THOSE OF US WITH BOATS IN THE MED

[KINGFISHER 8]

Our marina, Port St.Cyprien, has just e-mailed to say that to help the local boat businesses we can now get work done. Boats will be collected by marina guys and the lifts will be working. Handy if you know what needs doing - personally I like to be there when she's being lifted and see the state of the underside before the yard guys start work. I suppose a clean and 2 coats of a/f would always be handy as she's not been out since last June. I'd still like to be around though.

 

[thejonesey]

Didn’t you insist on a ‘in the event of a disease.....’ clause in your contract ? Don’t worry, I’m sure the person you sell to will want one??‍
I’m only joking ????‍ I’m in the same situation, all I have left i

Oi, I saw that!

Hang on.. I have yet to use it and you are talking about selling!! ???
Pete did offer me disease insurance (he’s a generous guy) but I turned him down... after all what is the chance of a global pandemic where half the planet are on lockdown as a consequence of someone eating a bat burger in China? ??

 

[longjohnsilver]

Bought into PeteM’s boatshare at Christmas and have yet to even see her! We were booked to go next week but it will have to wait. A bit disappointing but in the scheme of things, a first world problem. We will get down and when we do I know it will be brilliant! Just have to spend twice as long on board next year.?? Thanks to the lockdown I have also perfected working from home/the boat!

My contacts in Altea tell me that all boats in the marinas, including Campomanes, have been requisitioned to provide shelter for homeless goats..........They have all been moved to remote mountain locations.

 

[colhel]

Bought into PeteM’s boatshare at Christmas and have yet to even see her! We were booked to go next week but it will have to wait. A bit disappointing but in the scheme of things, a first world problem. We will get down and when we do I know it will be brilliant! Just have to spend twice as long on board next year.?? Thanks to the lockdown I have also perfected working from home/the boat!

That's odd, he sold it to me as well ?

 

[petem]

That's odd, he sold it to me as well ?

I'll send you the invoice for your share of the maintenance costs this afternoon!

 

[Hurricane]

We made a dash for it on Wednesday.
Pre-booked a Eurotunnel crossing and set off at 02:00 in the morning.
We only had one small problem - getting out of SC.
The Spanish are taking their lock down VERY seriously - a lot more so than the UK.
Sant Carles was completely road blocked.
I was planning on sneaking out down the delta road but that was blocked so we had to route through the town square and take the main road out.
The local police stopped us at a road block on the main roundabout into town.
We handed them a polite letter that we had downloaded from the UK FCO (written by the UK's Spanish Ambassador) which politely asked "To Whom it May Concern" to let us pass to repatriate ourselves - in 3 languages (French Spanish and English). After calling their boss, they let us pass.

We were just waved through the Spanish/French border - could be due to out UK car reg number plate.
And from then on it was empty roads all the way to Calais.
All the fuel and wee stops were also empty but there was no problem getting fuel.
The Channel Tunnel was also empty - UK Boarder control had lots of questions for us and wanted to look inside the Donkey Box (trailer) but that has always been the case when we return with the trailer.
We arrived at the train and were loaded immediately without stopping.
Then, two minutes later the train left - only 4 cars on it.
It seems that they are just moving anything that they can as soon as they can.
4 hours later we were in Devon.

So, 1200 miles in 20 hours
We did very little yesterday - just unloaded the trailer and went to sleep in the Devon sun.

Here are some pics:-




Empty roads most of the way



Likewise the places to stop were empty so we just had our pre-made sandwiches and left.



Ever seen Eurotummel like this?



And inside the train, there were just 4 cars!!

 

[MapisM]

Well done, M.
It actually sounds like a perfect road trip, also because your pre-made sandwiches were probably better than anything you would have normally found along the motorway...
Did you manage to complete all you wanted to do onboard JW, before leaving?
Looking fwd to your full report about that!

 

[Hurricane]

Well done, M.
It actually sounds like a perfect road trip, also because your pre-made sandwiches were probably better than anything you would have normally found along the motorway...
Did you manage to complete all you wanted to do onboard JW, before leaving?
Looking fwd to your full report about that!

Yep got most of the stuff I wanted done.
Very pleased with the teak deck but it took longer than I expected.
Mainly because the weather was so bad but we did have a few days of really nice weather.
I also managed to update the steering system that failed at the end of last year - replaced the faulty pressure switch and updated the steering pump with a newer (quieter) one.
Then re-bleed the whole system - and as a bonus, I didn't get any leaks!!! - so success.
There were also lots of smaller things to do - one of my inverters blew this trip so I needed the dimensions for a new one next time.
But taking the Coronavirus aside, it was a successful trip.
We were planning on going back in three weeks to lift the boat ready for the season so thats off now and, like the rest on here, I don't know when we will go out next.

 

[John100156]

Well done Mike - glad you arrived home safely.

Do take care.

 

[mcanderson]

Lockdown extended until 11 May in France and no restaurants until mid-July.

Bugger!

 

[Portofino]

Lockdown extended until 11 May in France and no restaurants until mid-July.

Bugger!

