Moving from Brighton to the Med - we're off!

[EME]

oh yes, and try not to get stopped by the harbour master within the first 200 yards for going a bit too quick (it wasn't me honest )

That would be an achievement ... he's only got 40 yards to go to the berth !

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

The boat went straight to Portsmouth yesterday afternoon, and on to a ferry to Ouistreham, where she stayed the night. This is her location at 0730 GMT:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=49....25154,2.46102&sspn=0.601835,1.674042&t=m&z=16

At 1200 GMT:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=48....166,-0.250146&sspn=0.009153,0.026157&t=m&z=16

At 1500 GMT:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=47....1,-4.064941&sspn=17.025991,53.569336&t=m&z=15

And now:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=46....28551,1.14928&sspn=0.009275,0.026157&t=m&z=16

Looks like she might be arriving a bit earlier than planned!

Cheers
Jimmy

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

Interesting pics. Do they just need the escort to the M27, or all the way to the port?

Just to the M27:

Cheers
Jimmy

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Interesting pics. Do they just need the escort to the M27, or all the way to the port?

I was wondering about that. AFAIK it is an abnormal load in the UK on account of it's width but I thought it would require only a 2 day notice to Plod without any other measures. Maybe the escort is required in France?

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

I was wondering about that. AFAIK it is an abnormal load in the UK on account of it's width but I thought it would require only a 2 day notice to Plod without any other measures. Maybe the escort is required in France?

Yep, I believe it is being escorted the whole way down through France.

Cheers
Jimmy

 

[Third mate]

Perhaps I'm weird

Fantastic pics but why is she going backwards all the way to France ??

 

[Hurricane]

Don't know but it looks like the same Coast to Coast escort van that we often see at Sant Carles.

Does the van have a big scafold pole bolted vertically at the back?

 

[EME]

Jacques where is she now ? What ... no live feeds?

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Fantastic pics but why is she going backwards all the way to France ??

Don't know whether this is a serious question or a throwaway remark but I guess the answer is because the stern was too wide to be located between the rear axles of the trailer

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

JTB SWIMBO here

Latest update... She was on the move again at silly o'clock this morning. Currently sitting here:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?source=mog&hl=en-GB&gl=uk#bmb=1

(If the link doesn't work then lat long is 44.540716 004.730468)

Where she will stay until Monday morning, due to the trucking rules in France. I'm reliably informed by HWMO that she will arrive at La Rague Monday morning - exciting!!

H

 

[carlton]

Good progress.

BTW - you may want to upgrade your Bio - specifically the 'location' bit.

 

[Richard Shead]

Well I would like to be the first to thank you ...


To thank you for moving your boat which has of course meant we are now enjoying some glorious sunshine here in the good old UK !

 

[jfm]

JTB SWIMBO here

Latest update... She was on the move again at silly o'clock this morning. Currently sitting here:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?source=mog&hl=en-GB&gl=uk#bmb=1

(If the link doesn't work then lat long is 44.540716 004.730468)

Where she will stay until Monday morning, due to the trucking rules in France. I'm reliably informed by HWMO that she will arrive at La Rague Monday morning - exciting!!

H

Hi H,
Dang. We were hoping it would make it to La Rague tonight, so we could do the Great Unload* tomorrow. That's not gonna happen you think?

I guess JTB will just stay in Francais till Monday? I'm staying here till monday anyway becuase Match is being lifted out Monday morning for antifoul etc, so I'll prob witness the shenanigans

Nice and sunny here in SofF. Hurry on down!

*of forumites' boxes; JTB kindly let several of us put stuff in Vega for transport to SofF

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

We were hoping it would make it to La Rague tonight, so we could do the Great Unload* tomorrow. That's not gonna happen you think?

I guess JTB will just stay in Francais till Monday?


Hi JFM,

Dunno how to do the quote thingy! She's all tucked up for a couple of nights so Monday is the day. JTB is staying until at least Monday to be there for the arrival. Not sure yet when he will head home. You may see him before I get a chance to speak to him

H

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

Evening all

As H said, the boat is just a couple of hundred miles away now, and the transport company have been in touch to ask if we can arrange first lift Monday morning (French regs mean that the truck can't move after 1300 on Saturday, and not at all on Sunday). I've cancelled my Sunday night flight home so that I can be here for the arrival.

More on Monday!

