Wednesday morning we were due to meet Alan and Ed back on the boat but only Ed made the meeting. He had sent the updated list to all parties and was just stopping in on his way out-of-town to check that we were in agreement with his notes.
Todd and I were headed off to an outlet mall just over the Spanish border in a last-ditch effort to find affordable quality bedding, specifically the duvet covers. It was a fun drive and we passed over the Pyrenees mountains where there were scattered fortifications and castles visible. There were a few toll booths to be navigated but they didn’t give us any trouble (we paid cash but had heard that our credit cards would work), and it was nice to be in the air-conditioned car for the hour or so drive.
The first thing we noticed was that the prices were a whole lot cheaper on the Spanish side of the border. Liquor and meat was much more reasonably priced, you could even get a whole leg of cured pork for 15 EU (not the Iberico or heirloom brands mind you!). There was a great place to purchase bedding so we picked up the 2 large duvet’s we needed. Oh, and we could actually converse in Spanish which made everything so much easier and was a huge relief!
Todd had noted the brand of cigarettes that Alan smoked and we picked up a gift carton for him while there were savings to be had. (Alan didn’t drink so we couldn’t gift him wine, and we thought the nicotine might help keep our project moving!). Todd found a kitchen store and picked up a few bowls and glasses, while I was off scouring a sales rack for light weight T-shirts. He didn’t find the white dinner set that he was after though.
The mall was similar to those in North America except for a food court. Rather, people went to the large sit-down restaurant or the smorgersbord/cafeteria style place at one end of the mall, and they were both doing a brisk trade. We stopped in and enjoyed a pizza and a pasta dish which was not a bargain but still pretty tasty, and we were thus revived for the return trip. Initially when we set out we fancied we would return by the coastal route, but changed our minds and headed back to unload our loot on the boat. When we arrived we were happy to see the fridge and freezer were installed, and were humming away. It was knocking off time so we tracked down Alan and gave him his cigarettes. It turned out it had been a crazy day at the yard with a couple of incidents where new boats were damaged when moving out of the factory. Apparently it was just fiberglass which could be repaired and repainted, although we felt bad for the owners.
Back at the apartment we had cold showers to cool off, and then put together a cold dinner of salad, some cured meats, stinky cheese, baguette, and a carafe of Rose.
The following day we decided we would venture into Perpignan again and try to find the dinner set Todd was after. We would also check another Home depot-type store called the Leroy Merlin for a hand drill that had been eluding us. We did our morning boat check, (nobody was around), plugged in the address for the Leroy Merlin, and hit the road.
For a while the directions worked great, then with one left hand turn we left civilization and found ourselves on a gravel road cruising through farmland. It was pretty surreal as we had just been on a bustling main thoroughfare with industrial buildings lining the road, then poof, grass and tree’s. It took a bit to get back on track but we finally came through a back entrance to the strip mall where the store was. When we looked at the prices we realized how fortunate we are in America where quality tools are available at almost 50 % of the cost here.
Our second stop at a home store called “Fly” was very successful and we finally found a funky white dinner set, plus some place mats. Our lofty plans of high style had slowly dissolved in the face of high prices and variable quality, but we were happy enough with our choices and time was running out. On our way home we took a detour to the marina district in St Cyprien to check out a ships chandler. It was well stocked but overpriced, even when compared to the chandlery next door to the boat factory, so we didn’t make any purchases.
As usual, we stopped at the boat to unload and check progress..nothing done that we could see, and no Alan to check in with. It was June 30th and we had been in France 2 weeks.
Friday July first found us extending the rental car for another week and a half, and extending the AirBnB through July 7th when they had other guests arriving. We were pretty pissed off now as we were spending our boat outfitting money on car rentals and accommodation. The factory never told us that the boat wasn’t ready before we arrived, and we didn’t get the choice of changing our tickets and make other plans accordingly. When we tracked Alan down that morning, we had a “come to Jesus” talk and asked how he would feel if he was in our shoes, “yes, I’d be pissed off!” he said. (Right, so get the bloody boat finished already!) Alan said he would meet us on the boat the next day, and he would have time to discuss a finishing schedule. We returned to Carrafour for the big shop of galley items, pillows, towels and some groceries. When we unloaded at the boat we saw that they had cleaned the inside, as much as they could around the unfinished projects like the chart table and the oven hook up. They had thoughtfully washed the cabin top wrap around windows and the black trim paint had been repainted.
The contract stated that all the windows would be replaced, but the 2 large teardrop side windows were still the originals and had scratches and light crazing. These were supposed to be polished but this didn’t happen before they painted the trim. They also took the time to reinstall the two old hatches in the forward facing windows although these windows were new, and the hatches would no longer hold in an open position. (I drove Alan nuts by using 2 wooden spoons to prop them open the whole time we were there, an effective but decidedly uncouth practice apparently). We found ourselves looking around at the small things that hadn’t been finished in the interior, and because we were annoyed, stuck orange tape everywhere we could see even a small defect. Most of these things were irrelevant in the face of the big systems that needed work, but we were feeling pretty powerless and the orange tape provided some limited satisfaction.
Saturday July 2nd arrived and we were not able to move aboard the boat. The oven wasn’t working, the port head wasn’t plumbed, the engine shifter had still not been corrected, there weren’t any mattresses in the master berth, and there was some trouble with the air conditioning. Oh, and no lock on the sliding door.
Alan arrived at 5pm and we asked him to go over the “to be finished list” and write down completion dates and the worker responsible for each item. Todd offered to manage the remaining projects with the workers and Alan actually agreed to this saying Todd could start on Monday…(I never believed that he would give up control of the project to Todd as that would make him lose face with the workers and his boss, but it was an exciting prospect at the time). The crazy thing was that Todd could have completed all the work himself if he’d had his tools. He had worked on boats for years including commissioning new boats, and had done all the electronics, rigging, oven and port replacement, fiberglass repair, teak deck renewal, and engine replacement on our old boat. But this boat wasn’t ours officially until we passed survey and got the papers, so everything needed to be done by the factory or Volvo, for warranty reasons…and because we had paid for it!
Sunday was the birthday party for Leanna and it was the only day we didn’t go to the boat. We did contact Ed who sent off a flurry of emails to Alan and the owner of the company Olivier, expressing displeasure with another missed deadline and poor program management.
I dropped Todd at the boat Monday morning, and he was all keen to get stuck into the projects. They had moved the boat over to the first mooring on the dock inside the locking gate, before we arrived at 8 am. I took the car and headed to a laundromat which was set up in a shipping container next to the Intermarche supermarket. There was one jumbo washer, one large washer, and 1 jumbo dryer. It was around 8 EU each for the jumbo wash which included detergent, and for the dryer cycle. The dryer was hopeless, and after 2 cycles I ended up dragging the very damp clothing back to the apartment and spreading it around the rooms to dry like a chinese laundry. Due to the heat it dried much faster there than in the dryer. I went back to grab Todd for lunch at the usual lunch time, and found out that Alan did not allow him to run the project at all and pretty much brushed him off. There were a bunch of workers aboard though, working in the engine room and on the air conditioning problem. At the end of the day we were assured that they had made some progress.