NAMING CEREMONY 22.07.2021
Sari and Thorne arrived at the quay at about 10:30. (We had driven the yacht back from the marina to try and gather more equipment.) We were soon preparing for our naming ceremony. They had brought some flowers from the local road verges, an olive branch and Champagne.
Alix had done a lot of research into the naming ceremony and here are her explanatory notes:
1. The naming of a boat in the UK traditionally uses the phrase “God bless this boat and all who sail in her”. We are British and wish to keep this tradition.
2. A green branch is often placed on board to ensure the boat will always return safely to land.
3. In France, in the 18th and 19th century, a godfather for the new ship presented a godmother with a bouquet of flowers as both said the ship's name. As Missy Bear is French built and launched, we are adopting this tradition. The tradition continues today, and sponsors or godparents include the Duchess of Cambridge and Dame Judi Dench.
The toast was my own poetic genius, as I wanted to reflect that Missy Bear would be following the ancient route of the islands that Mediterranean sailors and traders had followed for centuries.
“From the Catalan shore, to the Lycian seas, she’ll sail the ancient Route des Isles. Our Champagne wine, Poseidon share, and keep all safe, on Missy Bear.”
I think it went very well, although we had no dress rehearsal. Mike captured it on Thorne’s GoPro video. And after a farewell and thanks, Sari and Thorne headed back to Portel.
Our plan for the rest of the day was to: a) to get jack stays (safety lines) fitted, and a passerelle fitted by Pascal; b) go to chandlers to pick up some other urgent items; and c) set sail for Port-Vendres at about 4 or 5pm, ready for our rendezvous with the Douane on Friday morning.
Miraculously, the plan happened. Pascal even replaced our 40m of anchor chain (which I’d told Chris was not acceptable and even unsafe) with 60m. We kept 20m of the old chain to use with our kedge anchor, which we still need to buy.
But there was still one more nail-biting moment to go. When we went to the SAS office to collect the export paperwork and say our goodbyes, Maria looked surprised that we were leaving today and said the Douane had not stamped our licence, so we were not allowed to leave! There was a new team at the Douane who she wasn’t used to working with. She had sent all the paperwork, but the Douane all seemed to be taking a bit slowly. Rather then leaving her office, Alix and I decided to stay, to keep the focus levels high. She phoned again and spoke to various people. We were running out of time, especially as Maria would have to drive to their office in Perpignan to collect the licence and the Douane closed at 5pm. Hmmmm. At last, a breakthrough! Maria was excited and started speaking French at 100 miles an hour. We apologised and asked her to repeat it a bit more slowly, so she resorted to English: the Douane would stamp the licence and email it to her, and did not require us to have the original copy. There is a barcode on the licence, in any case, which any customs person can read. Yay!! We just had to want another 10 minutes for the email to arrive, and then Maria printed it and we were all set.
We said our goodbyes to Maria (who had been wonderful) and to Pascal, who suddenly appeared charming. To be fair, he had brought us some water and a slab of Kronenbourg earlier, and driven us to the chandler. He even started telling us a long story about how he had met Maria in Cuba; she was a senior member of the Communist Party at the time, but when she married Pascal, the party decided that she was no longer taking the cause seriously enough, and threw her out of the country!
We dashed down to the quay, waving the paperwork to Mike, and soon we slipped our line and set of on our trip to Port-Vendres.
THE DAY BEFORE (WEDNESDAY)
Wednesday was a long, tiring and slightly stressful day. Sari and Thorne kindly drove us to the SAS offices, and unloaded our domestic items and victuals onto the same box as our original items that we had brought down two weeks before in the Audi. They said goodbye and left us waiting for Pascal (the boss at SAS) for our 10:00 am rendezvous.
Pascal was 45 minutes late. He didn't introduce himself, but handed us a 3 or 4-page list of handover items and told us go to the boat and check everything ourselves. Maria, Pascal’s Cuban wife, is lovely and she took is down to the yacht and handed the keys to us. That felt special.
The checklist included checks on everything, from seawater inlet valves, to engine filters, to electrics and joinery! Normally Ruari would have been there to do this with us, and he had told us it normally takes one whole long and tiring day to cover all the items.
From 11am until 3pm, Alix and I worked through all the systems (that we could). It was hot, there was no shade on the concrete quay, and we had no food. No-one from SAS came to see if we were OK, but on the positive side, Alix and I know some of the Missy Bear quite well. But there is a long way to go: all the electronic systems, the solar charging system, or dismantling the Bimini for example.
At the same time, we felt under time pressure, because Pascal wanted us gone that same day. He even told me that Ruari has told him to cancel our visitors’ birth in the marina, because we were definitely leaving in the evening for Barcelona. At that point we had received none of the safety kit of other general items.
I went to find Pascal at about 3pm, and he eventually came down to the boat to go through our questions. But he is constantly distracted and taking on his mobile through his headset to someone else about some other problem. So, some of our questions were answered, but I can't say all, because it was slightly chaotic. I didn’t sign the papers, which he said he needed for the export licence.
At 3:30 Miki (our Spanish skipper) arrived from Barcelona on a huge speedboat (GT45). He wanted to see if we were ready to leave later, and I said “no way”. That meant Miki could not now sail with us to Port Ginesta, but he had brought his good friend and fellow skipper, Mike Gonzales (a Mexican, who now lives on a boat with his girlfriend in Sitges). Mike stayed with us to help. Sunbird are paying him to help us on a retainer of Eu100.00 per day.)
Eventually, at about 4:30, the safety kit arrived in boxes, and in several loads that were deposited onto the quay next to Missy Bear. We three had to open up all the carboard and work our way through what we had been given and load it onboard.
Pascal came by again and insisted we signed the handover papers. I signed it, but under duress, because he repeated that we could not export the boat until we had signed. There was quite a lot of safety/general gear still missing, including a boat hook and 20m more anchor chain. We would have to deal with that tomorrow.
We motored the boat to the visitors’ pontoon in the outer marina with Mike's help. It was great to underway and to start getting a feel for the boat under power. I sprung the stern off the quay with a bow spring and that worked fine. Good start! 300kg of water in the bow, plus the bow thruster and its battery, certainly changes the handling characteristics). We took Mike for dinner and he stayed with us on the boat last night. He is a nice guy. Alix and I slept well on our nice mattress, but we could equally have fallen straight to sleep on a bed of nails.
