The adventure has begun

Seeing (and touching) our boat for the very first time

Posted by Silke, Apr 2

8:07 am on Saturday March 31 and we are saying 'so long' to my sister Petra and Hennef.
Roughly 10hrs later we arrive in Les Sables d'Olonne, France, at 23 degrees Celsius! Not long and we can see and step on our new home, our floating apartment, our catamaran 'Next Life'. What a great feeling!

The following Sunday and Monday prove to be challenging, so many stores are closed, either entirely or during lunch hours. Getting our phones to work (without being overcharged) is another challenge. And the language. And locating stores...

At least we spent some fun hours with Gonzalo and Karina from sister ship Kazaio as well as our Canadian Lagoon dealer Scott. Sea trials are scheduled for tomorrow, as are orders for electrical items, and the name stickers for the boat, cushion material, and, and, and. Days are full and over in no time. A boat surveyor flew in from London today to measure our boat. It's 'only' ;-) hull number 130 and a sister ship has been delivered to Vancouver, but measurements are not transferable, so the surveyor had to come for a job of two hours. From London! No kidding! Yeah, makes so much sense! What a waste of money.

Ah, and another challenge: apparently, our 31 boxes are nowhere near Les Sables. They were supposed to arrive last week. So, no tools to start working, no bed sheets etc. to sleep on the boat, with a tight schedule to begin with and the hotel only booked until Thursday. Chaos, here we come! And for Easter holidays this resort town is fully booked. We will have to buy stuff that we do not need.

Regardless of all this, Rolf and I are very happy. The boat is beautiful, we cannot wait to move in, we enjoyed a champagne dinner with baguette and cheese in the cockpit tonight watching the sun set, we already feel at home.

More info to follow whenever we can find the time.