The big day…

We were up early for another warm sunny day. The temps are in the mid eighties and clear, nice breeze in the afternoon, just like home. We made the 1 ½ hour drive back to the airport to see if a miracle happened. And it did! There at the back of a storage room, with a radiant glow about them, stood our 4 duffels and a box. I am not sure when I have been more jubilant. We schlepped our bags out to the car and back to our tiny apartment. Now the work can begin, but first a grocery run. The grocery store here is phenomenal! Huge cheese section, fresh bread and great wine.

We met Dan, our boat broker, at noon on the boat. This was our first time getting on our new boat. It was love and lust at first sight. We selected finishes very similar to our California based boat; teak wood for the walls and cabinets and ivory Pleather for the upholstery. We spent hours going over every surface and every system on the boat, generating a fairly short punch list for the commissioning yard. In the evening we worked until dusk loading equipment on the boat and starting to move in. We needed the safety gear so we could sail the next day. Note that dusk is about 2100 here.

The next day we were up early as we had to get the name on the boat before we could go out. We brought the vinyl graphics and managed to get one side done and the hailing port; Huntington Beach, CA. We were ready by 1100 and headed out under clear skies and 10-15 knots of breeze from the north west. First stop, the fuel dock, 750 euros later the tanks were filled, we hold about 460 liters of fuel! We motored out of the harbor noting that the buoy colors are reversed here and the markers are a bit different as well.

We sailed close to the wind with the main and genoa, they handled well in the light wind. Turning down wind we set the code zero for the first time. It is an interesting sail in that it is light weight, large and stowed on a continuous furler. The wind was in our favor at about 15 knots and it was a fun run home.

The harbor entrance looks ancient with walls on either side and a fort like structure on the port side. The boat is definitely a bigger heavier then I am accustomed to, but with 110hp diesel she responds. Parallel docking between two big cats was a breeze with a bow thruster. We put the boat away for the night and sat with the broker and the yard manager to finalize a punch list and accept the boat.

We enjoyed dinner with our broker at Le Fatra, great dinner and great wine from Bordeaux. The sardine butter on bread was unusual, but delicious, Suzette is already planning to replicate it. I think we will be happy here. There is music on the streets and great people enjoying life.

Thursday was our last day on the boat with our broker. We had a few questions and found a few items to add to his list. The afternoon and evening was spent moving locally purchased equipment onto the boat and working on a few boat projects into the wee hours.

Lots of work to do….