Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône

We have had 15 months of ‘livin the dream’ and now we are at the end.
We have finished our trip in Port Napoleon because we hear that it is a good place to sell a boat.
Régal is now on the market with an agent here and we have a busy ten days getting her ship shape and ready for sale.
Port Napoleon is the perfect place to get stuck into jobs as there is nothing else to do here. It is a giant boatyard with lots of warehouses, boat services and a small restaurant with a few hotel rooms. There is a town two kilometres away but it is only worth the walk when we need some shopping. The whole area is infested with mosquitos and they are vicious, biting at any hour of the day and sometimes even through our clothing.
We are happy to spend most of our time onboard Régal getting through the list of jobs. We winterise the boat and take care of little repairs here and there but the biggest task by far is packing up to move out. We pack 6 big boxes and ship them home and yet we still have piles of stuff. Luckily we are able to give some of it to several nice people around the boatyard who are renovating boats on shoestring budgets.
When we haul out we move into the on-site accommodation but spend most of our time on Régal. We clean her hull and paint on anti-foul so she is pretty as a picture.
When we hire a car Colm and I escape the packing and cleaning for a while and go on an overnight trip down memory lane. We travel to Saint Marie de la Mer, a town I worked in for a summer when I was seventeen. We stay in the hotel where I worked which is nicer than I expected. It is so lovely to go back there even though the people I had known are long gone. We have a walk through the Camargue and see the famous flamingos, horses, bulls and also some river rodents called coypu.
Once we are back to the boatyard we are flat out getting all our stuff off the boat and into our 12 check-in bags! When the car is full to the brim we take a deep breath and have one last walk through Régal.
She is a beauty and we have loved her.
We are so grateful to her for keeping us safe and bringing us to so many wonderful places. Thank you Régal for all the happy memories.
And thank you everyone for following our journey.

This is Régal crew over and out.En savoir plus