Making Ready 7

 

I turn the radio up, hardly daring to believe that I have heard correctly. This is the news I have been hoping for .  France has relaxed her border restrictions. These have prevented United Kingdom citizens from entering the country, without a 'compelling reason .' Outlawing a cruise under sail.

I finish my lunch with an open lap top propped before me. Logged into the visa application website of the Republique Francaise. The afternoon passes locating or downloading proofs of identity, financial status, medical insurance, covid vaccination and more. By evening I am rewarded with a Registration Receipt. It transpires that I must take this to a London handling centre, along with my various documents, for validation. I book the first available appointment, in early February.

Mercifully, France is one, of only two, Schengen Treaty nations offering beleaguered post-Brexit Brits the opportunity to visit, for longer than the Withdrawal Agreement maximum (of ninety days in any rolling one hundred and eighty day period). Subject to applying for a Visa de Long Sejour Temporaire. A blessing which has been, until now, rendered moot by covid border closures.

A summer cruise, to the sun dappled seas south of the Pointe de Penmarc’h, to celebrate my sixtieth birthday, beckons. My heart lifts, in joyous anticipation. Fond memories, of Stargazer's passage to La Rochelle (Living the Dream), swirl through my mind.

I have double cause to rejoice: A high pressure systems brings crisp clear January days to Kent. Springlike sunshine drives the night-frost from, all but the most shadowed, hollows by midday.

An absence of breeze allows temperatures to climb toward ten degrees, during the afternoons. 

This is an opportunity to be seized. Stargazer's scraped hull (Making Ready 5) can be repainted far sooner than I had dared to hope. The Gelshield epoxy will cure at five degrees or above .  Stargazer's bottom changes colour by the day, as the layers build. Green. . . . .

. . . . .grey, green, grey, green. The colours are alternated for ease of monitoring coverage, as each layer is applied. A coat of grey primer completes the protective barrier. It will eventually tie the antifouling to the epoxy. First though, the epoxy and primer must chemically bond, to the hull and to each other, for a couple of weeks.

I book the crane, for Stargazer's relaunch and mast re-stepping, for the first day of March. Anticipating that there will be a suitable weather window, in which to apply two coats of antifouling (more tolerant of temperature and moisture than epoxy) during the latter part of February. 

Stargazer's new rigging, instruments and mainsail will need to be set up and tested, once back afloat. And, potentially, some final adjustments made. Local sailing, on the Medway during March, should allow this to be achieved. 

Meanwhile, in Stargazer's cabin, the tidetables are out. To plan an April shakedown cruise. Prior to a May departure, for points south. . . . . .