Portals Nous

We Put my boat on the bike and we were of. The French coast had been cold and autumnal, Mallorca was still warm with a dry breeze, my new job was about to begin for real. The boat was taken out of the water to have an over haul and the hull fixed properly from the accident. In the short time I had been with them the crew had already become family, not difficult when you are living in confined spaces. I had a small cabin to myself which was lucky, it was hard enough acclimatising to a minature cabin and bed without having to share it with someone else.

The captain had rented a crew appartment just up the road from the port whilst the boat was out of the water, and I could cycle to work. I loved my early morning bike ride, arriving iin the port listening to the wind whistle her way through the masts and the rigging, through the flying sut into the boat yard. where the boat stood propped up by huge wooden blocks. there was a long thin bendy ladder on which to climb up to the boat. With every step up I shook a little more. What was my job to be I wondered, no where to cook, the inside of the boat was unusable, all the floor boards were taken up, I could not cook, we could not use running water. I was perplexed.

Things were explained ot me by the first mate. First I would be sanding all the floor boards ready for varnishing, then I would be cleaning all the bilges ready for painting and then I would be scrubbing the anchor chain with a metal brush and repainting that, by which time the boat would be ready to be put back into the water and I could go shopping for the crossing. I guess you can imagine what fun I had. I was too fearful to take the boards down the ladder or indeed up again, but we set  up a sanding area and that is all I did for the first few weeks and so on and so forth, sanding scrubbing cleaning painting. I felt a bit like one of the lads. We used to go to a workers cafe at lunch time and the plat du jour was generally inedable, and you could find such delicacies as pigs trotters on your plate swimming in watery grease.

The nights we went out were certainly looked forward to, a whole new way of going out! Everyone seemed to know one another, everyone seemed to go out at the same time and we all seemed to end up in the same seedy bar to to start our night of with. I cannot remember the name of it, but I do know the drinks were massive and I found myself getting drunk very easily, one drink could do the trick. Everyone talked boats, it was a foeign language to me, hulls and engines and sails and and and, a whole new and strange world.

What was obvious to me was that the family feeling wasn't just confined to one boat, everyone you knew or made friends with bacome part of an extended family, each bar of restuarant we wnet to we would join up with a least 10 - 15 of the same people every time. Some of these people are still dear friends of mine. It was a special time in those day. Yachting was more carefree and adventurous. Today there are a lot of laws and constraints.

I loved it when the boat was put back in the water and it was time for me to do my job for real, to make my galley my own, somewhere that I would be for the next four years of my life.

Comments

[Gae]

Love your reminiscing x
Gae

[elliebaker@aol.com]

Love you xxxx

[Gae]

We had our honeymoon in Portals nous A very kind friend lent us her flat and we took the children! 15 years ago now..