Monday 10 June

We get up early to meet the harbour master at 8:00am.  He finds us.  He thinks we are fine where we are berthed, but we have to move at high water tomorrow.  He seems friendly and has a few words of English, so between us we just about work out what is going on.

There is a lot of work to do today.  First the sails come off.  Then all the lines come out of the deck fittings and get hanked together on the mast.  We are dismantling half the boat.  The kicker and track are now gone.  Finally Richard takes off the boom.  The boat is beginning to look very strange.

The harbourmaster’s mate comes along to confirm what we have to do to take the mast off tomorrow. This involves removing all the split pins from the rigging in readiness to take all the shrouds and stays off.  Richard thinks he needs to buy more tools to do this, but I remind him that he has a multitool and it does the job of a narrow pliers and small screwdriver.

The worst job is the electrics.  We have taken a load of photos so we have some idea how the wires go back.  But there is one wire with an end that will not go through the hole in the deck.  It is the radio co-axial cable.  In the end we have to cut it off.  The harbourmaster tells us that it is standard to cut the wire and solder it back when the mast goes back on.

While Richard is doing all the split pins I go out to do some shopping.  I manage to get tape to tape up the bits to the mast in a little ironmonger’s.  Quite a feat in French.  I also find a fishmonger that will be open tomorrow.  So I may be able to get Richard a lobster for his birthday after all.

By 6:00pm we are just about finished.  So we make our way to the showers and finally join the land of the living!  We have also finally arranged the transport of the mast and boom.  They can’t collect it until first thing on Thursday morning, so it looks like we will be here another day and will get our posh dinner on Wednesday night!

The harbourmaster came to see us later this afternoon.  We are not moving first thing in the morning after all.  So we are not sure when the mast will come down, but it is not a worry.  We have all day tomorrow and Wendesday!

We shall fall asleep quickly tonight I guess.