2012 Season Underway
14 May 2012 | Port Napoleon
JMP
XII Bar Blues is now restored to her proper element with sails bent on and the new electrical systems seemingly working well. There is much still to do before she can go off cruising but this week should see most, if not all, of that stuff ticked off.
Reports emanating from the UK about miserable weather are, of course, cheering news for the crew enjoying some warm, albeit rather windy, weather in the Mediterranean.
The skipper has the special pleasure to come of an hour so to be spent up the mast - shame he can't stand heights - to be compensated for by a spell to be spent communing with the GenSet which lives much closer to the water, althought it's accommodation might be seen by many as being a touch on the cramped side.
The real challenge to come is to acquire SIM cards for our data "dongles" in order to avoid the rip-off rates charged for data roaming. It will be interesting to see whether the various French telcos and mobile operators still persist in their bizarre policy of allowing you to top up your account in a shop using a credit card but will not allow you to use the same card for the same purpose on-line (unless it's a French card of course). Perhaps M. Hollande will sort it out when he's finished dealing with Angela.