Arriving at Arzal, and our rather underwhelming Airbnb, we came to try and understand the mystery around getting a boat lifted in our new marina. Our old marina was a relatively simple affair which we all understood. You turned up on time, aimed the boat at a trailer that was so far underwater you could only see the tractor it was attached to and when the boat abruptly stopped you would assume you’d landed on said trailer. You then got dragged out of the water and whilst you jet washed its bottom the rather cavalier and attractive yard owner, Ronan looked after your wife!. This was an unwritten trade off which both parties agreed to and no one seemed to complain about, at least Nina never complained. The boat then got put in a cradle where it stayed for 6 months, everyone was happy.
At Arzal, you initially book days, possibly weeks, in advance and get awarded with an A4 piece of paper. On your allotted day you swap your large piece of paper for an A5 ‘fiche’ with a fixed time allocation. You wander into the yard to find the crane driver, he speaks no English and is not often found near the crane. You hand him the ‘fiche’ to confirm your allocated time which he completely ignores, shrugs his shoulders and just says ‘maintenant monsieur. Oui!’. You run to your boat, bring it nearby and join all the other boats bobbing around in the water near the crane. And if heavens should open, as it did for Richard and myself you mill about because crane stops operating in the rain – apparently.
Eventually, they lift your boat, put it somewhere in the yard and you go home for the night during which time they move it and you spend the following morning trying to find it. There is a bonus though, there’s no touching up of your wife.
Richard and I then spent a week doing the same old jobs we did the year before and the one before that.
And that is the joy of boat ownership.
April 2024