Adjusting to our new life aboard

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We’ve been living aboard Dreams of Infinity for a couple of weeks now and she already feels like home. 

The freezing cold temperatures are becoming a distant memory and we even had to dig out our sunglasses one day this week.

We are so glad we gave ourselves this time in La Rochelle.  In retrospect it would have been foolish to spend any less time.  Between getting the snags fixed and provisioning the boat we really have needed every waking minute.  Besides, La Rochelle is a gorgeous city and very easy to spend time in.

By the 30th all known snags had been fixed and we were itching to get moving, but before leaving we had to get our passports stamped by the Port Police.

Aware of other cruisers experiences, we already knew that departing any country by boat usually requires some footwork and patience.  Footwork to locate the correct office and procedures and patience to deal with the government officials who may or may not want to make life difficult for you, just for kicks.

Calling the number we were given for the Port Police we navigated our way through numerous automated messages with the aid of Google Translate and finally got through to a human being who fortunately spoke more English than we speak French. We were surprised and delighted when he told us “you don’t need an appointment, just come to the building, it will only take a few minutes” Fantastic!

The next day we took a 30 minute bus ride to the commercial port and arrived at the address given to find a decrepit building with locked doors and no sign of life. Hmm, this was going to  be interesting.  We went through a side gate and wandered around trying all the doors and peeking through windows. We walked in on a man who was in the middle of a conference call and with no exchange of words but a very stern look and a wave of his arm made it quite clear we were in the wrong place.   

Through another gate and around another corner we spotted an office worker who was clearly an Elton John fan as her walls were a shrine to the pinball wizard.  She opened her window, leaned out and asked what we were doing and then kindly pointed us in the right direction. 

When we got to the doorway she had directed us to it was locked with a sign saying “appointment only”.  Seriously?  I could see armed officials in a distant room and took a chance by knocking on the door to get their attention.  After a brief exchange they took our passports and left us standing outside only to come back a moment later and tell us it was too cold to wait outside and they ushered us into a narrow corridor. 

The lady who had the power to stamp our passports was initially quite stand offish so we stood quietly, politely answering her questions just hoping there weren’t going to be any problems. When all the official paperwork was complete she took off her metaphorical government hat and began telling us of her experience doing the Paris to London bike ride last summer and how much she liked the UK despite the challenging Surrey Hills.  I told her I grew up in Surrey which seemed to meet with her approval.

Once out of the building we breathed a sigh of relief. That wasn’t a bad first experience, once we found the right place. And now we were all set to depart France in the morning on our maiden voyage.