Days 84 to 89: 4th to 9th September NOT GOOD NEWS!!!

Sorry for the much delayed blog post, it has been a long and stressful week but we are now starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel, although our plans have been changed somewhat.

Monday 4^th September

The usual school in the morning followed by an earlyish lunch as the plan was to take the kids into Port St Louis du Rhone on their scooters, spend some time with our Australiand friends, Lynita, Kynan and Leora, then for me to go shopping while they played some more.

Unfortunately unlike previous days, it was blistering hot in the afternoon but as Lynita was having problems with internet and phone access we had to meet at the arranged time. It was a tricky scoot along the side of the Port Napoleon road until we got to the main road where there was a good cycle path. It was here that I realised I had forgotten my purse. I phoned Patrick who started walking towards us with said purse while we scooted back along the dodgy road. When we set off again it was now twenty to two and we were unlikely to make our estimated time of between one and two pm, but on we went. Eventually the lock came into sight at about five past two but we still had to go round the outside of the marina. Finally we were there and enjoyed the shade of the apartment that Lynita had rented. After a brief stop and a drink I went and shopped as quickly as I could before dragging the granny trolley, rucksac and other bags back to the apartment.  We then put most of the shopping in Lynita’s car and took the kids to the park where it was my time to watch all 4 kids while Lynita ran some errands. Finally Lynita turned up in the car having picked up the last of the shopping and we crammed all 4 kids in whilst I was left scooting back.

Lynita obviously took pity on me as she threw my kids out at the marina gates and I was really pleased to see her come to collect me too as scooting is a little tiring after a while in the baking heat.

Next it was my turn to repay the favour.  All 4 kids on Laurin while we put shopping away and prepared dinner for the two families while Lynita had a well-earned break using the marina wifi at the bar and checking up on what progress her husband and father in law had made on their boat.

We all had a somewhat chaotic but pleasant meal together before the mosquitos started to attack us and it was time for the little ones to depart. All in all a lovely day.

Tuesday 5^th September  The worst day so far!

The planned lift out for 9am went well and we were out of the water and in a cradle by DMS Marine by 9:15. I set off with the kids to do boatschool over by the playground and Patrick stayed behind to wait for the  DMS guys to arrive. As I was doing the usual trying to keep calm with AJ, as he was getting more and more anxious trying to understand rounding numbers, Patrick appeared with a glum face. He said we had a problem. I quickly finished off with AJ and sent him off to play while Patrick told me we had a crack in the hull and that DMS suggested contacting our insurance company. On further inspection we have 4 cracks on the center line of the hull, one on the skeg, one on the prop shaft casing, one just behind the keel and one just in front.

We called the insurers who said they would arrange a surveyor. Meanwhile we filled in a claims form and took several photos before sending them off ASAP.  If it is just damage to the coppercoat and gelcoat then we could be on our way by the end of next week. If it is structural then the costs increase significantly and I don’t think we will be in the water before spring! As well as the long term logistical and financial concerns, we also have to consider the short term. Sleeping on board while Laurin was ashore was something I was mildly comfortable tolerating for one or two nights but beyond that I’m not sure. Luckily Patrick’s sister has a place on Corsica which she had in the past said we could use so we sent off an email to see if this could be our medium term plan. To be fair, the kids only did a little school today and spent the rest of the day in front of electronic devices. Needs must!

Towards the end of the day we found out the name of the surveyor and that he wanted to visit on Thursday afternoon.

A very depressed Laurin Crew hitting the sack tonight!

Wednesday 6^th September

So, up in the morning and on with boatschool, this time heading to the restaurant.  I had seen they did a 4.50Euro deal for a hot drink, orange juice and pain au chocolate so after ordering a hot chocolate we went to one of their outside tables to share our purchases and start school. After a while Patrick came along and said that DMS had an office they didn’t use so they had given us the key so we could use it for school. These guys are really kind and helpful.

 I also got a text from Lynita asking if we wanted her to take the kids for a scooter ride in the afternoon. I decided to be a little cheeky and ask if she could take them early afternoon so that Patrick and I could share a late anniversary meal at the restaurant and have a bit of child free time to think and talk. She responded by saying she would take them back to hers for lunch and keep them as long as possible. What a fantastic lady! Patrick and I had a lovely lunch and then I managed to get some washing done before the kids were returned and I made dinner.

We’ve slipped into a habit of having dinner then taking the kids to play on the new playground then toilets and back to the boat for bed. As we are ashore we can no longer use the toilet on the boat so if we need to go to the loo in the night it’s a choice of down the ladder and a 100m walk to the restaurant, or a bucket strategically placed in the cockpit!

Thursday 7^th September

More boatschool then tidying the boat before the surveyor arrived and the kids were given electronics to keep them quiet and out of the way. The surveyor was really nice although his English wasn’t really up to talking about technical details of the boat. Luckily Matthew from DMS speaks excellent French and was around to interpret for us. The upshot was that the surveyor wanted the coppercoat and gelcoat to be sandblasted back along the whole length of the hull for 15cm either side of the centre line and then he would return the following Thursday to look as he couldn’t tell anything from just looking at the cracks. We phoned the insurance company while he was here and they agreed to cover the costs of this investigation.  We also spoke to our good friend Paul Williams for a bit of moral support and advice.

Friday 8^th September.

As we had a lot to do, we decided to do boatschool  in the afternoon.  In the morning I spent some time digging out old surveys as well as emailing Contest Yachts as well as Dick Zaal, the designer of our boat, trying to figure out how the hull was made so we could get some idea of what was going on. Both responded pretty quickly and Dick pointed us to a blog he had done on the hull construction.  

I passed this information on to Matthew and the surveyor along with the old surveys and we began to feel a little more optimistic, although we are really going stir crazy living on the hard. Now we are in the hands of the surveyor and there is not much more we can do. We now needed to focus on making some alternative living arrangements as although I’m sure some people do, we don’t find living aboard while Laurin is ashore a viable long term proposition. Luckily we have heard back from Jen and we are able to use her place in Corsica, and the icing on the cake is that they have some spare air miles so can get us flights over there when we are ready.

After much discussion about whether we should wait until after the next surveyor visit to head out to Corsica, or go ASAP, we took advice from Matthew and from our good friend Paul Williams and decided to leave as soon as we could be ready. We have decided to prepare Laurin for a winter ashore so we don’t have to return to do this if the work is complex and takes a long time.

Saturday 9^th September

We decided that we should probably check with the insurers that they are happy for us to be away from Laurin over the next couple of weeks and unfortunately they are now not open until Monday. In the meantime we took down the headsail and started to look at what luggage we have on board.

The answer is not enough. We only brought small soft holdalls as we wouldn’t need much to take back to Mum and Dad’s at Christmas as we left clothes etc there. Now we need to take clothes as well as school supplies to Corsica. Luckily Lynita had some suitcases she had bought in a charity shop for the journey here and was about to ditch them when they move aboard so we can have those so this afternoon we went for a long scoot into town to meet with the Australians, pick up a bit of shopping and get a lift back with the suitcases.

Kids are getting really tetchy now. We have been in a pretty boring marina for nearly 2 weeks and things are still a little uncertain although they are both excited about going to Auntie Jenny’s place and experiencing their first flight. They were particularly excited hearing us talk with Uncle Rory on the phone and hearing that the house is 30 seconds away from the beach and they are even excited about the prospect of a bath…. The first since leaving Nana and Grandad’s house at the beginning of June!