We've left La Rochelle
It's been a busy couple of days, with lots of emotions. Now that we've left for A Coruna, I finally have some time to update you.
We left our home on Friday (after school) and planned to dodge Paris find a hotel somewhere in the middle of our road trip to La Rochelle. We failed both. Tempted by Google maps indicating a 30 minute time saving, which resulted in a delay of more than 1 hour. We also booked a hotel a bit too far, so the last hour was a struggle to stay awake. But the next day we only had to drive 3 hours, so we arrived just around lunchtime to meet our dealer and finally see our boat with our own eyes!
And there she finally is. 14 months after signing the papers she was all ready. Well not completely ready. Luckily our dealer arrived a few days earlier and had a list of things missing or to be fixed already communicated to the local dealer/Nautitech. A few areas of gelcoat weren't up to standards but nothing really major that couldn't be fixed quickly.
We spent the Saturday admiring every corner and moving in with our stuff. Finding a spot for the Fatboy beanbag was a challenge, but luckily Eus only bought one… 😂
After a final signature the boat was ours! We celebrated with champagne and a pizza. And thanked our dealer for all the help.
Sunday was spent on finding places to store everything, chat with fellow new owner on the dock, total of 4 brand-new Nautitechs had recently been handed over to their owners. We weren't the only ones with a to-do list, it was very busy with al kinds of technical guys making the last fixes. Later in the afternoon I picked up my skipper to help me bring the boat to Spain. We all had our first dinner on-board.
Monday morning we were greeted by the super enthousiastic Pierre to do the technical briefing. Opening every hatch and explaining everything we need to know. As it’s a RELATIVELY simple boat we were done around lunchtime. In the meantime the “gelcoat-doctor” did his job and we were able to practice some manoeuvres with the engines, and take her to sea, and boy does she like the salt water breeze! It was a delight to sail her while pinching myself to be leave this is MY boat!
As the sea was a bit rough the family needed to get settled in a bit… 🤢. Lucas noted that Pierre must really love his job, as he was constantly “Joehoe”-ing. According to Pierre this was the best boat ever! I'm not sure if he doesn't say this on every boat but it feel sincere.
Also our dinghy “Bedankt” arrived, another sweet boat!
Tuesday was planned for the official seatrail, but as the weather wasn't any calmer and she needed to drive all the way back Eus decided to step off with the kids. After saying goodbye, I was a bit sad… We've never been apart for more than a week. Luckily we had a nice seatrail with Pierre, my skipper and I to look forward to. And again the boat didn't let us down, we sailed across the bay of la Rochelle (passing the famous fort boyard) and tried out the black gennaker. And again a lot of joehoe-ing, but not just from Pierre. Even the skipper was impressed and quickly updated the invitation for trainees (to join for the second leg to Croatia), making clear that this is not a caravan catamaran!
To celebrate the skipper invited me and our newly boarded first mate for a fancy dinner!
Wednesday was the big day, the weather was looking favourable on our planned route, the final things were completed, all groceries bought and stored, all tanks and batteries filled. And after a tight manouvre to get our of our spot we were on our way to A Coruna, Spain!
You can track our progress live via: https://app.sailserver.com/dashboard:549