Matelot is ours and boy have we moved on …. Caption Competition!!!

Sorry but part of this blog is a bit late as was written a week ago and then we got kind of busy so did not get down here to the internet cafe to download it.

We bought the boat for a good enough price that we can undertake a partial refit.

We are busy each day with numerous jobs on the boat and Richard has done a sterling job on cutting and polishing the topsides - notice him hard at work in the photo below and the difference in colour from right to left. Fenders which were dark grey have come up snowy white and ropes which were green are changing colour with a bit of a scrub. Hatches which we thought we would have to replace have come right with some tlc and screw tightening. All the gear on the boat is the very best and just needs a clean up. I am going home now to clean the oven. We had our first meal on board last night. At this stage I only have one gas burner working and have sent away to France for some new parts for the stove. But.... It is so cool to be home again!!

The rudder is out on the ground waiting for new bearings, the old prop and shaft are gone and we are waiting for a new one, the new sails are ordered and being cut as we speak. When we climb the ladder to go home we have to leap frog over the steering quadrant which is all opened up being serviced. We hope to have the engineers back on the boat on Wed this week to finish the job once the parts have arrived.

We hope to be back in the water in a couple of weeks.



Please post a caption for this photo of Capn Buck!

Richard has taken over the camera and is taking wonderful photographs, so this blog is going to be dedicated to the photographs he has taken of this picturesque small town with its charming people and the contrasts and surprises we see around every corner.

Highlights

• Capn Buck in disarray – caption please!
• The Jazz
• We have liftout!
(Bullet point)Notice the difference from left to right! Looking Good!
(Bullet point)Storm clouds over Izola
(Bullet point)View from our boat at night




(Some days ago….when we were in no mans land re the boat) …We are reflecting today on whether we have felt homesick yet. The answer is yes and no. It is strange being in this lovely place without being able to share it with our family and extended family and friends. Yes we have felt nostalgic – like when we stopped to listen to the live brass band on the way home through the marina a couple of nights ago and sat with locals and tourists to watch. We love the children here with their families and we know we have that family both here and on the other side of the world and we think of you all. Family to us is both relations and friends. We do miss the efficient internet connection we had in NZ. We spend our lives copying documents on to memory sticks and taking them to the internet café – then getting there and not being able to find them where we are quite sure we saved them!

2 July – very memorable…

Two nights later and today we agreed the terms for Anna Carolina, soon to be “SY Matelot”! We go out to celebrate and catch a live jazz concert in a small Piazza one block back from the harbour.

There is a grand piano (Rennarto Chicco from Slovenia) and a saxophone (Robert Bonisolo from Canada). The music fills every space and bounces off the walls of the ancient buildings all around us to finally drift off down the narrow winding streets which tunnel their way into the old town.

The saxophone takes over with its free spirited dance of joy. The piano provides the structure and balance for it then suddenly goes off into a random ecstatic world of its own while the sax takes a rest. Suddenly the sax comes in again with a staccato contemporary tune which has us all spellbound, then joins with the piano for the crescendo and finale. We sit entranced and we are a part of the scene of children, dogs and applauding people young and old sitting, standing, spilling out of the nearby bar with glasses of wine in their hands. The indigo sky fades to black and eventually we leave and make our way home back along the harbour front and through the boat yard. We pass a small stadium where people are playing handball next to another open area where there is a live band playing and people dancing. We see a massive vat the size of a small boat filled with hot oil and something is being cooked there, but we don’t stop to find out what. Smells like fish. Next week we will be sitting up here on the hard stand in our home up a ladder – how quickly things are going to move on.

We will be quiet for a while now!! We will be working on Matelot!!

Jean Louis Dominic Pierre Bouchon
True to the breed that bore him,
Answered the call
That held in thrall
His father's heart before him.
Jean Louis Dominic sailed away,
Further than love could find him,
Yet in the night,
He heard a light
And gentle voice behind him say:

'Matelot, Matelot,
Where you go, my heart goes with you.
Matelot, Matelot,
When you go down to the sea.
For a year and a day
You may sail away,
And have no thought of me,
Yet through the wind and the spray
You will hear me say,
"No love was ever free."
You will sigh when horizons appear,
"Something that is dear
To me
Cannot let me be."
Matelot, Matelot,
Where you go, my heart goes with you.
Matelot, Matelot,
When you go down to the sea.

Jean Louis Dominic Pierre Bouchon,
Traveled the wide world over.
Lips that he kissed
Could not resist
This loving, roving rover.
Jean Louis Dominic, right or wrong,
Ever pursued a new love,
'Til in his brain
He heard a strain
He knew to be his true love
Song:

'Matelot, Matelot,
Where you go, my heart will follow.
Matelot, Matelot,
When you go down to the sea.
When there's grief in the sky
And the waves fly by,
My heart to yours will say,
"You can be sure that I'm true
To my love for you,
Though half a world away."
Never mind
If you find
Other charms.
Here within my arms,
You'll sleep,
Sailor from the deep.
Matelot, Matelot,
Where you go, my heart will follow.
Matelot, Matelot,
When you go down to the sea.