First Day Underway... Sort Of!
Location: Nice and Villefranche
Today, we awoke to a very typical and delightful French breakfast, fresh croissants, and Pan au chocolate while on the dock in Nice. Surrounded by some fairly nice boats, we stood out as one of the main attractions to passersby. It was a day of introductions, again to each other after a day of getting to know each other, but also to the classes that are going to make up a lot of our time here. Science was first with an intro to Oceanography, which is going to be kicked off with a visit to the Museum in Monaco in a couple of days, next diving classes with bookwork starting tomorrow, then MTE the sailing class that will end up with us as competent, hopefully, Navmasters, and then an intro to the boat that will be our home for the next 40 days. What's a stay, a shroud, a cleat, and why is that stay running back but forward?! At 12, we squeezed our way out of the marina and headed around the corner to Villefranche, a very pretty town in a secure bay. After some time ashore, it was back on board for showers and a curry before the intro to drills. It was not the mechanical kind, but what do we have to do if something hits a fan? It's a peaceful night so far; the wind has died down, and the seas are calm as we settle in for anchor watch before heading down the coast tomorrow morning. Added later: The peaceful night was somewhat disrupted by a huge fireworks display for Bastille Day. It was a great show, and everyone enjoyed it.