David's Diary: Friday, December 13, 2001

Snow In Port Vendres, France

Today we got up intending to sail to Spain. The border is only a few miles to the south and we thought it would be no big deal to travel. We have been waiting in Port Vendres for French customs paperwork to arrive from Yacht Services in Port St. Louis. The paperwork hasn't arrived, but after being stuck in Port Vendres for more than a week we are ready to move on.

Fortunately for us, today was the day that the yacht club office was staffed with the one person who spoke English. Just after 8:00 I stopped by the office to settle our bill. The daily weather report, which is in French, had not yet been posted. When I suggested that we would be leaving today, the kind person looked through the weather report and asked if we really had to go today. I answered that we did not, but why the concern. At first glance the report did not look that bad. He responded that both the wind and the seas were forecast to pick up with seas reaching more than 3m. As it turned out, the advice made a real difference to us and we decided to stay put at the dock. If the person in the office had only spoke French, we wonder what might have happened.

Snow On the Mediterranean

Within an hour it had started to snow. And Dragonsinger rocked at the dock as the swells from the Mediterranean made it into Port Vendres. Walking on the dock was difficult, but it didn't stop the children from going out and exploring. We walked to the harbour entrance and I could not believe how reduced the visibility was or how high the waves were. The trip south to Spain is past the last two capes open to the fierce NW winds of France. We've experienced these winds for the last two months and today we are glad that we only have to put up with them at the dock.

Fish Market

After visiting the harbour entrance, Jocelyn, Kevin, and I visited the seafood market inside the commercial area that we visited last week. We were just about the only customer in the whole market as all of the workers huddled together trying to keep warm. We bought salmon for dinner and prawns for an appetizer, so while it is cold and windy outside we'll have a special dinner to remember the first time we saw snow on Dragonsinger.