La Rochelle - Update No.4

It finally feels like we are making real progress and getting closer to leaving.  Of course, when that happens panic sets in and you realize all the things we should have been doing waiting around!

Harbour at Honfleur

As reported earlier, our pallet of equipment that we shipped from the US got stop in an administrative "do loop" in French customs - meaning that it was stuck in L Havre (northern France), so  We made a road trip to go deal with the needed temporary importation permit.  Had we known we needed to do this, we could have done it earlier!    We stayed overnight in the cute town of Honfleur, which was a real treat.  It looked like a town where Beauty and the Beast could have been set.  But alas, we got the temporary permit, hand delivered it to the shipping company and our goods were promised to be delivered Friday, then back to La Rochelle (about a 5-hour drive each way).

oldest wooden church in France 

HonFleur

Several days passed and Friday came around.  Sure enough, as promised, our pallet arrived at Dream Yacht's storage facility.  We rented a van and voila!  we had stuff!.  This set in motion a couple of larger projects.  I installed the watermaker which we had shipped over (we love our Rainman watermaker!), and Larry and Mike set about rigging the code zero sail that we had made in Pensacola by Schurr Sails.  At about that time, more weather set in and with 30 kt winds gusting to 50 and 15-20 ft seas - yes we have stayed put pinned to the dock. 

As I write this, it is Sunday and things are supposed to settle down today- but seas will remain big and another front approaches on Wednesday/Thursday.  So as of writing this, our plan is to depart tomorrow morning (Monday).  Several delivery crews on the dock are planning a similar strategy leaving either today or tomorrow and headed in the direction of La Coruna, Spain.  We have figures our "bail-out" plans for Gijon, Santander, or Viveiro if we need to, and I think it is likely that we will duck into one of those locations just short of La Coruna - but we shall see.  Its 2:30 pm locally here on Sunday, so we have some last minute preparations to make while we have daylight and while a few shops are open (we hope).  So hopefully, my next update will be from Spain.  Wish us luck and hope for some better weather ahead of our 3-day trip across the Bay of Biscay.