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It wasn’t much of a cruising season
this year. We picked Evanna up from the boatyard in
Novigrad, north Croatia, where we’d left her after
that glorious week in Venice last year. We had
planned to have her sandblasted in the Novigrad
boatyard, but due to changed regulations sandblasting
was no longer allowed, so we set off to find another
boatyard. Fred and Cheryl were aboard, and we did
have a pleasant cruise south through the Croation
islands, and then the Greek islands of Corfu and
Cephalonia. And that was the end of this summer’s
cruise |
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It is a necessity with steel vessels
that they are sandblasted every 6 to 8 years to remove
the old paint to expose, and examine, the bare metal.
New coats of paint can then be applied. We found a
shipyard on the west coast of Greece that had the
facilities, and we decided to make use of the warm
summer weather, which was ideal for blasting and
painting. Called Cleopatra Marina, the boatyard was
at Aktio, on the very bay where Cleopatra and Mark
Anthony fought their disastrous sea battle against
Octavius. It was an enormous job of work as we had
not only the underwater hull blasted, but quite a few
areas on the deck as well. The actual sandblasting
took very little time; it was cleaning the sand out of
the boat and coating the bare metal with 5 coats of
primer that kept us busy for a couple of months. It
was with some relief that we left Evanna sitting in
dry dock for the winter and headed back to our
apartment in Paris at the end of September
What a joy Paris is in the autumn. Most of the
tourists have left, and the Parisians are back from
their summer vacations. The exhibitions and concerts
begin in earnest, and the restaurants re-open after
the summer break. Autumn is also the beginning of the
seafood season and oyster bars can be seen outside
many of the cafes. Some years ago, it used to be the
tradition to ask for a dozen oysters, which would be
opened and served in the café with a bottle of Chablis
Grand Cru. Sadly for the Parisians, New York suddenly
discovered French Chablis, shipped it over by the
tanker load, and sent the price of Chablis through the
roof. Fortunately, the price of oysters has remained
relatively stable, and there is never a shortage of
other white wines in France. The apartment is
available for rental to friends, and we charge around
half the going rate.
Where are we headed next year on the Evanna? We’ll
need to spend the month of May in the shipyard to
finish the maintenance work before we slip her back in
the water. We’ll start cruising in June, and have
planned a route that will take us to some interesting
places. See the following itinerary. Sadly, we now
feel the time has come to finish with the sea and sell
the lovely Evanna, so 2010 could be our last year of
cruising,
We send our very best wishes for the coming festive
season, and for 2010.
Peter and Carol Evans
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