the pontoon. Wondering what they were up to we popped our heads up on deck and they told us they were motoring round to Christoph to have their mast removed. We decided to abandon boatschool for a while and walk round to watch.
On our way we met the English guy who was not particularly impressed that the Polish guys had jumped the queue and were still hacking away at cables with scissors when alongside the crane. I couldn't decide if I was annoyed at them getting in before us, or impressed at their attitude to getting the job done. In any case we watched their mast being removed, got some pointers, and met Christoph who booked us in for 1:30pm on Tuesday. The kids and I then walked back while Patrick stayed to help the English guy who was by now on his way round.
Reading, French and washing up done I carried on with the curtains while the AJ played with Lego and Esmé made a birthday card. I don't particularly like sewing, aren't particularly good at it, but prefer to give it a go rather than paying somebody to do it. Patrick returned and got on with de-rigging the boat while I seemed to be the one constantly interrupted by the kids.... somewhat frustrating as I wanted to get the curtains done so I could clear the machine and sewing stuff away.... did I mention I hate sewing! On looking back at photos it can't have been all me dealing with the kids as there is photographic evidence of them helping Patrick at least once, as well as the times all 4 of us dealt with the sails.
The highlight of the day may well have been eating home made flatbread and leftover curry from last night. Even Esmé who didn't really like the curry last night enjoyed dipping the bread in! I looked across at the English Guy's boat and saw the mast sticking out the front. I was so glad we had decided to get ours transported as I couldn't imagine trying to come alongside in a lock with that amount of overhang, particularly if we were being blown off.
By late afternoon I had finally finished the curtains and they were up, but the boat was in absolute chaos, the final straw being the kids deciding to swap bunks and turfing all their books of the bookshelves in the process. At this point Patrick announced that the kids needed showers and I finally flipped. I'm not sure if it was his initial intention but he swiftly took both kids off to shower them and left me alone on the boat. Absolute bliss! I even continued the kids work on their bunk swap.
Dinner was a late affair of Thai green chicken curry and noodles, and finally we got the kids to bed, only to hear a big crash from down the pontoon! The English guys mast supports had given way and the mast had crashed down onto the sprayhood and guardrails. Telling the kids to stay in bed we rushed down to see what we could do to help. What ensued was a multi-national effort of brute force and demon knot tying which resulted in the mast being back in position. I went back to the kids while Patrick helped finish up. On his return Patrick said the guy was pretty interested in our mast transport guys details!
So plans for tomorrow is possibly a day trip into the town centre.
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