Les Sables-d'Olonne - Preparations

The port at Les Sables-d'Olonne is big - I'm told it has 600 slips. It seems to be evenly split between sail boats, power pleasure boats, and fishing boats. There are a number of cafes and pubs right alongside with wi-fi available, which makes for a convenient place to sit and write this.

The first full day at Les Sables-d'Olonne was spent rigging and provisioning the boat for the voyage, getting documentation and insurance squared away, and generally poking about the boat learning the systems. There are a lot of systems to learn! I spent 2 hours finding and identifying all the through-hulls (holes in the hull near or below the waterline). I lost count at 25... I'll have to go back and check again.

The delivery company swaps out most of the running rigging (ropes to you land-lubbers) so that the lines provided by Lagoon don't get worn during the delivery. The picture above was taken from the top of Mirasol's mast while swapping-out the main sail halyard and inspecting the masthead. Mirasol's mast is 65' above the waterline. Thankfully, Mirasol has an electric winch for the main halyard. There is no way Jen could crank me up this mast, and no way she'd go up the mast herself. I've already been advised of that rule. (The other rule is that I'm in charge of fixing the heads when they break. Something about "not enough soap in the world..."). Note that in the above picture taken from the masthead, you're looking DOWN at the top of the masts of those two sailboats in the fore-ground, and they are drydocked about 15' above the water.

Les Sables-d'Olonne - Getting there

Well, I made it! A flight to Paris via Washigton Dulles, the high speed TGV train to Nantes, a SLOW speed train to Les Sables-d'Olonne, and a half hour walk to the port. I didn't have directions to the boat, but it's hard to miss a 600 slip marina and once there, impossible to miss a row of 7 Lagoon catamarans tied up at a dock. I will note that I was second-guessing every piece of clothing I had jammed into my 2 duffle bags as I made my way from the train. Those bags were heavy!

All things said, the trip was a breeze. Especially considering I had no concrete plans except "fly to Paris and then take a train from there...". Armed with the French-English dictionary which Jen thoughtfully tucked into my carry-on, I brushed off my high school French and bumbled my way through.

Les Sables-d’Olonne...

...is the current location of the boat. Gregg is at this very moment on his way there as he will be sailing as crew with the delivery company from Les Sables D’Olonne to somewhere in the Azores. I will update this post with coordinates as I get them.

Apparently, the departure of the boat was delayed due to a blockade of the port by French fishermen protesting fuel prices.

Update - 5:30 p.m. CDT: I heard from Gregg. First off, he said the boat is beautiful! The departure has been delayed a bit more due to weather. They are now scheduled to set sail on 5-29-08. Hmmm... a couple extra days in a marina on the coast of France. I can think of worse ways to spend my time...

Mind the Gap

I realize it's difficult for most people to understand what we're about to do. I don't think we fully understand at this point exactly what we're getting into. I just got back from visiting friends in California and got the perspective of non-boaters & their children.

I get the impression most adults just think we're nuts (boaters or not) and we won't make it very long. In fact, one person actually said we wouldn't make it more than 2 years. Maybe I'll put a poll on the blog. Everybody is entitled to their opinion, I guess. I really hope we make it longer than that - there are a lot of places we'd like to see and I think this will be a great experience for us as a family. Not to mention... who wouldn't want to spend Christmas on the beach in the Bahamas rather than freezing your butt off in Chicago?

Anyway, the kids thought it was cool - especially once they found out there are "trampolines" on the boat. I did find myself having to explain several times that we are moving onto the boat. That the boat is where we will be living - not in a house. That was a tough concept for them (hell, it's still a tough one for me to wrap my brain around sometimes). One of the kids simply said we were crazy and another said it was a terrible place for a little kid. I think the most important thing I'm trying to take away from the less than positive comments I hear (from kids and adults, alike) is that I don't need to defend our decision.... um... although I am still compelled to do so. I really need to get over that. My friends, Daneal & Chris, were very supportive and curious about the logistics of the whole thing.

I'm going to get on a bit of a soapbox now. Chris works for a water/wastewater company so we talked a bit about wastewater and specifically pumping out and legality/practice of dumping the holding tank off shore. Somehow, Daneal & I got onto the topic of flushing medications and what a huge problem this is for wastewater treatment facilities (and more generally, for the environment as a whole). If you flush meds, PLEASE STOP!!! This article gets into the details if you're interested in learning more: http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/86/8608cover.html.