25 September 2008 – 1 May 2009
We settled down and soon met a number of other liveaboards who were also staying in La Rochelle over the winter. We started swapping books, joining each other for tea/coffee and drinks, and helping each other with advice and assistance on a wide variety of problems and jobs on the boats.
We were encouraged by the others to make the repairs to our pedestal ourselves, with parts manufactured and welded by a local machine shop. With a great deal of assistance (by Frank on Shalini) we went ahead with the repair. The machine shop did a fantastic job on manufacturing new parts and welding; the pedestal has been reassembled by Frank & Jim, the paint system applied by Anne and allowed to harden for a couple of weeks, and the steering was reinstalled by Jim and is now in good working order.
In December we spent a couple of days in Paris with Frank & Judy – a day walking around enjoying Paris and the Christmas lights, and a day at the Paris Boat Show.
During the winter (November and January) we had a couple of visits to England to see family and friends – fortunately missing all the snow and ice.
At the end of March we visited Roger and Val (who we had met in South Brittany) at their home in Saintes. They made us very welcome and we had a lovely time. They showed us both Saintes and a nearby walled town called Brouage, both of which are very attractive and interesting places.
At the end of April we had a couple of days out – to Rochefort and St Martin on the Isle de Re. Both very enjoyable but quite different. Rochefort is a typical French town with a naval dockyard full of historic buildings; St Martin is a very picturesque walled island town with many tourists even this early in the year.
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