It was a cold March. It didn't mean that much. We were busy moving into the apartment in Hellerup.
Before we left, we had made the house in Humlebæk ready for rent. We had gone through all the personal stuff. The ones we could do without, we had driven up to the recycling site. The others we had put in moving boxes. One by one we had towed them up the ladder until the ceiling had been completely filled with indispensable things.
The leasing was now finished and the house had to be ready for sale. Now we had to move many boxes down from the ceiling.
While we had been away, we had not missed one of our indispensable belongings. In fact, we had forgotten most of them.
The first box we got down from the ceiling contained a walkman, two analog cameraes, a cassette and tape recorder with a lot of tape and several generations of mobile phones. The value of use had been zero when they had been packed into the box. It still was Out they go ; or? The joy of seeing the box with school booklets was great. But frankly, how often is it fun to rediscover the homework ? Out with everything in that box; well most of it.
This was how we continued until we had reduced the many boxes of indispensable belonging to a manageable number.
We presented the house to three different real estate agents, received offers from everyone and entered into an engagement agreement with one. (And no, it was not the agent with the highest valuation).
A careful review by a construction expert and an energy consultant revealed that the house was in a very good condition. Roughing a pair of loose joints, insulation of the small ceiling clamp and a few other small repairs, deleted a couple of K2s and K3s in the condition report. Finally we got a gardener to look after the garden while we were gone.
Now we could do nothing but wait for the realtor to find a buyer.
At the beginning of April we went back to Heron in Menton to continue sailing in the Mediterranean.
On the day of departure spring finally arrived. Sun from a clear blue high sky, almost no wind and two-digit degrees temperatures for the first time since we got home.
Flying conditions were perfect. The plane moved south steadily, while we enjoyed the view of the Earth far below us. When we reached south of the Alps there were clouds. The captain stated in the loudspeaker system that it was blowing heavily in Nice and that there would be turbulence during landing. Shortly after, the rocking started and it did not stopped before the plane put the wheels on the runway.
It was dark when we finally reached Menton. It was raining, cold and windy. Not like the weather we had just left and not at all like we had anticipated the weather would be in Menton in April.
We had reported the damage to the insurance company shortly before Christmas. The damage consultant was skilled and had sent a surveyor to Menton, since, not quite unexpectedly, there was radio silence from Barbara, the administrative manager of the boat yard. The surveyor had reviewed the damage with the yard and at the end of February sent us a detailed report on what to do and what it would cost.
After two months we were ready for the last act. Namely, getting the yard to do the repair, which would take 4 workdays
Countless unanswered calls, confusing phone conversations in a mix of Italian, French and English and emails did not make us much wiser about the progress of the project.
It reminded us of last summer, when we could not get a clear message from the Lavandou yard. At that time, however, they had done what we had asked them to do without telling us
... so why not ?
But no.
"They have not done anything about it" we almost cursed in chorus when we reached the middle of the long pier where Heron lay, exactly as we had left her 3 months earlier.
We found a room in a hotel just opposite the harbor. Ate late dinner and went to bed. One hundred and eighty percent intent on tearing Barbara's head when the yard opened the next morning at 7 p.m. XNUMX.
A nice lunch with Sarah and Thijs and a couple of chores later, we looked at each other the next day in the afternoon a little "do-we-want-to-do-it-today-like" and decided to cycle over to the yard.
«Maybe end May," Barbara said as she smiled lifting her eyes off the PC screen with an expression, as if she was doing a huge favor.
«What! This can not be true. We are planning to leave for Corsica this week, ”we exclaimed spontaneously. «Did not you receive this mail? »We continued and showed her the email, from which it was clear that we had already asked the yard to start a month ago.
"Yes, but we are very busy," she smiled and with what we thought to be a little embarrassment in the voice she added "we can do it 23rd April"
… Hmmm.
Barbaras bargaining position was unfairly so much better than ours. We accepted the generous proposal without any comments other than "fine".
