We Made it to the Med! Transforming from Canal Boat to Sailboat - Aug 10 - Aug 18, 2017


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August 17th 2017
Published: August 18th 2017
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Getting Close to the Med - Getting Close to the Med - Getting Close to the Med -

much flatter land and buildings aren't as tall
For those of you that are following the blog and noticing the dates in the titles you know that it is quite a bit out of date. Still working hard to update it and let you know what we have been doing along the way, but it seems that there is never enough time to keep it current. I do try to put a few photos up on Facebook which are a little more current, but know that not everyone is connected through Facebook.

As a result thought I’d update you so you know what we are doing and where we are located currently to bring you up to speed.

The big news – we have completed the French inland waterways and we are now in the Mediterranean – our goal since leaving Paris back in May. Our tentative plans were to get here by August 15th – well, we actually made it here on August 10th, our 43rd wedding anniversary – figured that was quite the way to celebrate! We knew we were getting close to the sea as soon as we started seeing sea gulls instead of ducks. We went through our last lock, then started out the channel into the Gulf of Fos in order to round the point into the channel leading to the marina our mast was transported to. Very quickly we saw plenty of places for loading & unloading ships and a navigational aid that looked like a light house. The white caps in the bay also convinced us we were on a much larger body of water than we have been for the last few months. We had made it!

It was quite windy when we came into Port Napoleon but as we arrived we saw a friendly face, Marita, whom we met while in Avignon. She had been in email contact with us giving us pointers on a few things about Port Napoleon and came over to welcome us. Petra from a neighboring boat came over to help with our lines when we came into the dock. Nothing like having a welcoming party when we arrived!

Soon after settling in we wandered through the boat yard and found our mast – it made it here before we did which is what we had planned. Always nice when a plan comes together. We had left Avignon at 7AM since we
Heading Out of the Rhone and into the MedHeading Out of the Rhone and into the MedHeading Out of the Rhone and into the Med

with our temporary mast & French flag flying!
had a distance to travel before the first lock. It was a long day of motoring in the sun and wind. We had thought we would just open a bottle of champagne and have it with some nice French bread and cheese to celebrate arriving and our anniversary but instead we both fell asleep – we decided our arriving at the Med on our anniversary was celebration enough!

The next day was Friday so we went to meet with the people that were going to be putting up our mast on Monday afternoon. Our first impression of the rigger that we would be working with was an excellent one. He is fluent in French, German and English which definitely helped. He is easy to talk to and appears to be laid back, but we found out that he definitely follows through on things he tells you he will do – an excellent trait in anyone, but definitely so in a tradesperson. We have plenty to do to get the mast ready for Monday so have our work cut out for us. We found that there were a couple of chandlery’s (marine stores) nearby so got our bikes off the deck and checked them out as needed a few things for preparing the mast.

Port Napoleon Marina is out of town (about a 15 minute bike ride) so there isn’t anything here to take you away from working on your boat. They do have washers and driers for doing our laundry, a restaurant and good showers so we are all set. They even sell baguettes each morning at the restaurant so they have taken care of one important thing – our daily fresh bread!

We both worked on the mast getting it ready on Saturday and Sunday so we could make it for the Monday appointment at 2PM of putting up the mast. With the transportation of the mast a couple of small things needed to be fixed. One of them was a broken piece that connected a wire to our mast steps. It needed to be made as we couldn’t buy the piece so fortunately the rigger gave Bob permission to use the machine shop to make it. What luxury that was to have all the tools – drill press, grinder, etc. rather than our make-shift “shop” on the boat!

We haven’t had the mast down on Tsamaya for quite a few years so it has been a good opportunity to really go over the mast and rigging . We even remembered to check and change the light bulbs so we don’t have to go up the mast to change them anytime soon. We have definitely been having some strong winds since getting here on Thursday so we are hoping that it calms down for Monday as the forecast promises.

