BLUEMOMENT

cThe ressesion

The price of secondhand boats are falling.For anyone with cash its a good time to look around.I went “window shopping” looking at boats on brokers books & private ads on “para vendu” i found a classic motorboat for 11000€ in “good order” i dreamed of owning her the golden varnish in the comfortable saloon,the larger “windows” to look out accros calm bays at anchore.The huge “cockpit”Then i thought of the mooring charges the lack of bearths in general the maintainence costs & parts for her ageing pair of 120hp fords

Stella is away working in the other yard owned by the same family where they have the rental canal boats.I thought of the two boats one American the other Dutch that didnt pay me for their antifouling,the yard souldnt have put them in, 5 boats is almost 800€ less the 2 gone i have just under 500€.I thought of the yard in Bellem Portugal where a 8m boat cost 640€ total thats by their calculation 400€ labour for one small boat;

I ordered a bottle of DAO a Portugesse wine,as i waited i looked out accross the harbour wondering how many boats will go out this year how many will be put up for sale? Hear the average boat is 10m or less perhaps i though they wont be effected by the coming troubles agrevated by that Scotish fool “Brown “(CEO of Labor plc who are mismanageing the police state they created) who is doing his best to bankrupt the UK & cause inflation & devaluation he would like to see in the EU

My bottle of red arrived in the form of a pot of coffee,woman are very much in control & no matter where i go im not served anything stronger untill lunch time when the ordered liter or bottel becomes a half bottle.Thats somthing at least.I could go Toulon but thats quite a treck

The warm sun made life better,i picked up the herald tribune as the internet has gone,i looked at the reduced “newes” & put it down.

Doing the boats for what i was getting dosnt make sence.I decided to just do the charter boats which ive been offered 280€ a boat including materials its still up for “tender” but thays my lowest price ill get the AF from Italy i was & am sure ill get the job in total i get 12 sail boats if i spray that would save paint,and i will have about 2500€ for the season,i looked out at the boats again with that i still couldnt aford to change mine.I drank the coffee to which id added a drop of my “brandy”the day indeed seemed well

I paid & walked along the key i owe the bank 200€(plus their interest at about 12%)on my debt visa.In my pocket i had 72€ & perhaps another 10 days before i could start my work i went aboard cast the lines off and drifted out the Evenrude 6hp burberling away the wind NE i set sail for Port Cross as the sun set the islands bathed in red & gold in a white blue azzure sea looked wonderful that night i tied up on the island

The next few days i spent snorkeling or walking accross the island as always its very quite now that will change soon april is not far away the month the prices go forward!I thought it might be good to sail in Turkey? But to get accros that dreadful Greek sea is really bad & can be very dangerouse,i wish the corinth canal went all the way to Turkey.

With the ressesion i decided there wont be much point in staying around Toulon i decided to leave for Corsica/Sardinian to spend this summer exploring the thousands of bays anchorages there are there,& looking into the small fishing villages.100€ a month is more than enough which i calculated would leave me with 2000€ to my amazment i couldnt think of anything to spend it on!!!

I have a panasonic LX2 which for me is better than the replacement non 16:9 600€ LX3, my brompton (now di-blasi) boats bike is great to get about my tender rows well the Evinrude 6 has been serviced and excellent condition the sails quite new my AF done a second fridge found at a flee mkt for 4€ & working perfectly with the 85w panel

The only thing that might be useful is to change my Raymarine VHF for an Icom m 411 cost 200€ im told these digi VHFs have a much better range??? Is that true??I

I had wanted a clipper depth which id been told i could use with my Garmin 72 to show depth speed & possition for just 100€ When i went to the shop this weekend i was told only the clipper speed dose that and the depth cost without a nema interface which dosnt exist for it 199€ so i decided to go on with my 80€ Eagle

Ami ressesion proof?? I cant be money wise worse off??I thought?? The prospect of driffting about Sardinia for 5 months discovering the local wines & cheeses anchoages & fishing ports sounds better than staying hear?

In the mean time i have to make my visits befor april finnish the list of “things to be done” for Stella i cant work out why i feel a fear of not doing what she has listed, varnishing a hall table painting her window frames changeing 2 taps oh well its best otherwise when she joins me shell never stop telling me how lazy i am or how much the plumber cost (if she finds one)she also promised me 500euros sojjkjjed”xae whats gone wrong now??? tIme to stop

Trouville, I normally really like your posts, at least the bits I can understand. This forum has, however, so far not been afflicted by much racist rubbish like

trouville wrote:that Scotish fool “Brown

which tends to be the forte of the more looney right wing nutters in TOP. It would be good to keep it that way.

