Honfleur, Tuesday 11th May 2010
Eliza B
Ron & Elizabeth HOWARD
Tue 11 May 2010 14:31
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As you will recall, the plan was for Mr. Stephan
Reiset (Chantier Naval Havre & Manche, +33 6 19 46 46 23) to come on Tuesday
and guide us to his boat yard at one of the inside working docks ready for
demasting on Wednesday. However, the high winds last week prevented that
happening and the programe was rearranged for Thursday and Friday. Instead
we got out the bikes and went on a sight-seing tour of Le Havre.
On Wednesday afternoon, M. Reiset phoned with more
bad news; he had just heard that the Le Havre port workers were planning to
strike on Thursday (they were objecting to something President Sarkozy was doing
- or not doing) and he suggested we move the boat through the lock into the
inner port straight away. This we did and went through a massive lock and
finally tied up next to a barge near the workshop.
  As a consolation, we did more sightseeing on
Thursday, purchased a copy of yesterday's Times (although at 4.70 Euros it was
questionable whether it gave that value of election news), a lump hammer
for the mooring stakes and then rewarded ourselves with a very enjoyable meal
out. We also manage to buy a refill for the bottle of Camping Gaz and
the correct regulator to fit the bottle - but we couldn't find a gas
lighter for the cooker!
As part of the de-masting preparations, we had
already rmoved all the split pins from the bottle screws, disconnected the VHF,
wind instrument and mastlights but not the radar. Having decided the
best solution would be to disconnect it at the radar scanner, half-way up the
mast, Elizabeth strapped herself into the bosun's chair and was hauled up
aloft to carry out the task.
 At Friday afternoon at 14:00 the extending crane
arrived. It took 15 minutes to get itself ready, Stephan and his assistant
arrived, removed the mast and laid it on three trestles on the
dockside and the crane was leaving at
15:15. It was then our job to remove the spreaders, radar dome and
reflector (and the jib sail which we hadn't been able to drop - for some reason
- before the mast had been lifted) and tie all the shrouds, spreaders and
jib foil into a neat bundle for storage using the spinnaker halyard. It
took us about three hours hard work in a biting cold wind. We then labelled it
well before it was taken to the shed for safe storage until October (or April
2011).
    The sails were carefully folded and packed
under the front bunks, together with the radar dome and other miscellaneous bits
and pieces. The boom was stored on deck - to avoid additional costs of
storage and delivery.
"SY Eliza B" was now transformed to "MV Eliza B"
and looked very strange.   On Saturday morning at 07:30 we went out through the lock and back
into the marina to top up with fuel. It took longer than planned since we
had problems with the fuel-tank breather pipe. We had breakfast and then
set off for Honfleur. Although Honfleur is only the other side of the
Seine estuary, there are lots of dangerous sandbanks between the two places and
it is necessary to leave Le Havre by the prescribed shipping channel about 3
miles and then travel south until you cross the shipping channel into
Honfleur. We arrived just in time to catch the 14:00 lock opening from the
Seine into the pretty old harbour and town of Honfleur. We finally tied up
to a pontoon in the Avant Port at 15:00 and didn't bother to go through to
the inner harbour. The pontoon is under the control of the local sailing
club and has electricity and water and is very peaceful. We rewarded
ourselves with a very nice meal in a Michelin-recommended restaurant ("Au P'tit
Mareyeur") in the old town and were lucky to get the only two non-reserved seats
in the place.
  Since the Seine is a very big river with a powerful
flow, it is necessary for small boats to travel upstream to Rouen when the tide
is coming in (and reducing the flow of the river). We sought advice and were
told the best time to leave on Monday morning would be at 04:30.
Consequently, we shall be leaving on Wednesday morning (tomorrow) at the more
civilised time of 06:30. We expect to be in Rouen by nightfall at the
latest.
On Monday, while Elizabeth was trying to buy a SFR
dongle, and then connect it to her computer to achieve internet connection via
the 'phone system, Ron erected a mast with VHF aerial and navigation
light. We have also tied the radar reflector to the front of the boat
since we have noticed some misty mornings. In the afternoon we visited the
Erik Satie museum. The rather eccentric musician was a local boy and
the small museum reflected his peculiarities.
We are now off to an internet cafe to see if we can
post this newsletter. We are out of range of WiFi and E's dongle is not
working - SFR customer support rivals BT (except they speak
French)!
So we have successfully completed the first stage
and we consider the holiday adventure can now start.
Ron & Elizabeth
Eliza B
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