Thursday 19 September

I did not write anything yesterday because there was little to say and what there was is depressing.  The wind was still howling and the forecast continues to give warnings of 45 knot gusts of wind.  So we stay in town and do laundry.

The real worry is winter berthing.  Richard spent the whole of Wednesday phoning and e-mailing ports to find out if they could put us up and we had absolutely no positive responses.  Out of desperation we speak to the harbour here. They can’t do anything for us.  There is a classic boat show here next week and until it is over they don’t know what availability they have.  By then it will be too late for us.  The office does however give us telephone numbers for three local boat yards who may be able to help.  But it is now late and we will have to try to contact them tomorrow.

We are both feeling rather low.  The boat is lurching around in the wind and is getting most uncomfortable.  So we go out for dinner.  It is OK, but not very exciting.

Thursday dawns and we are still feeling fairly down.  However, the wind does seem to have gone down a bit.  We can’t work out the weather forecast; it is all over the place.  First they say there is a strong wind warning with gusts of force 8 and then they say it will go down to force 2.  We guess it is all very localized, but we can’t work out where the bad weather is.  Richard has made contact with the numbers the Harbour office gave us.  We get one positive response.  It is from a small boatyard who says they can store the boat ashore if they do work on it.  As we need antifouling, gelcoat repairs and some plumbing repairs, this may suit.  We decide to leave the marina and take the boat around the large Harbour area (the Rade) and see the boatyard and sus things out.  We are berthed next to another English boat.  They haven’t been particularly friendly, but when I see them this morning they give us the name of a boatyard in the Rade who has told them they have space, so we will try them too.

I am worried about leaving this berth and then finding nowhere else safe to stay the night.  Richard rings around the other marinas in the harbour and it isn’t until he rings the third one that they say they have a space.  It is the marina next to where we anchored on Monday.

So off we go into the harbour.  The weather is nice.  There is a decent breeze, but it is only a 5 and the sea in the harbour is much flatter than it was on Monday.  We find the boatyard that said they could help us and even find a harbour wall to tie up to and go see them.  It all seems very hopeful.  The problem is that boss has gone walk about and can’t give us final confirmation.  The lady we spoke to says there should be no problem.  Even if they don’t have room in their yard, they can store the boat in the yard next door and do the work.  The price isn’t bad (2500 euro) plus the cost of gel coat repairs and plumbing works.  Better than we expected.  She will have to telephone us to confirm the details when she speaks to her boss.  So for a few minutes I feel a bit better about the situation.

So off to St Mandrier sur Mer.  We find it alright and manage to moor stern to with no assistance!  Maybe we will get the hang of this one day.  It is a lovely hot afternoon.  The only problem is that the toilet block is at the other end of the marina and the women’s is only open when the office is open.  We thought we would walk around this little town, which I guess is a suburb of Toulon, but when Richard tries to plug in to the electricity it won’t work.  Someone comes to look at it from the Marina, and finds that the problem is our cable.  It seems to have lumps in it and probably is split at one or two points.  So instead of looking around R goes to the chandlers to buy a new cable.  What he comes back with is a new length of wire.  He starts to wire it up and finds that the end that goes into the marina supply is rusted up, so needs to buy that.  He gets that part wired up OK, but comes completely a cropper trying to do the end that goes in to the boat.  It is a very complicated connection and well past either of our abilities.  So we have no electricity and tomorrow we will need to find someone to make up the wire before we leave. At least it is not the weekend yet!

We are also fed up because the boatyard hasn’t rung us with the final arrangements.  I am beginning to get very nervous again.  I guess we will also have to contact them in the morning.  Hey Ho, nothing seems to be going smoothly for us!