August 11, 2016
We flew out of Sydney on June 21, via Dubai into Paris, jumped on a train and headed down to La Rochelle. Some 38 hours later, and an unexpected bus trip for the last hour due to railway track repairs, we were met by our kick-ass broker, Nod, from Multihull Solutions and his lovely bride to be, Rach. They got engaged just prior to our arrival.
No time to rest, we were straight off to the marina to set eyes on Let’s Dance for the very first time – we were both knackered but adrenaline is an amazing thing. The moment we walked within eyesight of our brand new home we were ready to party. Out came the French fizz and we kicked on well into the night celebrating our new home/boat, our new life and the impending marriage of Mr & Mrs ‘Nod’.
The next day was a slight shock to the system – we were straight into it after waking up at 4am. We had a whole boat to fit out, 3 bedrooms/bathrooms, saloon, cockpit, galley – she’s not massive but it was a bit like fitting out a three bedroom apartment, plus all the tools/items required for maintenance and troubleshooting of a sailing boat.
Our next 2 weeks were spent running all over La Rochelle shopping, shopping and more shopping. Not a pastime we enjoy at the best of times but we certainly had some laughs….and a few differences of opinion as well! We shopped by hire car, we shopped by public bus, we shopped by push bike, we shopped by foot – and every time we thought we’d finally finished shopping we would go through our ‘to do’ list and find more things we needed to buy. Not to mention all the goods we had to take back or exchange because they weren’t what we thought they were or they didn’t fit or they weren’t quite right. So many little things and quite a few big things, we searched for in aisle upon aisle, store upon store, in a blur of French shops.