Macrons advisers are suggesting a Fr border lock to incomers until October. He’s considering it .
The 11 May thingy is for Fr on Fr only release initiation , that’s my understanding.

Rifts in the EU or agreements ? .....wait n see !

As far a Italy is concerned they are a few weeks ahead with the C19 thing and Conte,s release version could hopefully be more favourable to “ incomers ” he has not mentioned anything on the border issue either way yet in his plans .
Thats not to say he won’t continue lock his borders over the forthcoming season ?

Interesting to see / test EU unity on the border lock .
Or with disunity who arrives legally first @ there boat in the Med .

 

[mcanderson]

The Italians are now approaching the release of the lockdown region by region with Liguria wanting to treat Beach Club set up as essential.

Our place in France is listed as our primary residence so I could try that, but for now we wait and see.

 

[Hooligan]

I am told that in Italy they are starting up some businesses including some of the engineering etc where I'm having some work done on my heat exchangers. I have been getting full updates on my boat as the guy who looks after it has been able to get out and keep an eye on it. the two big issues I see are when flights will resume and whether we in the UK will be let into italy. Finally the queue to actually get the boats lifted when that opens up - I am told any day now - will be massive so that will be a challenge. Overall I am slightly more optimistic than some on being able to get out there this summer. If they lock Europe down until after the summer then I suspect that there wont be much left of European economies so I suspect that politicians will start to change when people start to fear the aftermath more than the virus and it starts showing in the polls. This is happening now in Germany for example and hence the proposed easing there. While I have never been a great fan of Boris he is fundamentally a civil libertarian by belief and I cannot see us being in lock down here beyond the next three weeks. Matt Hancock would probably keep us locked down for a year but I doubt Boris will. I guess we will find out soon!!

 

[Bouba]

The problem is that even when they lift all restrictions across Europe, they may still keep old (and vulnerable) people under lockdown permanently. What might constitute old is anyone’s guess but wherever the cutoff is it will affect an awful lot of our forum

 

[MapisM]

Finally the queue to actually get the boats lifted when that opens up - I am told any day now - will be massive so that will be a challenge.

At the moment, in Italy pleasure boats are not allowed to move, and there's no allowed exception I'm aware of.
I also think that this is very unlikely to change before May 4th.
Otoh, it's true that boatyards are allowed to work for repairs etc., mostly for supporting commercial vessels.
Which in turn means that they can work also on pleasure boats that are already at the yard, as long as they are not moving around.

 

[MapisM]

Liguria wanting to treat Beach Club set up as essential.

As I understand, that's strictly limited to workers accessing beach structures for maintenance.

 

[MedDreamer]

At the moment, in Italy pleasure boats are not allowed to move, and there's no allowed exception I'm aware of.
I also think that this is very unlikely to change before May 4th.
Otoh, it's true that boatyards are allowed to work for repairs etc., mostly for supporting commercial vessels.
Which in turn means that they can work also on pleasure boats that are already at the yard, as long as they are not moving around.

The Cala D’Or Marina webcam show more cars parked this morning than there has been for a while as the lockdown for workers has begun to ease today. Long traffic jams into Palma this morning too apparently

 

[mcanderson]

I just like the idea and hope that people can get their businesses back up and running. The damage of missing the summer season will be grave and the economic costs should be part of the argument.

 

[colhel]

I watched the Downing Street press briefing last night and thought the chap (the one that isn't Chris Witty) had some concerns about how other countries are going to release their stricter than UK lockdown. Of course I could have just picked up the wrong end of the stick

 

[Portofino]

It’s the cross border movement, thats the key as I said in post #311 .For us Med boaters .

Guess Brexit helps in the sense it’s not a good time for the major players to be openly squabbling with each other re border movement s it flys in the face of there 27 “ all speak together “ unit negotiators pillar , they hold so dear .

Even if the experts suggest various lockdown regimes applicable to each country ?
After all what ever happened to the major plank of freedom of movement......? If this happens, each making up his / her own border controls ?

It will weaken the other side so much if we the Brits can work up and amplify differences .....because once they fall out ( does not matter what ) we can push harder to divide them up with individual trade agreements.
Dutch with fresh produce
Germans with cars
French with food and loosing fishing rights
Italy with Prosecco + more ?
etc etc .

They are squabbling over the ECB rescue plan .....the PIGS group have been given loans by the money engines D + F r et al .
So it’s not really help if Italy + Spain end up more indebted to Germany + France , so much for a slush fund to spread out and help the weakest . Germans don,t give hand outs nor the French .

Plenty to fall out over and I suspect more to come .
If Brussels beats up a PIGS too hard they risk one or some holding a referendum.

Excess pressure of external immigration from Greece’s allowing them through is another flash point = rise of far right = referendum.

This C19 fiscal pressure is on top of the fact Britain’s serving it notice and will soon stop funding Brussels + any economic downturn likely if we go WTO in January.

C19 fallout in the EU will drop into Brexit islands lap rather nicely.

As far as FO M has planned out countries are moaning about ( legitimate) immigration causing less opportunities for there own kids .......so secretly on the back of C19 s will want to stoke up re gaining border controls and restrictions on FoM .