Wow, what a morning. We knew there was going to be some challenges but this day threw everything at us and tested us both. I would say that throughout the day, despite some very stressful moments we never conflicted with each other but just bore down and got through some very tough moments.

The first job is the dinghy. Need to get the motor off and the dinghy up because we will be Med-moored at Z’abricot (rear end against the dock) and the dinghy needs to be up and out of the way. Strictly speaking, the motor may not need to come off and onto the back transom but I think it is a good idea as we will be away from it for 4 weeks.

So while Christy watches videos on how to Med moor, I prepare the dinghy. I am very excited to try out my new rig that will hopefully make pulling the motor up very easy. Take the dinghy down, pull the davits back up, remove extraneous items from the dinghy, rope up a harness on the motor, prepare the rig, call Christy. The rig is a pair of blocks, one at the top of the davits and one at the bottom of the cockpit railing. The line will run through the two blocks and back to the electric winch. Easy peasy.

Not so fast sunshine. I think I have a pretty good rope for this job but just as the motor clears the dinghy and starts to rise up the back of the boat, I yell “STOP!” as it almost completely unravels. Christy lowers the motor down and I hold on to it on the back of Milu.

Find another rope, try again. This time, the motor lifts up and I yell “STOP!” as the harness I made has slipped (do you think that didn’t scare the crap outta me?) and now is too long, the upper caribiner is hitting the upper block.

Lower down, readjust the harness, caribiners and ropes. Try again. Almost all the way up I yell “STOP!” as the cockpit railing is about to bust with the power of the winch. Lower down, can’t use the railing, gotta move the lower block onto the side of the davit support. We consider just lifting the motor into the cockpit which I can do but the fins on the back are too wide to go through the companionway and I can’t lift it over and up. If I could, then I would just lift it onto the transom. I can lift this motor alone, have done it many times and even hoisted it onto temporary transoms. But that is on level ground, not on a moving boat where there is no leverage. I give it a try, forget it.

Try again, we are 2″ from success this time when I yell “STOP!” as once again the harness rig is too loose and we’ve hit the max height of the rig. Gotta lower down. Except we can’t lower down. The lower block is slightly above the height of the winch and I forgot that when you have that situation, the rope will ride over top of itself and jam on the winch. This is what has happened. Greaaaat. Nothing for it but for me to lift the motor up, Christy undo the caribiner and me take all the weight of the motor and lower it down onto the back transom. Then she can remove the line and unwind the winch.

Try again, move the lower block over to the side of the davit support and low enough to be below the level of the winch. Won’t bind that way. Turns out the rig doesn’t have to be vertical, the lower block is actually 3 or 4 feet horizontally away from the upper block and no problem.

Winch up. Works like a dream, motor is on the transom in 2 minutes. High fives all around.

Gotta buy a motor harness. Next, run the motor dry, fog the cyclinders, bring up the dinghy and tie it up – that works with almost no problems.

That is Task #1 of 3.

We get ready and off we go. Lift up the anchor which is embedded remarkably close to our neighbours who are watching with interest but wave neighbourly as we raise her up and motor around. We dropped pretty near them and let out a lot of rode so there was never any danger, it just seems weird when you are winding up and seem to be close to them at the top of the chain.

Fairly uneventful motor 3 nms across the bay to Etang Z’Abricot. Nice little half hour rest though the wind is blowing 20+ kts.

As we get close I try to radio the marina but the motor is too loud and I can’t hear what they are saying. When we are entering I radio, we are loud and clear, they are expecting us, I say we are going to get gas first and they say OK, see you at the gas dock. This all in Frenglish.

We motor into the marina, expecting to find the gas dock inside. I can’t believe I was that dumb, of course it’s outside which is what a friendly native tells us as we fail to find it inside. No problem, we just have to maneouvre a big boat around in circles and go outside again.

We see the gas dock no problem but while it was fairly calm inside the marina, by the gas dock it is blowing 20 kts. Thankfully there are 3 guys onshore, we have bumpers and lines ready and soon enough we’re secure to the dock. We wait for the boat behind us to clear, then back up to get gas.

EUR$335 – that’s about C$500 to fill our diesel tank, our spare diesel and all our regular gas tanks. Yikes. Christy goes to check out our berth while I fill the gas.

Gregory is manning the whole show today and he asks if we need help landing the boat at B1-02, our assigned slot. “Oui, SVP”. Turns out the slip is VERY narrow, being tucked between a large Jenneau and a tiny sailboat. We have to back up all the way down the channel because 02 is the first slip, somehow make the turn in reverse around the Jenneau without smashing into the little guy.

Getting off the gas dock is not too difficult with the bow thrusters chugging us off. That’s Task #2 out of 3.

Christy at the helm as we re-enter the marina and I prepare bumpers and lines. As I’m fixing a line, my sunglasses get caught on a lifeline, are ripped off my head and into the drink. I figure they are lost but looking back I can see they are floating, the croakie is keeping them afloat. I take the helm, turn us around and Christy fishes them out pretty neatly with a boat hook. Pretty good job dear.

Now the fun begins.

Turn right into the channel, then back up all the way down the other channel. Milu is actually stearing quite well in reverse, though I am going as slow as possible. I make the turn in slowly, there are about 4 guys around the dock, including two in the tiny boat next to us. They hold us off as the wind pushes us a bit wide. Gregory and “other guy” take our aft ropes and secure us, Gregory hands Christy the forward line which she uses to pull up the sunken mooring line (so that’s how they do it), I go forward and tighten it. We’re in.

A few adjustments but we’re solid.

That’s Task #3 of 3. I thank Gregory and make a motion of heart pumping madly and he says “C’est normale, it is always so”. Later, one of the guys that helped out says the same thing, “C’est normale”.

The little boat beside us is NOT in a designated slot. Somehow they are cheating a bit and borrowing a bit of space. Made landing our boat maybe 10x harder.

Only injury is Christy cut her hand a bit on the barnacled mooring line.

We’re fairly exhausted, mostly emotionally, and decide to go for lunch, we’ve earned it. We hit the onsite restaurant just as it opens but decide to just have drinks as the menu is expensive and nothing too appealing right now. Two sodas and I have coffee, forgot that in Europe, a coffee comes in a thimble.

Back on Milu, I would like to go for a shower, but we want to go for a walk and would just get sweaty again so after Christy fries up some lunch leftovers we head out to explore the area. We end up walking about an hour to the sports store, we knew it was closed but wanted to check it out, then head backwards, hoping to hit the somewhat famous “Ice i Bon” ice cream shop on the way back. Somehow we missed it on the way up. Oddly, the sign is quite large but the store is in a very strange place. The area we are in is not exactly Rosedale, but not as bad as Gerrard and Parliament either. Just a little rough around the edges. Every single shop of every kind is closed but the Internet is telling me Ice i Bon is open.

We find it. It is open. The lovely owner makes all her own ice cream and dearly wants to move to Canada. We chat amiably and order two chocolat et fruit rouge cups. Very tasty, we sit outside in her little courtyard before starting the trek back to Z’abricot.

It’s about another 45 minutes or so. After a short respite, we both go for showers, and Christy makes us a lovely dinner.

It’s 9:45 pm and I don’t know about her but I’m pretty ready for bed.