After Laurent and his wife gave us a lift to the ferry port at Propriano (extra car this time for all our luggage) we dragged our mountain of luggage onto the ferry and up to our cabin.
AJ and Esmé were extremely excited and wanted to explore immediately so we had a quick look round and then went back to our cabin for our picnic tea before going back on deck for out departure. It was a beautiful evening and after watching the departure procedure with interest we watched the sunset over Campomoro before heading back down to the cabin.
Once in bed it took forever for Esmé to settle down and so with the alarm set for 6am I didn't actually get that much sleep.
Wednesday
Up early for our picnic breakfast before docking and then a long wait to get off the ferry. We docked at 7:30 and we had booked a taxi for 8:30 thinking this would give us plenty of time. In the end we only just got off the ferry by 8:10 and the taxi gave us a call to say he was 20 minutes away. Something got lost in translation and I thought he would call again when he arrived. In the meantime all foot passengers were shepherded onto a bus and taken to a random bus stop outside the port... we thought we might be heading to a terminal but not so! We then spent the next 45 minutes trying to explain to the taxi driver where we were! Eventually we found each other and he brought us back to Port Napoleon where we dragged our luggage back onto the boat and raided the tin cupboard for brunch!
We perhaps should have smelled a rat at the pictures Lynita had sent us on Monday of the progress on the boat. It didn't really look as though too much had happened but as we were booked on the ferry regardless I didn't pay too much attention.
Over the next few days we were to realise that Laurin would certainly not be in the water for the weekend and in fact our new splash date is the 9th of October! Esmé will not have her birthday in Italy as requested and even her idea of delaying her birthday a few days won't necessarily help. However we have decided to stay an extra day at Port Napoleon and celebrate with the Dizzy crew instead and she is now busy organising how she would like her party to be much to my concern as there is a limit to what I can pull out of the hat here!
Lynita kindly gave me a lift to the supermarket to stock up, looking after the girls at her flat while AJ and Kynan watched a movie on Laurin.
Thursday & Friday
Boatschool started again and we got into a rhythm of trying to do as much on the boat as we could before Lynita arrived with her kids in the afternoon for a play. Boatschool is always a challenge and sometimes I question whether we are doing enough, I think it is the same for most people that home educated. However one thing I am extremely happy about is how much the kids are enjoying reading now. I was really happy to peer down into their cabin after my late night shower to see both kids engrossed in their books!
Saturday
Patrick and Justin looked after the kids while I waged war on finishing unpacking our stuff on Laurin and Lynita cleaned out her flat ready to hand it back to the owner. AJ then realised I was cooking curry for tea so invited the Dizzy crew over. A pleasant evening was had by all.
Sunday
As the restaurant opposite the play area closes at 3:30 on Sundays we planned a bbq over there and invited some young Aussie guys as well as the Dizzy crew. It was really nice to relax and chat while the kids played. Hopefully same again next week! However unfortunately we forgot to shut the boat up before heading over there so were plagued by mosquitos overnight.
Monday
Boatschool again, this time including history lessons again as well as an online touch typing programme we had signed up at an incredible discount through a facebook group. We had just received the logins. I'm quite keen for the kids to learn to type properly while we are away as I think it is a valuable skill. After a rocky start both kids did well but we'll try to do it every day we have good enough internet access. I know it took me about 3 weeks of practicing every day before I became quicker at touch typing than using the two finger method so I'm not expecting quick results.
Progress on Laurin.
At this point at the end of Monday DMS have filled the cracks, put some matting over them, 2 rounds of epoxy filler, and some green epoxy paint like stuff. I think we have 4 coats of white to go on before 4 coats of coppercoat hopefully on Thursday to allow 72 hours curing over the weekend.
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