Wednesday 2 October

Well this is the beginning of the end.  We will go to Toulon today and have a day and a half to clear the boat and get it ready for the winter before it is taken out on Friday.  Regrettably the weather forecast is for high winds on Thursday and Friday, so heaven knows what will happen.

Richard first goes with out neighbour to the chandlery to find a new nav light.  They do not seem to have any success, however in speaking to each other they find that the Frenchman knows the boatyard that is doing the work on our boat for the winter and he will instruct them to repair the light and send the bill to him.  So that should be ok.  In the meantime we tape a plastic bag over what is left of the fitting, so water does not get into the electrics.

The day is bright and the wind has miraculously turned around so we are not going upwind at all.  We first stop for fuel so the boat is topped up for the winter.  Then we set out.  It is the top of a four as we leave the harbour and Richard decides to sail.  He has not undone the sail bag, so goes forward to do that when there is a little bang and the main sheet block falls onto the forward deck.  The shackle holding it on to the boom has failed!  So there will be no mainsail today.  Richard takes the blame.  He thinks he must not have done up the shackle properly when the mast went back up and he redid all the ropes.  Richard rigs up the rest of the mainsheet bits and attaches them directly to the boom, but the boom is still rocking around in what is a fairly lumpy sea.  He eventually has to rig up a preventer to stop the boom moving.

The good thing is that the wind is getting stronger and is directly behind.  That being the case sailing on just the genoa is fine.  We are making about 5 knots and going nicely.  Richard says it did occur to him just to sail on genoa before the main sheet fell down!

I did not sleep well last night, so I have a snooze in the cockpit.  I wake up to find that we are only 45 mins out of port.  We have a quick lunch (I made sandwiches this morning) and then come into the Old Port in Toulon, where we were before.  This time we are on an inside pontoon, because the visitor pontoon is more or less filled with an enormous trimaran!  It is getting late so we get to work.  I start sorting out clothes while Richard takes down the sails.  Then I go to the shops just to get the minimum we need to eat tonight and tomorrow.  We shall do a fast day tomorrow, which makes things a little easier.  I will have to do the last of the laundry and clean the inside of the boat.

Richard has spoken to the boat yard.  Everything is fine for Friday.  High winds may cause a problem, but they will sort it out… We will see.