Cheers
Jimmy

 

[Jonmendez]

Le Rague

Hope all goes to plan - always found the boys in La Rague to be excellent! Very exciting!!

 

[BartW]

we're desparately waiting for pictures of Vega in mediteranian water

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

we're desparately waiting for pictures of Vega in mediteranian water

Tee-hee, sorry for the delay Bart, yesterday was absolutely knackering, and I just got back to the UK this afternoon.

So, to bring the story up to date: Coast 2 Coast got as far as they could until the hgv deadline at 1pm on Saturday, which took them to Montelimar, just north of Orange. The boat stayed there until 1am on Monday, and then they went straight to La Rague, where they arrived just before 5am.

Swmbo whizzed down on the last flight on Sunday evening, and we stayed on AK's lovely Sq 58 in Antibes for the night. Unfortunately, thanks to a severe bout of chronological incompetence on my part we managed to miss the train to Mandelieu on Monday morning, so we ended up getting the train to Cannes, and then cabbing it along to the port. Where Vega was waiting for us:

Port de la Rague is very scenic. Here's a wider view (you can see Vega right in the middle of the pic, still on the trailer):

Fairline Southampton had advised that we leave a coating of wax on the boat for the trucking down, and this turned out to be a great idea - a quick polish of the hull, and the road dirt just came off with the wax.

Anyway, despite us turning up a whole two days early, the ladies in the office at Arie de Boom were really very helpful, and after an hour or two, the launch got underway:

And finally, splashdown:

We just had one more job to do at La Rague before we could let Martin and Dave from Coast 2 Coast get on their way: recognising that not every day in the med will be boatable, I decided to take a scooter down with the boat - and Arie de Boom used their proper mans forklift truck to pluck it off the trailer:

One final point about Arie de Boom - I had no idea what the cost of this launch was going to be, but based on what I am used to paying at Brighton, I suppose my 'really?' threshold was set at about £500. So it was a very pleasant surprise to be charged just €150 plus vat for the launch, plus another €50 for the scooter.

Some other forumites with boats in Antibes had asked if they could ship some stuff down on Vega, so as soon as the scooter was unloaded, we jumped in the boat and headed off round to Port Vauban. After about 10 mins or so, the bilge alarm started to go off. Uh-oh. Quick look in the engine room revealed ... absolutely nothing wrong, no water, no bilge pump running. Down into the saloon ... and same thing. But the alarm kept on going (and very blimmin annoying it was too). Occasionally it would stop, particularly when the attitude of the boat altered, but in the main it was on, all the way to PV. Couldn't work it out at all - but the boat wasn't sinking, the engines were ok, and we had bigger fish to fry: our first attempt at med berthing.

Coincidentally, jfm's 23m berth on Mole Sud was vacant, because Match was away for maintenance. So it seemed entirely sensible to me to park Vega there, in the hope that the port would assume that the owner had taken the big boat out, and just left the tender behind . Ha! As if. We don't have any pics of Vega in jfm's berth, but 'pork sausage' and 'blackwall tunnel' kinda sum it up.

Once we'd got the boat approximately in the berth, it was time to figure out the very very annoying (have I made it clear that it was VERY annoying?) bilge alarm problem. I started playing with the breaker panel to try and work out wtf was going on, and eventually it seems that the bilge pump alarm is also triggered by the cockpit fridge door being opened, perhaps only when the fridge is (a) powered, but (b) not at temperature (ie has just been powered up after being off for a while). Does this sound right? I've never come across this before with the boat. Anyway - I think the cockpit fridge door wasn't quite shut, and that's what might have been causing the problem. (If anyone knows any more about how Fairline do this, I'm all ears...)

Next job was to get the goalpost back on to the radar arch. Here you go, dear reader: a caption competition :

So the story is nearly complete... I've left the boat in PV for this week, and I'm currently back in the UK for a couple of days for a bit of work that wouldn't wait. I'm heading back down on Thursday afternoon, and on Friday Vega should move properly to her new home at La Rague.

Cheers
Jimmy

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Fantastic, jimmy! Now the fun begins

 

[rbcoomer]

What a fantastic thread it's been too. I hope you enjoy the change and everything works as planned - will look forward to posts during the season (and lots of pics ). Will also be interesting to see how the costs & boating days stack up against old Blighty...

Bon Voyage!