back in UK, and thankyous

tcm

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LJS came home Monday, we others had flights booked Tuesday.

Mrs tcm flew over monday to rent a car and help sort us out.

Excellent meal out on Monday night in Sables d'olonne, good place for a hol, really. Nice town, they are smug as heck about their vendee globe thing, flags everywhere and we all reckon la rochelle council must be kicking themselves for not thinking of it - much bigger boaty port.

Mojomo is actually on the vendee globe pontoon now, nearer the yard, and I must say a really fab pontoon, nice and wide. Quite a few vendee globe boats there for sale too hmmm, para reckons they might be just fifty grand. Um, possibly bit more surely? Dunno.

Lunch on Tuesday, then rubbishy ryannair home. Paras penknife was about to get confiscated so i took it and buried in the car park hopefully to be be retrieved next time. Some of pwc's toiletries bag actually did get confiscated, but mrs tcm pinched them back whilst the customs people were rooting around in his bag. Heehee!

Left para at stansted witrh mrs para on her way, and pwc's mate also picked him up, big hugs all round. Transatlantic! Home now.

so...in no particular order ...thanks to

Alliaura/Privilege for building a rather fabulous boat, which was incredibly well behaved and which we feel we only partially stretched in the sailing department though rather more extensively with motoring - 2500 revs with sails up main reefed and storm jib, 20degrees off apparent wind 30 knots, 5 metres swell at 10-12 knots was quite zoomy on the last full day.

Jurg for selling me the boat eventually, and looking after it so nicely. We busted a few things, but all will be fine soon. And he specc'd it well too, no rubbish gear at all.

Aymeric, jurg's skipper for their first e-w transat, whom we bizarrely met in a restaurant in sables d'olonnes - the bloke with a Mojomo t-shirt. I thinki he may have had a hand in ensuing Jurg got the right gear, and safely across first time.

Webcraft for nice messages from the Atlantic. Sorry we left him the wrong weather, and he's right that we just had the weather we had. We weren't utterly in a hurry but didn't have the luxury of just nodding along under sail at 2-3 knots, which is pretty much how some of the days would have been spent with no motoring. Drink for webby in Horta when he gets there, and actually it is very swish to have something (anything) waiting at Peter's. The whole marina is platered up with signwriting from individual crews, quite amazing and a bit of a mess at the same time. Authorised grafitti didn't appeal though, although with more time I mighht have taken up paddy;s idea of a a big bucket of beige paint, several paintrollers on sticks, and para coming along behind with stencil amd black spray paint to cover the whole marina in Mojomo logos. Ah well, it's allowed innit?

Zefender for his excellent watch system, a crucial contoributing factor result in happy boat I reckon. Although pwc at least reckons he put on weight as a result. Thanks also to zef for additional weather/buoy info.

ChrisEm for loan of his satphone to para. Jolly useful. Fatipa for loan of his satphone too, and transatlantic boating books too. Very kind, and we haven't bustd them, as far as i know.

Tome for his fab shoreside support, handling our messages here and emails to others, and pacifying shoreside friends and relatives too. Tome initially planned to come along too, but busy at work meant he had to stay home. Perhaps another time?

Stingo, for lots of text-message support, and loaning us the globaltrack thingy, which made it more fun for family and forumites to follow.

Admiral insurance, for sorting out something affordable for somewhat non-standard pattern of boat useage for current year. para askd where I would keep the boat, and i said "the Atlantic".

Claymore, for releasing the valuable crew of LJS and para from claymore-moving duties in the Irish sea. I suppose they *could* make Thursday sailing date but erm, not sure if their sailing passes have been timed out for a while...

LJS's mate "Donagh" whom was by pure coincidence in Sable D'olonnes at the same time as we were, and cheered us in late on sunday night, really excellent. He and his crew then trudged round in rain about three miles to join us in the bar.

Loads of barpeople, in sunsetbar at st martin, azores, sables d'olonne, and also that dentist, and the nice marina staff everywhere, and nice customs people (this is getting a bit long now..)

Fab crew - LJS, Para and pwc (whom I have thanked loads already, of course) and of course all formites erm anyone else who er knows me, including lots of forumites who were jolly supportive too, and if there were some not-so supportive ones, well thanks for carping cos it makes completing the trip more of a challenge.

Oh and of course ybw and esp keithwalker for the special forum too. Damn i wish i hadn't startd thanking people individually, i'll have forgotten some really important ones, so sorry if I forgot you, and thanks. Backgound support from EME, Mrs EME, jfm, mrs pwc, bignick, etc etc.

Fab trip eh?
 

longjohnsadler

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Good to see all back ok having managed to escape final boat sorting duties yesterday (er sorry).
Train to Nantes with fast connection on TGV to Paris at 200 mph. Back in Belfast early yesterday evening. Full day at work today...
 

tcm

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uk-sables d\'olonnes by train

ooh,that sounds quite good. Any info would be v useful, sounds muchnicer that cack ryannair where if the flight is half ful they shut half the seats, so contrary to whatthe company says,it's niot actually as good as a bus cos on an empty bus yer get moe room grrr.

I do actually have to go to la rochelle airport to pick up para's penknife of course, unless someone else is returning by air from la rochelle to uk?
 

longjohnsadler

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Re: uk-sables d\'olonnes by train

About hourly train from Sables d'Olonne to Nantes with 18 minute thru connection to Paris. Just over 2 hours Nantes - Paris. Phoned my mum in Spain on mobile but it kept cutting out as we passed the mobile masts at 350 kph. Nice buffet car too. Recommended.
 

rwoofer

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Re: uk-sables d\'olonnes by train

Will be going to La Rochelle at some point soon, cause new boat is getting made there. Will shout just before I go in case knife is still buried.

Richard
 

Lakesailor

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What a splendid acceptance speech.

Did you blub as well, just to make it realistic?

Well planned and really quite an anti-climax as it went so smoothly.

Are you going to retire at last, now?
 

tcm

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oops and i forgot to mention you as the caribbean production team of sunset beachbar pics. sorry.

There are several vendee globe boats for sale ahem. Mind you probly all a bit crap and slow tailenders, pah...
 
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Deleted User YDKXO

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Welcome back, matt. Pleased you're all back safe and sound and congrats on completing the trip. I look forward to the book, newspaper serialisation and blockbuster movie
 

longjohnsadler

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Yes they agrees to run the article soon as I gave them the headline,
'Local Man Singlehands Cat Across Storm-tossed Atlantic and Beats Ellen Macarthur into Sables d'Olonne.'
 

graham

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Congratulations to MOjomo team.Glad it went safe and well. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
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