Monday came and the winds reduced – a perfect day for putting up the mast. Each marina has its own system for putting up and taking down mast. Here they have a crane that picks up the mast from the top so it hangs straight, they then swing it over the boat in order to line it up with the hole in the deck. Normally we would put all of the instruments at the top of the mast while it was down, but here they don’t want that done as they put them on with a cherry picker after the mast is in place. At one time in the process they had 6 people involved in the installation of the mast – quite a job,
Our First Sunrise Seeing Lots of "Sticks"Our First Sunrise Seeing Lots of "Sticks"Our First Sunrise Seeing Lots of "Sticks"

the first time in a long time
but very well orchestrated.

Typically when we put up our mast each year in the US Janice would be below deck and giving instructions on how the mast was going in to see if the angle needed to be adjusted as well as how close we were to having it seated correctly. We mentioned to the rigger that I could do that again, but he stated he would do that as he needed to talk to the crane operator in French ! Oops – we had forgotten that little problem as all the trades people we have been working with speak excellent English. Even with this it is much easier and quicker to understand instructions in your native language. It was definitely a good plan on his part.

We typically tension the mast, but this time we had them work with us on it as it hadn’t been professionally done in quite a few years. They spent quite a bit of time on it, but they were very thorough and made sure everything was well lubricated and the mast was set properly. We have found the people here are excellent at what they do. As they say, no
Getting the Mast Ready to Put UpGetting the Mast Ready to Put UpGetting the Mast Ready to Put Up

a great time to inspect everything on the mast
one comes to Port Napoleon as a destination to explore, they come for the technical services so they must provide excellent service.

Since putting up the mast on Monday we have been working on getting the sails on, the lines all run correctly, polishing the stainless steel that we hadn’t gotten to finish before, sanding and finishing the teak and hooking up all the electrical lines again.

It is now Friday and most of our “to do” list are completed or at least started. In looking at the weather it seemed that Monday or Tuesday would be good days to leave, but yesterday we made the decision to have some stainless steel work done. We wanted to have rods rather than lines for some of our lifelines so having that done here. We had thought of doing this before but the cost was prohibitive. Fortunately the quote we got here seemed reasonable enough to have it done here. Bob has seen some of the work he has done and was pleased with it. He will not be able to start that work until Monday so a few more days of delay before we set sail.

As everyone
In Place to Get Our Mast Put UpIn Place to Get Our Mast Put UpIn Place to Get Our Mast Put Up

the end of being a canal boat
tells us around here the weather comes in cycles – you will have a few days of very windy conditions followed by a few days of calmer weather. We have seen that for ourselves already in the time we have been here. The bay that we are on is notorious for this so they tell us to get across the bay as soon as you can when you leave here. With those recommendations we will be sure that we have a few nice days in the forecast before leaving. It should be this coming week – the weather will let us know.

We had a bonus the other night. A boat came back into the marina and it had quite a few people on it. One of them stopped over to ask if we’d like some of their left over fruits and vegetables as they just finished a 10 day sailing vacation and they couldn’t use it. They were all returning to their respective homes and couldn’t take it with them. We told them it was perfect timing as we haven’t taken the time to go into town shopping yet as our main concern was getting the boat ready.
Every Marina Has a Different SystemEvery Marina Has a Different SystemEvery Marina Has a Different System

Here they use a crane & lift the mast from the top
We had run out of our fresh fruit so it was very welcomed. At first they provided us with a large amount of peaches, nectarines, grapes, apples and shallots. These were great, but then the bonus was asking if we’d like a watermelon. We have been seeing watermelon in stores for quite a few weeks and keep thinking it would be wonderful to have, but with getting our groceries and carrying them in our backpacks or in our recycle shopping bags, a watermelon never makes it as our groceries is usually heavy enough with our other essentials. This was a very welcomed gift that we have been enjoying for the last couple of days. Sometimes it is the simple things in life that makes us happy!


Additional photos below
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Hanging the Mast Over the BoatHanging the Mast Over the Boat
Hanging the Mast Over the Boat

and putting it through the deck
Here They Don't Want Instruments at the TopHere They Don't Want Instruments at the Top
Here They Don't Want Instruments at the Top

they put them on later using a cherry picker
First Night With Our Mast UpFirst Night With Our Mast Up
First Night With Our Mast Up

now we need to dress her with the sails


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