Through the Night
At the airport ..."Sorry Sir, your bag is too big. It is oversize baggage, take it over there to drop it off," said the airport assistant.
Carrying my 'oversize' little orange inflatable boat was very heavy and very awkward! I was glad it was now with the baggage handling crew.
There was a lot of people at the airport, most of them in the Pret coffee queue.
Flight great, landing great, heat in France not so great.
Bus in France left on time with a slight delay for 2 teenagers who seemed to be missing one essential item - money to pay!
Shopping - tick. I was quite surprised by the empty shelves. When Christine and I visited other European countries earlier in the year, all were fully stocked.
Eventually I arrived at the boat to find what looked like a huge black burn down the side. As I got closer I could see it was oil. In the rush of leaving 2 years ago due to Covid restrictions I must have weighted the boat cover down with a plastic oil can rather than water. The heat had caused the plastic to split and spill oil all over the boat. Will I ever be able to clean it off?
I got the engine jobs completed and started the engine. It started easily after 2 years stranding but that excitement was short lived. The boat started to fill with smoke and beneath the engine - water. I quickly turned it off and stared in disbelief. Something had an obviously gone seriously wrong!
I found the fault fairly quickly. A corroded exhaust elbow. Most of it was so badly corroded it disintegrated in my hand. It took the rest of the day to remove 4 small nuts that held it to the engine because they were super tight and in the most inaccessible location.
Sourcing a new part for the engine took a while. Volvo Penta - the engine manufacturer - from what I understand were having supply issues in France. The part could be replaced with a stainless steel version. Brilliant I thought until I did a spot of research. It appears that due to the changing temperatures in the engine, stainless steel can crack and explode! The French part was also super expensive.
eBay showed a supply of the part in Sweden (where the boat was built) but eventually I opted for a UK part hand delivered by Christine, but a week later than I had hoped!
As I am now stuck in port it meant I could complete my other 'boat' jobs and do market day too.
I spent the evening watching a number of different acrobatic and musical acts, both pretty good.
Boat jobs kept me busy for the next few days but at then I got the opportunity to visit my friend in Martigues (the little Venice of France - full of pretty canals). We ate Tuna at an amazing Sardinardes topped off with delicious ice cream at a cute little cafe! We listened to live music in the square and watched the locals performing their moves to Argentinian Tango!
I took some photos before sitting on the wall next to a small canal in Martigues. As we headed back home I reached for my phone to take another quick snap but it was gone. It was no longer in my bag! We retraced our steps, asked at the restaurants but to no avail...
In the morning we went back to check the canal where we had sat on the wall. On the bottom sat my phone. Never to work again!
