The Atlantic Crossing that wasn't the Season in the Carribean that isn't and the Winter in the desert that is to come

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End Sept 2010

So we have come to the end of another season. Not many similarities between this season and last. Last season 5 months in the south of France working for a grand total of about 2 months, meeting a few nice people but generally feeling like the whole yachting community is full of tossers, and then finding a genuinely friendly French person on the Riviera is like trying to find a beer for under 5 euros in Antibes! To this season where I knocked back 3 job offers before starting on Aglaia, spending 5 months working on a great boat with a mix of Yard time Charter Trips and time in Palma to get to know the place, and as the icing on the cake meeting some really great people and having a great time. There was a time while we had the owner on board in Formentera where I really thought, it can’t get much better than this. Wake up, spend 15 minutes chamoiing the boat, spend the morning sailing or motoring around the island, stopping at a beautiful secluded beach to eat some amazing food (thanks Michelle) then continuing on round the island stopping at port in time for the next Round of the World Cup in South Africa.

5th October 2010

For the end of the season I had planned a nice little planned out. A few days visiting some old friends in Lille, in the north of France, just enough time to taste a have a few reminders of the tasty treats at my old workplace and see some friends from the water polo crowd. Then scoot across to the coast to hang out with a friend who I met in Lille who’d had jack of the big smoke an settled in former fishing village/sleepy summer holiday town where she spent her holidays as a kid. Then I was going to head up to Cowes on the Isle of Wight, via ferry, for a introductory engineering course for my yacht work, spend another 4 days or so in London and then finish of the adventure with a week in Menorca visiting a friend who spent the summer working in a café in Sydney, then casually roll back in to Palma to start looking for work again. I managed to make it as far as the sleepy coastal town before getting a call for a job starting in Nice the day after my course finishes. So my 3 week chillfest, has been thrown out with last nights Moules Frites!

So what sort of job could disturb les petits vacances. Brand new 90 foot swan, for a captain who I already know quite well, and being a slightly larger boat than the current 4 crew instead of 3, so no more full time 3rd wheel syndrome! And the cruising program; Picking up the boat in Villefranche next to Nice, straight across to Palma to provision for the trip across the Atlantic towards the start of November.

Well that was the plan anyway, but nothing I’ve ever done works out exactly to plan and this opportunity was coming through in a very out of character way, all too easy.

So now to the most recent update on what I’m doing:
It was clear from an early stage that the captain of the Swan was looking for someone with more experience than what I have, and the short timeframe before picking up the boss and doing the Atlantic crossing made this even clearer. I’ve coped a lot of slack in my time but waking up ready to work and getting yelled before I’ve even had breakfast, I think I can do without that, I prefer to have my muesli with yoghurt and fruit, not verbal abuse! Whilst I appreciated having the chance to lift to the occasion it became clear that the expectation of what I needed to achieve and what I could deliver were still some distance apart, so at the 11th hour before casting lines for the Carribean I had to leave the boat.
This is the third time I’ve amended this Blog entry so I better publish it before it becomes old news. At this stage I’m flying from the Canaries up to London to spend the weekend with my sister Sarah, then back to Palma to get my life back together.

20th November, 2010

Well I’m back in Palma and I still haven’t published this blog… Slack! I was tossing around a few ideas for passing the winter before looking for work for next European Summer. Including heading over to the Carribean to look for work, flying to South America to travel for a couple of months, hanging in Palma all winter looking for yard work… until finally I settled on the best of all. Head down to Dahab, Egypt on the Red sea to go freediving and make you of the cheap living costs till work picks up back in Palma. So from the 6 December Dahab will be home. I think I’ll have to do some traveling through Egypt while I’m there but I’d like to start off with a good month or so chilling in Dahab, doing Yoga, freediving, drinking mint tea and smoking shisha. I’ve lined up some courses while I’m down there and hopefully I can hook up with some people to train/go diving with.

Photos:

I’ve been a bit slack with photo taking all season, but I’ve put in some photos of the couple of days I had in the north of France. The first couple of pics are from the Patisserie in Lille where I worked in 2004, and yes I did put on about 10 kilos when I was working there. The others are from Baie de Somme with my friend Helene. The town is called Le Crotoy which is full in Summer and weekends with English and ppl up from Paris, and Lille for their seaside vactions but during Winter its really quiet. The town lives off muscles and pipy farming, as the 10m tide comes in and out. These 4 days ended up being my only days holidays between working in the season and starting on the Swan. The fact that I got sick and it rained every day I was there did take a bit off the experience but it was still a relaxing stay after the summer in Palma.

Unfortunately my Pacific Plan may suffer a slight delay seeing as though I won’t really be working over the Winter. But it’s still on the cards and the more time I’m spending on different boats seeing different systems is making me feel more confident, and the AEC engineering course was great in getting to know diesel engines inside and out. So stay tuned!

Lots of love to all and talk soon!

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Photos

At the beach bar, Baie de Somme Style
Had to take the photos quickly before the sun went behind a cloud

Welcome to France
3.50 eu for a schwepps

Fry up with the beach in the background
This was Helene's grandfathers house which the family now uses a holiday rental and for the weekends