Goodbye Heron

In the last week of October we docked at Port Garavan in Menton. This was where Heron would spend the winter. it had been difficult to find a winter berth. So difficult that Albert from the Romanian booking agency thought he had found the last free berth on the whole of the Cote d'Azur, if not all over the French Mediterranean coast.

There were several empty spaces in Port Garavan. And wasn't there also in Cannes? (We never got the rejection of our application the younger woman in the port office had put us in view).

Later we found out that the leases in municipal owned ports typically expire 31. December. This means that in the autumn there is no overview of the load in winter months. The result is a number of free and unused berths.

There are two schools for winter storage of boats. One says that a boat should be taken on land during the winter. The other that it should stay in the water.

We sympathise with both schools. Our earlier boats spent the winter on the hard. Heron, on the other hand, has spent all her winters in the water. Also the winters where there was ice on the water. In the Mediterranean we could rule out ice problems. None of the other boats were pulled on land. So why not just do the same. Maybe we could go out and sail when we came back for Christmas holidays?

We started preparing for the winter.

We spoke to the harbour master. He promised to keep an eye on Heron while we were gone.

"The harbor is well protected," he said, continuing. " We are well protected by the 3 meter high concrete wall, but if there is a storm from the southwest, the waves may get so big that they cross it."

"Every 10. year ", he answered our question of how often such a storm came. "But there was one last year," he added calmingly.

We went into the marine store and bought extra mooringlines and two powerful springs.

"A 10 year's storm may well come this year, even though it was one last year," smiled the owner, while he clicked a rather large number into the payment terminal.

We laid out the new mooring lines. Now there were double moorings both front and rear. We put the powerful springs in one set. It ensured the elasticity of the strong outward pull. The second we put in a cross. It secured against the less powerful pull to the side. As an added safety measure, we also put mooring lines off shore in the midship cleats.

We pulled Heron further out into the basin, hung a couple of big fenders on the transom and organized a line of exchange. Then it was easy to pull into the quay when we were to and from tables.

Heron was now safely moored, like the many other boats that were going to spend the winter here.

Menton is a nice city. It is well sheltered behind large mountains and advertises to have the warmest winter temperatures in France. So warm that Menton is the only place in France where lemons are grown all year long (Source: Tourist Office).

The city borders Italy. It is seen in the architecture of the old city. It looks Italian. It is also noticed by many of the inhabitants speaking both Italian and French.

We bathed from the beach next to the harbor, cycled around the area on our mini-bikes, explored the old town, drank coffee and had lemon cake on the seafront, took the bus to Monaco, visited the nice well-kept private gardens and visited Anders - one of Carl's former work colleagues who has lived and worked in Monaco for several years.

One day we rode to Italy. An effort that may sound a bit more impressive than it was. The border is 500 meters from the port.

Both sides of the border were guarded. On the French by a single guard in police uniform. On the Italian of 3 guards in soldier uniforms with caps, decorated with beautiful brown feathers. The guards watched smilingly the traffic that slid easily and effortlessly, completely unaffected by the guard.

We did not stay long in Italy, but still long enough to notice differences between the two countries. In Italy there were bunks of waste around overflowing waste containers, prices in the supermarket were significantly lower and the supply was characterized by Italian specialties. From a truck that parked close to the supermarket, fruit and vegetables were sold.

It was time to go back to Denmark.

We went through the checklist for the winter preparations one last time, saying goodbye to Heron and the dockman. Drove to Nice, took the plane to Copenhagen and walked a few hours later to the door of our apartment.

It was great again to be home with family and friends. FaceTime, Snapchat and what the digital channels are now called are good. But yet they have not replaced the presence of the physical presence.

From home we regularly checked the weather forecast for the area around Menton. In mid-December we received an SMS from the port office. Storm was reported from the southwest. We followed the development close to the French weather service Meteo and the app Windy. The storm began from southwest. From there it still came when it culminated with gusts at 30m / a couple of hours after midnight.

The owner of the marine business was right.

An 10 year's storm can easily come two years in a row.