Final hop on PolePole, the end of the blog for 2021!

After a very good night’s sleep we made the final 20 minute hop across to Le Marin Marina where we met the brokers. They are the same crowd who did all the warranty repairs last time we came to Le Marin, so it was familiar faces and territory. The same tight squeeze to get between two boats to our berth, masterfully negotiated by Rowan, so much easier now we have so much more experience. What an end of a 12 month journey on PolePole, we will miss her, we had got so comfortable on her and knew all her quirks by the end. She has done us very well, with our steep learning curve, we have both gained so much confidence. It was quite a challenging sail getting here, but it went like clockwork. Having said all that, Rowan and I are definitely ready for some time on land.

Guillaume, the broker was incredibly helpful, he got us 20 enormous packing boxes, as the removal guys cant do anything this week. We packed all our goodies into the boxes, grateful that our plastic containers just slotted right in. We had a production line going, with the help of a young intern from the brokers who had to cart the boxes to be stored up some narrow stairs in the warehouse. Poor chap, I’m sure that is not what he had expected to do on his internship.

We finally finished by 5pm, we had to have the boat cleared as the cleaner was coming in at 8am to do the mega clean inside. Guillaume drove us to our apartment which is not far but up a little hill which would have been too much with our 4 suitcases. All very satisfactory, great view looking across the marina, just a bit baking in the afternoon sun and teeming with mosquitoes.

After a much needed shower we walked back into the shopping area and found a little arcade of tiny restaurants, much nicer than the touristy marina front restaurants. We landed up having the most delicious meal and really enjoyed the locally brewed beer.

Thursday we cleaned from 8am to 6pm, non stop. Getting rid of all the salt from the trip, sadly no rain to do the clean for us! We scrubbed the exterior while the cleaner did an incredible job inside and all the windows. The poor old intern was sent down into the engine compartment to clean them out, what a job in this boiling heat, he really is earning his keep!

Friday morning we met the buyer Marc, at the boat at 8am. He is a French scientist who has obviously been successful in IT, working in silicon valley for 10 years and retired at 51. He is a serious sailor of monohulls and knows the Caribbean well. He has built a house on Bequia, which turns out to be next door to the couple Mikey and Nicola who we met sailing in Mayreau. He has obviously done a lot of research and has scrutinised every photo and video Rowan has sent, he is a details person. Married to his second wife an American, he is very excited to own his first Catamaran and they plan to circumnavigate the world in 6 month slots.

I decided it was best if I kept out the way, in case I opened my big mouth and left them all to it. A surveyor came and inspected the boat, then PolePole was taken out the water for a further inspection, where he tapped the entire hull, looking for issues. It all passed like a dream except for the one rudder we damaged on a coral head in the Turks and Caicos. They had repaired it in Grenada when she was in storage, but the whole thing had cracked again and was full of water. We have to buy a new one, which in the scheme of things is no big deal. Then they did a sailing trial and that went very well with PolePole doing some good speeds in light wind, now she has so little cargo, fuel and water tanks almost empty helped too!

Marc the new owner.

PolePole having her bottom inspected!

I got all the laundry done, all the fitted bedding had to be washed and returned to PolePole and a last box filled to be shipped to France to the new boat.

A quick shower and back to PolePole, where we met Marc and took him out for supper . We had a delicious set menu at the Zanzibar restaurant which we had eaten at last time we were here. In fact we ate there the first day it opened after lockdown. The place was fully booked and had a very good vibe. It was very interesting getting to know Marc who seems to be very nice. We are happy that PolePole is going to a good home. Poor Rowan had a few tears in his eyes, she has been his baby for the last two years!

Today Rowan finally got around to checking us in with customs, which as he predicted was totally relaxed about our 7 day quarantining at sea (in truth 4 days!). Rowan spent the morning showing Marc how everything operates, and at lunch time handed over the keys. I took advantage of the good wifi to catch up on the blog. Rather satisfyingly Marc is renaming PolePole, Quantum, to do with his science background and the plan to do a full circumnavigation. This means we have the option to call the new boat PolePole.

Tomorrow is a day off! We plan to do a hike in the morning and then head to a beach for a long lazy lunch, where we hope to get signal so we can speak to loads of family. Monday evening we fly Air Caribe to Paris, and for once we don’t need a PCR test which seems daft as France is banning everyone from the UK on Monday because of the Indian variant. We are crossing fingers that the airline lets us board because we have been here for 6 month, we have already been through French immigration arriving here.

From Paris we are driving down to Perpignan to see the new boat, actually one like her, as we have only ever seen photos of the boat. Our boat is hull number 11 and we will be looking around number10!

We have a flight from there to Stansted in the UK on Saturday. We are now itching to get home, cant wait to be back and see everyone. What an adventure we have been on and hope the next week all goes to plan.

You can all breathe a sigh of relief that you now have a well deserved break from the blog….. until I restart in January, jumping straight in with our plans to cross the Atlantic!