But he has earmarked £100Billion for IT in to be spent over the next 4 years the labour party want total control i will post links as ive found them online

He has used 15% of your GDP in debts this year hes ordered the printing of money.He wants to close Luxembourg Jersey Gibralta Androa etc so no one can be out of his reach tax wise

Hes only doing it to be re elected next year

None of this directly affects me other than his content picking at Germany & France IF his ideas were taken on the value of the Euro would fall latere prices would increase and anyone with a fixed income would become even worse off than now

When people with fixed incomes loose spending power they strike get increased wages prices rise.

I have or had 500€ i keep in cash aboard in May 2007 i bought $200,300sfr & 150€ which is for emergency disaster. Its lost about 20% of its value today if there was worse inflation it could easily half

The first minister of the UK was born in Scotland as i said thats not racist it a fact.The vast majority of Scots are great people they once ran the Empire but this one cant run the UK small as its become today

Gordon Brown is a Scot. That, by itself, is a simple statement of fact. However, linking his nationality to an insult (fool) implies that his nationality is also to be deprecated, which is racist.

I'm not a supporter of his party and have never voted for it, but in his defence I have to say that he seems to have collected more than his fair share of detractors. I do not envy him his job. There is no shortage of criticism but, given the scale of the economic problems, remarkably few suggestions of better ideas.

Put like that it looks different;Racist??doubt it,i detest the use of raceisum used by many to push there ideas forward.

"Scottish fool Brown" is a bad error on my part & i see that i should not have put it that way.Certainly not on this forum,nor on any other.I see your point and i apologise.

The Scots have always had a better education system than the English, have made good use of their education far more so than many any others, Scots that ive met have always been great people

Im very sorry if i caused any offence it was certainly not intended nor ment please forgive my post which i would edit if i could.

The lounge!No thanks.Ill stay out.

I see what you mean.I should have thought a bit before saying what i did,yes times are not well.From my position not much can change providing i dont sink this boat,always a risk

I posted without giving thought to what might cause some to take offence hear.

Im thinking of posting about my voyage to Algeria, Spain was not nice, i got an email with a post from the other forum about Spain. That & sailing across the bay will be less contentious,(No one will read them!!!)

Trouville - now you've offended the English by saying the Scots are better educated. Not me of course and anyway I'm a mongrel

"Trouville - now you've offended the English"

Help!

My boats back in Toulon. i cant say i enjoyed my stay in Setè or other ports west of the Rhone.Its an amazing area but one that if you winter you have to winter with several other boats otherwise its too quite.The constant mistral/Tramontain & more rain than ive ever known in winters south of potters bar before didnt improve my stay!

At the moment im away hunting & gathering the means with which to help explore the Corsican/Sardinian coast this coming summer or buy another boat The French arnt reducing prices much but other are,there are some nice boats to be found helped by the huge price of a yearly moorings & waiting lists.

Living aboard is the best thing to do now its possible to live well for less than 50€ pm once the anti foulings done & all is ready for the season,im allowing 400€pm this season including air & dive boat costs

Ive scraped plans to buy a "new" ssb depth sounder or plotter (they cost more than ever) In one way the collapse of the economy came just in time,as prices of just about every thing were set to rise a lot. A D-Link wi-fi antenna costing 43€ a year ago is now priced at 99€(i bought one in Portugal for 24€!!!in February) many food & water items have doubled the liter/kilo price when producers have been bought by Nestle & other predators

Worse the Italian open air fruit & veg markets now only give you 1.2kgs not 2kgs when you buy 1kg of what ever,unheard of in years past!!Still good value though! Theres far less left over & more locals competing for it;

But still with good storage its possible to provision for very little.

In about another week i wont be able to offend anyone online as i will be back in a wi-fi desert using sms & perhaps twitter with its free sms mobile service as my only communication system

It looks as if i gone in a circle in 1989 there was only ship to shore which cost almost as much as 3G today i listed phone boxes near anchorages to keep in touch today i use a mobile phone on which i wont hear how bad the world is,we will spend summer cut off from the real world
What is the real world??In past years i never found many new rich very happy aboard their all new mega boats motor or sail,most preferred being tied to a key in port.

Im rambling im on land for about another week replacing taps,varnishing furniture & sorting out,that is, taking papers to the tax office to reduce swmbo(2)s taxes its amazing what life on land consist of.shopping looking for a parking place & sitting in traffic.

Now im going back to day dreaming, for two years since 1kw generators have been sold for around 60€/90€ ive thought of taking the dynamo off and fitting it to an engine drive to provide 230v when needed with the press of a switch to engage an electric clutch from an old peugeot fan of course i need a boat with an inboard first!!Now how much was that s&s alpa 9.50?? Any one lend me another 6000€????

"The other place treatment". Nothing like that intended at all so regrets if it came over like that.

spuddy wrote:"The other place treatment". Nothing like that intended at all so regrets if it came over like that.

as hardy would no doubt say - " don`t worry spuddy, you`ve done nothing wrong "
anyway hardy`s going to have to kiss the frog to make up shortly if he doesn`t lighten up a bit.