Well, it’s not a pretty place, but it’s Cassini’s winter digs; it’s very functional and has all (or most - see life raft below!) of the services we could need. Cassini won’t mind; she’s surrounded by other boats.  

We arrived here on Tuesday night, following a night at anchor in the lagoon just a short distance from the lift-out yard here. My early expectation that we’d solved our starter battery issue turned out to be premature. Only a few minutes or so outbound from Marseille the alternator voltage and the battery temperature began to climb. Since I caught it very early, I put the same fix in that Robin and I had employed the week before and set about further fault-finding after we got to anchor.  

In order to get to the back of the alternator on the engine we have to dismantle all the cupboards and shelving under the galley sink. This done I set about measuring the continuity of all the wires (this tells you whether or not a connection is loose or the wire broken). After about an hour I discovered the culprit I think, a loose wire and bolt that connects the engine block (itself a ‘boat’ negative, just like a car) to the voltage regulator - which does guess what - keeps the volts where they should be! 

All tighlty re-secured, we were able to test with a full power trial before entering the canal to Port Navy Service yesterday. We must have looked a bit odd to the ships and harbour authorities steaming at high speed around in circles in the lagoon for an hour or so. But at the end of this I was confident that the voltage and temperature of the new battery are all fine now. Phew!  

Port Navy Service is unlike all the other marina’s we've visited. There is only a ‘waiting’ pontoon here, just for boats lifting out that day or the following one. It’s very much self-help, but everyone on the other boats are really friendly and take your lines, so it all works.  

When we had ourselves tied up, we saw a Swiss boat come in and almost glide alongside us. After we secured their lines, they explained that they'd completely run out of fuel on the way here and were on fumes just to get alongside. We had 20 litres of ‘spare’ diesel in one of our Atlantic jerry cans ready to put in our own fuel tank (to make it a full tank over winter stops condensation forming in the tank - don’t like water in fuel). We offered this up to get them safely into the crane hoist and ashore. A nearly full tank is still better than nearly empty. As one good turn deserves another, Nigel and I were invited for dinner with them in the on-site restaurant. We had a lovely evening swapping stories and generally having a laugh about boats.  

We lifted out yesterday and, after a few anxious moments as the great lifting hoist boom touched our wind generator as it was reversing; no damage done, but a bit heart-in-mouth for a few moments. We’ve been set down in a cradle with additional props to keep us steady and we soon found out why. The Mistral wind that we’ve seen a bit of already in Marseille, blew up strongly last night and further still during the day today making the boat vibrate to the shaking and shivering of the mast in the high wind. You get used to it… just about. 

We’d done a lot of the winter jobs before arriving here, but out of the water, all the hull jobs are now ‘in reach'. After a good pressure wash to remove what little weed there was, we could see the areas where we need to work – more antifoul paint on the hull fittings once we’d cleaned all the barnacles out, a few dinks taken out of the bottom of the keel where we had sat on a rock on the bottom in one of the marinas in France on the way down south needed some epoxy patch-ups. The bow thruster was thick with barnacles; no wonder it has seemed so ineffective, but now much cleaner, and hopefully actually does something useful!

We took our staysail over to the sailmakers this morning for repair. It’s worked really hard for the last 18 months and is beginning to show its age – hopefully we’ll get a bit more use from it yet; fingers crossed. We had hoped to get our life-raft serviced here but it’s proved just too difficult to transport to the service shop and be certain where it would stay once completed. That’s something we’ll have to solve in the Spring on our return.  We tried without success today to remove the two forward saloon hatches (the frames after nearly 20 years at sea were seized solid) and replace the leaky seals. We've been in touch with the manufacturers, Lewmar, about replacement hatch lids which we can fit in the Spring. There is always something….

The water tanks are nearly empty (a good thing so no freezing up of pipes). Final inventories have been completed of food, medical stores etc; the boat has had a thorough clean through from stem to stern, toilets were emptied completely before we got in and flushed with lots of fresh water. We’re washing some canvas and last clothes and bedding tomorrow before we say goodbye on Saturday to Cassini for six months here. Batteries to be disconnected before we leave - don’t want any more electrical issues.  

We all hope everyone’s enjoyed reading our blogs, and the film I posted on my Facebook page that Romain and Pauline did for us following the Eastward Atlantic crossing.

Au Revoir for now… we’ll be back for more adventures in the Spring next year. 

Simon, Nigel, Sally and Catherine 

Spot the wind generator (windmill) on the back about to touch the hoist boom!