Monday, March 13, 2006
Very much a day of recovery from the long day of travel.
Went down to the docks at St Tropez in the morning after breakfast to inspect the boat. The whole place was very much still off-season, so there was plenty of work being done on the various boats/yachts/ships holed up there, ranging from a relatively simple cleaning and polish to the complete revamping of the ship -- just like that being done to the Volterra,.
A Sheathed Volterra Undergoing Renovations
The Volterra, was sheathed in a plastic housing covering her entire deck. Inside we saw that all of her teak planking had been taken up and removed, showing the bare aluminum surface underneath. One of the jobs being undertaken was to weld all of the fine holes in the aluminum shell, which were formerly the attachment points for the deck. The intent is to make things more watertight and to reduce the amount of corrosion that could be seen in pockets, as they served as small reservoirs for salt water. After they have all been welded together the aluminum top will be polished smooth so that when the deck is glued to the new surface, there is a solid join.
After we left the boat Josef told us that the consultant who was overseeing the work was one a pair of fellows who jumped off the top of the CN Tower in Toronto with parachutes soon after it was completed. They were apparently cops there to greet them both when they landed, and they were promptly whisked off to jail. They spent the night in the jail, were told sternly not to do that again, and then were asked to pose for pictures with the assembled policemen who wanted a souvenir. ;-)
We soon headed back to the chateau, where lunch came soon after we arrived. It was just warm and sunny enough to hold the meal outside on the veranda. It concluded with a birthday cake for Josef, who was celebrating his 65th birthday in style with his daughters and granddaughters (and the occasional in-law like myself and David M.)
Cassandra and Calissa Helping Josef Eat His Birthday Cake
The rest of the day was spent in and around the estate. I made a point of touring the vineyards, taking pictures of the denuded and gnarled rows of wine plants set in yellowish soil, towered over by giant pine trees.
While out walking I noted the new, metal fencing being erected around the vineyard, as the electric fence has not worked to keep out the sanglier as well as had been hoped. "Since they could go through all of the rough brambles and undergrowth without any problem, why would a slight singing of their hair bother them?" Josef asked rhetorically over lunch, while explaining the need for the new fence. I found I could easily straddle the new fence, its relatively low height a testament to the literal truth of the saying "pigs can't fly".
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