Fairy Boatswains (or Bosuns to you and me)

Ron P writes…

At the end of August, I assembled a crew for a late September sail on Elfida and booked a ferry, which is a preferred route through St Malo. This involved an overnight with cabin, a decent restaurant and a good night’s kip. What’s not to like! Two days later, the local authorities upped the anti on their drought restrictions. Almost immediately, the lock at Arzal was on a minimal opening regime, coinciding with closure in November, as they continue the work of modifying the lock to prevent salt water entering the Villaine. Luckily I had booked a “flexi” ticket with Brittany Ferries, which gave us options, so what to do?

Seemed a good idea to take the opportunity to visit Elfida anyway and start preparing her for the winter as there was no prospect of more visits given the situation. After liaising with Dave S (Elfida’s Bosun), three of us stuck loosely to the original schedule and went South. Accompanied by Richard K and Steve L along with various bits of kit for the boat, we arrived late Tuesday morning. However, with the Capitanerie closed (all at a meeting), we had to do a square search of the marina (it is quite extensive) to find Elfida. With the weather clearing and the prospect of fine weather over the next three days (really helpful), we settled into a routine to complete the task list and be able to leave early Saturday for the ferry home from St Malo.

What follows is a little insight into the tribulations of managing a boat abroad.

When servicing the winches, we found we were short of some pawl oil. Unfortunately, the chandlery on site is poorly stocked and rarely open possibly because it’s run by the boatyard across the river and they have their own chandlery. We visited said boatyard and at least established a preferred communication method for arranging lifting and “out of water” tasks later this winter… but no oil! Arzal has everything, apparently, except the chandlery was on a two-day, end of season audit. Luckily, another chandlery nearby proved more fruitful, so three hours later we are back on task.

A chance encounter with an Irish couple, who have seasoned their boat at La Roche for many years, provided a treasure trove of local knowledge. It seems shore power is only available whilst crew are on the boat, so that’s no de-humidifier then. There’s also a WhatsApp group run by a Brit who lives there and generally posts complimentary comments about the Port with respect to looking after boats in their marina (reassuring).

It was not all work, of course. Most of the restaurants that we had used earlier in the season were still going strong, not every day but we always had a choice. Richard had not visited before so we took an afternoon to visit La Baule, Le Croisic and La Turballe to give him a flavour of the local area. Oysters, seasalt (big around Le Croisic) and the fact that a lot of shops still close between 2 and 4 in the afternoon were the main things taken from this outing.

 

So Tops’l members, how would you like a valuable opportunity with backup expertise? These “fairy” Bosuns are dying out, luckily not literally, but Dave S (Elfida) and Chris W (Carina) are both looking to hand over their roles after many years of service to our Club. They won’t be disappearing I’m sure, so we retain background and knowledge for the foreseeable future but we have an ethos of ownership of our yachts and others need to come forward to take up these critical roles within the Club. It is possible that Tops’l will soon have to address the ageing boat situation, maybe rationalising the fleet, and any new craft will need a new team to be “the knowledge”. Start thinking about your sailing and what you can do for Tops’l.

Safe sailing.