Saturday 24th August
A capricious weather encourages us to spend this Saturday at l’Herbaudière.
This day is far from wasted. In addition to filling up with water, refuelling and a few visits to the port’s ship chandlers, Eric offers Paradox a set of splicing needles. An insatiable handyman, he also takes the opportunity to stick non-slip strips on the deck panels.
We also start to manually empty about forty litres of foul-smelling water that was stagnating under the engine. We will see later that this is to be the start of a long series of subsequent pumping sessions.
The beautiful HALCYON II
Halcyon II, the pretty boat we are alongside, is based on a Wanderer 40 cutter, whose interior and deck plan were entirely re-designed by its owner Jos Sonneville, then manufactured by a professional shipyard in Turkey. A remarkable work.
The magic of the sailing world operates. The conversation quickly starts with Jos and his kind wife Jenny.
Éric rummages through his collection of nautical charts to offer them a map of the Morbihan Gulf that they were missing, and we continue the evening aboard Halcyon II, which the couple is proud to show us around.
Jos then produces a bottle of Irish whiskey, and the brotherhood is definitively sealed ! Jos is Dutch, Jenny is Irish, and we are going to Ireland …
Jenny de Sonneville
Jos de Sonneville
Friends for an evening, but who knows? Some of our best friendships were born on a pontoon, in France and elsewhere.