A Close Call with Plan B

After all of that "perfect summer" description in the last blog posting, we very nearly had to go with "Plan B" before we'd even left home.

We took our rapid PCR COVID tests (required for our entry into France at that time; as of June 17 a COVID test is no longer an entry requirement for vaccinated Americans) at an urgent care center in St. Petersburg during the late afternoon of June 15, the day before our scheduled departure to Paris. We'd been pretty careful with our exposure to other people throughout the entire "Age of COVID", and although we'd relaxed our mask-wearing somewhat post-vaccination, we still avoided crowds and tried to minimize interactions (especially indoors) with people of uncertain vaccination status. It was, therefore, quite a shocker when Lon's PCR test result came up as positive. Whaaaaaattttt????? sums up our reaction. Rather than accepting the result at face value and reporting it to the State of Florida--which would have prevented us from flying for at least 14 days--the testing facility sent Lon's sample to a lab for confirmatory testing with the "regular" PCR process. We were hoping to get the results that evening, but no such luck. Needless to say, we had a long and mostly sleepless night as we tried to stay optimistic that the initial result was a false positive and that we'd still be able to fly on the 16th. We finally got the results at 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning, about an hour before we were supposed to leave for the airport. Negative! We were exhilarated, relieved, rushed around like mad to get out the door by 10 a.m., and were grateful to be able to put the possibility of having to go with a Plan B on the back burner.

The travel itself was a piece of cake. Check-in was easy, our flights were on time, and we had an early arrival into Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. The airport was eerily empty compared to past trips and we breezed through French customs. I had to show only my passport to the customs officer; he didn't ask to see my proof of vaccination or COVID test results. Lon was asked to show his passport and vaccination card. Less than an hour after landing we were already on the first of several trains that would eventually get us to our marina in Auxonne, France.

It was a sad, dirty, and neglected C.A.R.I.B. III that greeted us when we got to Port Royal in Auxonne. Twenty months of no attention will do that to a boat. The exterior dirt was the worst; the spiders and other bugs had not left as much of an impact on the inside as I'd feared. Cleaning was a high priority for our first days here. 

A small sample of the dirt on the deck

At least we weren't growing trees
like this neighbor's boat

Lon got busy with the power washer

Et voila! Clean again

It's basically all work, little play for us at this point. I have made lots of trips by bike to the grocery store to replenish the fridge and cupboards and Lon is making his way through the various boat systems--water, engine, etc. I've sewn a window covering for the galley window, and am currently in the process of creating some window screens that are several steps improved from the "make-do" screens we had in 2019. As far as we can tell we are still on track to be able to start cruising around the first of July, but unpleasant surprises could occur, so we will just "keep on keeping on" with the prep tasks and wait to see what happens.

The marina is very quiet compared to what it was in 2019. The Canadian owners of the barge Aleau, who have been resident here since July 2020, had us over for docktails last Friday, but that's about the extent of our social life so far. We seem to be among the first of the non-resident bargees to arrive; few, if any, Brits, Canadians, Aussies, Kiwis are here. 

Now that we're here it's hard to believe that we've been away since September 2019. It's all very comfortable and familiar and we're looking forward to the next months.