The next few days it was raining cats and dogs, blew and was cold. On the fourth day, the bad weather was spiced with heavy thunder. But the next morning we woke up to a completely different Menton. Sun from a clear blue sky, warmth and no wind.
We slowly became part of the environment in the harbor.
We became friends with Wolfgang, who had sailed with his father and sister from Kiel to Menton over 30 years ago. The father had died several years ago. He himself had recently retired and lived in Munich. When otherwise the family obligations allowed, he drove to Menton and lived on the boat. We also got to know Walter, who had lived on his little boat for many years and had an understanding of electronics. So much so that he had a man sent to the mast of Heron to examine the anemometer. We also talked to our two nice Italian neighbors when they were on the boats on an extended weekend and the Englishman Shaun, who came sailing from Greece in a newly purchased 50 foot sailboat he would set up and use for charter sailing with tourists.
And the good weather continued.
In the morning we went to the beach and bathed. In the afternoon we fixed minor things on the boat , cycled over to the cafe in Italy, saw the nice gardens, enjoyed the city life and occasionally we cycled to one of the cafés on the promenade and had coffee with a lemon cake,while the sun went down.
There was plenty to do here, and before we knew it, three weeks had passed.
It was time for the next scene. Getting Heron on land.
“Enough over dinner,” Barbara had the answer when we had asked when in the day they would start. When the working day was coming to an end and there had not been the slightest rush to take Heron ashore, we cycled over to the yard.
When the boss saw us, he stretched and opened his right hand toward us and said soothingly "cinq minutes".
But after cinq minutes, Heron was still in the water. When an hour had passed we packed our things and cycled over to the hotel where we had booked a room. We made our way past the yard.
«Ah merde» said the boss when he saw us again and added «tout à leur»
An hour and a half later, just before it was getting dark, we saw from the hotel room Heron being towed from his seat over to the yard and lifted ashore.
Thus ended the second scene in the last act.
A few days later we went back to Denmark. Just in time to join the welcome committee, who received Niklas, Olivia and Little Augusta when they arrived at Kastrup after their 3 months of maternity leave.
"They are going to see the house again on Thursday. I think they are interested "told the young and energetic real estate agent on the phone. And quite right. Monday evening, the house was sold after having been on the market for only 12 days.
Wov. Now it was serious. This was not we had really planned for. Somewhere we had hoped to celebrate the last Christmas eve there. It was woeful to move, but also nice be able to move on and no longer worry about the house.
We got busy.
The house had be completely empty when the buyer would take it over 1. June. We postponed the trip back to Menton with 14 days. Then we had almost four weeks for the clearance.
Documents were streaming in in our dossier on the estate agent's website.
We read them through and asked a few questions. Praised the young real estate agent for a well done job and ended with «This has almost gone too well»
«Well, this is how it is. Sometimes it's difficult and takes a long time. Other times it's easy and goes fast. Here are the ideal buyers. They have been looking at houses for a long time and know what they want," explained the young real estate agent.
But ak. Late Friday night we received an email from the buyer's advisor. Neither he nor the buyer could convince the bank that the ability to pay was as good as the willingness to pay. The reservation in the purchase agreement regarding the bank's approval was enforced. Buyer withdrew the deal.
…Odd behavior to put it mildly
When we had shaken off the worst disappointment we started to empty the house. The goal was to be able to empty it with a few days notice if the next buyer would take over with such a short notice as the first one.
It was only when we were almost done with the work that we by coincidence came to think of Menton, Heron and the Boatyard.
A brief telephone conversation with Barbara revealed that the yard had not yet started the repair.
For the next 2 weeks we called Barbara every day.
... so why not ?
When we come back to the Heron on Sunday
? Bonne chance ??
It was a good lunch! Hope Heron has been repaired by now! Feel free to ask Sarah for help with communicating with your very French boatyard if necessary.