Leaving Beaucaire on Sunday 29th.
26 April 2012 | Still in Beaucaire at the moment ...
Well, it wont be long until I feel like a proper Sailblogger, and my location will change! I keep getting a message saying my location hasn't changed for over 30 days - well that's not quite true, we often go to a different cafe for lunch, I went to the supermarket, and I walked to Tarascon the other day ..... Oh, I see, it means the boat location! Well I'm very pleased to inform you that this blog might be a little more exciting very soon, because as from Sunday, Fandancer will no longer be in Beaucaire!
We are finally ready to move on to the next stage of our adventure. The new autopilot which we brought back from the UK has been installed by my extremely clever husband. He can't wait to calibrate it when we get to the sea - apparently you have to make the boat go round in circles and wavy lines for a while, so the computer inside the autopilot can 'learn' the boat's movements. Sounds like a normal stint on the helm for me, I won't have any trouble steering wavy lines or circles!
We took a trip to Port St Louis on the bus last Monday and booked to have the masts lifted back in at the Navy Services Boatyard. No idea why it is called that. They appear very efficient and professional. From Beaucaire there is one lock, then we will stay overnight near St Gilles. The next day we have to go up the Petit Rhone, then down the mighty Rhone to Port St Louis, ghrough one more lock and a lifting bridge. After the masts are in, we will then berth in the town marina for a day or two, doing some sea trials to make sure the sails and rigging are set correctly, and to calibrate the autopilot. And I will be visiting the big InterMarche supermarket to stock up on some goodies for the next part of our voyage, a couple of nice cheeses, a dozen bottles of wine, a bottle of Pastis and a bottle of Scotch should do nicely........