Wednesday was 'on a mission' day Up at 7am got the bus to my car park about a mile up the road, drove to Tignes to pick up Vicky, she is the boss of our ski school out here and speaks fluent french, something we needed on this mission. The plan was to collect my boat from its moorings at Dussard on lake Annecy. I say collect, more like liberate blag or steal the thing. Its been there for about 4 years and in the first two, a number of people sailed her. Dad was always coming to stay and the Judges enjoyed it so much they bought their own GP14. Nevertheless, after the crash and being stuck in the UK for the summer of 2010 and in Norway last summer, poor old Vacancier has been left to gather dust. A number of people have been to check on her and there she sits getting older and older. I had a feeling that the boat yard owners would not be too lenient towards me and may start demanding cash for her release. Hence why we took Vicky. She is not worth much (the boat not Vicky) and is going to cost me a fortune to get her home so the last thing we needed was a huge bill for the mooring. If the boat yard were to get stroppy then I would have just left her there and told them to scrap her.
We met Wayne and his little one in Moutiers and off we went on our mission. I had come up with plans to sail her away and lift the trailer over the barrier, or wait till someone went out and tailgated them, but for now we were just going to asses the situation and the lie of the land.
On arrival in Dussard, I went to the boat to see whats what while Vicky went in search of someone to practice her French upon, returning 2 minutes later saying "you are not going to believe this but" Ive just told the guy in the cabin that we want to take our boat away and he said yeah sure and opened the barrier!
I was feeling a little nervous at this point as I had to de rig her for the road, before someone changed their minds. Mast down and secure we hitched her up to the car and started to move away. Vicky went back to the shed to get the barrier up again when the guy says to her "if you are thinking of bringing her back again, you will have to go and settle your bill with the Marire" then he opened the barrier and we were away.
We stopped at the nearest garage and pumped up the tyre's, re checked the strapping and then it was off to Meribel where she sits today. Then it dawned on me... I had only planned to get a feel for how we were going to get her, not actually do it! Now I have to figure out plan B and get her home or somewhere, now she sits in an unprotected car park instead of a safe mooring, Now she needs a roadworthy trailer and not just any old thing to get her in and out of the water... Now she needs cleaning up. Could I tow her home? nope, I have a trailer on my car for that journey already... For once the French being really helpful has turned out not to be helpful at all.... Doh
If only there were some wind in Norway
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