2nd May - Sealion launched for the 2010 season
Sealion
Richard Martin
Sun 2 May 2010 19:01
We had a good trip
from the UK staying with some friends in Paris and then a night in Nimes some 50
miles from the Port Napoleon and the boat. Nimes turned out to be a lovely
old French town made even better by lovely warm weather.
Having arrived at
the boat Wednesday mid-day, we completed the antifouling and other hull
work and were ready for launching on Saturday. - The weather has been
great so far, shorts and tee-shirt, but has started to turn and not looking good
for the week ahead.
We did have a little
accident - The battens for our new mainsail were wound round inside the car,
bearing in mind that they are not split and the longest is 45 feet
long. Anyhow on getting the battens out of the car one of the ends flicked out
hitting Alison on the hand. A retired GP on one of the
boats bandaged her hand up and recommended that she do no house work
for two months!!??
Saturday we were put
into the water accompanied by the engineer who has hopefully fixed our rudder
leak and changed our sail drive seal - On hitting the water I rushed below
to check for leaks - guess what the engine water intake pipe, which
was changed, as the engineer reckoned it was broken and replaced
it, leaked (not that we ever had a leak last year). Not a major problem
but will need fixing before we go far.
Today we have spent
the day rigging the sails and cleaning the boat.
Tomorrow it is a
trip to the supermarket to stock up with booze (and maybe some food
etc.)
By the time we have
completed all the jobs, fixed a few problems and tested the gear etc. It
will probably be well into next week when we intend heading for Marseille for a
few days.
Pictures; Roman
arena in Nimes
; The invalid
; Sealion back in the water
