Leaving day – 1st September 2020

Having been in France now for ten days we are ready in ourselves to leave and we have done most if not all of the jobs I felt we needed to do before taking on a 1500Nm tips. There are some things we haven’t managed to get fixed or ready but we have mitigated them and know that we will be taking some “Old School” processes and skills out of the old chest, to be honest we didn’t think would need again but we always have then “just in case”!!

Car drop off and walk

We were up early this morning as we need to drop off the car and then had an hours walk to the boat which wasn’t an issue as we had taken all our kit to the boat yesterday but for a small rucksack each. The car wasn’t an issue to drop off and so off we set for the boat as dawn began to show herself and even the sun started to rise. We picked up the now customary croissants, “pain au chocolat” and some fruit juice to start the day off properly with a coffee and tea made on board.

Prep for splash

There wasn’t too much to do as prep for the splash but we made sure everything was squared away and stowed onboard and all seacock areas where open and free to see easily once we were in the water. Then we arrange lines bow and stern to both help control the boat but also to tie her up once in the water. We also needed to remember to antifoul where the cradle had held the boat and so we had the tin and brushes ready.

Splash down

We were basically ready when we heard the hoist on its way just before 8am and so right on time. The guy lifted her perfectly and even though there is always a little apprehension there appeared to be nothing to worry about. Not everything went smoothly because Barry decided that it would be better not to carry the antifouling as he wanted to film and take pictures, so he popped it on the wheel guard of the hoist which obviously wasn’t the best idea otherwise I wouldn’t mention it here but as the hoist started moving it must have bumped over something and off fell the tin only to get run over by the hoist. No real issues as they had some that allowed us to cover the small areas we needed to!

We had watched boats move down the road as we worked but actually watching my boat move down the road to the water was a little surreal but to be honest, we were ready to leave and these guys knew what they were doing so things went very smoothly.

Once in the water there were obviously some quick checks that were needed to make sure none of the through hull holes were leaking but all seemed well which was a great relief as you do hear horror stories from time to time. The engine was next because although we had checked it on the hard we couldn’t start it without having the cooling sea water running through her but she started first turn and with the in gear forwards and reverse checked I was feeling pretty good.

Untie the Lines

Having done all our checks and preparation it was time for the painful bit of paying the yard for all the time, equipment and work they had undertaken for me to get us ready to leave. This all done we wanted to wait for Thierry from Quo Vadis that had been so helpful with almost anything we needed during our visit but that was really it with France as we were leaving.

First movement on any new boat take some thought because you never know how she will react to your touch, this said we were going to just simply reverse out from the wall, missing the Police boat behind us turn around and go!! This was a good plan until I realised the prop walk would allow it so we moved to plan “b” – manoeuvre her by hand around onto the pontoon in front of us and then we would leave from there; this worked perfectly!

So, we were really doing this and off on our way. I did a few familiarisation turns and twists as well as stopping her and even a little reverse just to see how she reacted before we even got out into the main throughfare of Toulon Harbour but better to learn in the safe waters than somewhere tight and restricted.

Petite Pass

I didn’t want to put the sails up whilst in the inner harbour as we had a small gap (the “Petite Pass”) in the breakwater that would save us about two miles and all the shipping that goes with it in these tight waters. The Petite Pass as the name might suggest is small with only 20 meters side to side and so not to be sailing through in a new untested boat especially with very little wind that was from the land and so likely to cut out at just the wrong time. Needless to say when we got there we had no wind at all and we motored through without any issues, hoisting the main almost as soon as we were through! We motored on and could see the wind line not too far ahead, as soon as we arrived at it we were sailing for real and truly on our way home.

Basking Ray

We’d not been going very long when we spotted what looked like a floating plastic bag in the water but as we got closer it was a big Ray basking on the surface without a care in the world.

Spinnaker run

About mid afternoon the wind was blowing a steady 10 – 15kts over our starboard quarter and so I decided to try the spinnaker. First day on the boat, Barry’s first day sailing on anything bigger than a dinghy but perfect conditions with not too much wind and a flat sea so out the bag it came! We had put her out on the boat park under the boat just to have a look at it and boy was she big but. It took some time to get it sorted as it was the first time using it but it has a snuffer bag so we had time to play to make sure we had everything in place and ready before we let her go! When we did though boy, did she draw well and the boat took off in near perfect conditions.

George had the helm (he’s the autopilot) and so we both took turns trimming and getting used to carrying the spinnaker and keeping her just on the curl.

We had worked out what we were going to do for watches and so Barry put his head down for a couple of hours so he would be okay for his first four hour watch. I had nearly two hours of spinnaker sailing, almost without having to do anything but to sit back and enjoy the feeling of finally learning about my new boat. The odd tweak here or there keeping her around 7kts, life could be a lot worse.