That was a fun watch, Tyrannic. The parts that resonated with me were when he talked about living with the sun as it rises and sets, and when he talked about how he thinks he will look back on his decisions later in his life, and how he'd rather have the experiences now than a million dollars in his bank account later. I see things somewhat similarly.
wiper - Thanks, always glad to hear that people are enjoying this thread. It also helps keep the page load times down.
I'm swamped with stuff to get done before I leave London for Moscow on Monday, so the updates are going to get slow again, but here's another while I still have awesome high speed internet access:
After a few days in Villefranche-su-Mer, the owners had a few friends show up from the US for a brief visit. It was another older couple. They took the berth I had been using, and I moved to a smaller one while they were there. This couple were members of the same yacht club as the owners, and were liveaboards, though they live on a powerboat rather than a sailboat. They were looking forward to doing some sailing in the French Riviera, so after a day or two to acclimate to the vessel, we raised sails and headed northeast up along the coast:
In this photo, the headstay is being used, and the stay behind it is not. That folded up ladder looking thing with the wheels is a passerelle, which you unfold and attach one end to the boat and set the other end on a dock to make it easier to get on and off of the boat. The anchor you see is a 120lb Bruce. Note the small white rope tied around the chain, which is a safety snubber to act as a failsafe in case someone accidentally releases the anchor.
The owners decided to go to Monaco, which was not too far from where we were at VsM. It was a brief sail up the coast until we got to Monaco proper:
Monaco is mostly known for being a super tiny little country, and for the casinos in Monte Carlo. That photo shows probably 25-30% of the entire country, right there. You can walk across the country in a few hours if you want to.
Something I found interesting in Monaco that I haven't noticed elsewhere is that there are signs pointing to the nearest defibrillator all over the place:
I must have seen at least 20 of these signs. I guess that's a good thing.
Also fun is the license plates, as they have so few characters. I was already used to this from living in the USVI, but it's still fun to see 4 digit plates:
Yes, we ate at Planet Sushi. No, it wasn't particularly good. They had foie gras sushi, which I'd never seen before. I don't eat foie gras, so I can't tell you anything about it.
We walked around Monte Carlo for a while, saw the opera house, and went in the primary casino. If you ever go to Monte Carlo, do not go to the primary casino, it is a complete rip off. They charge you 10 euros just to enter (wat?) and then once you are inside, there are about 30 slot machines, and maybe 4 table games running. There were about 8 tables for table games, but when we showed up, there were only two blackjack tables and two roulette tables running. Both of the roulette tables were American (both zero and double zero) style. Seriously? In Monte Carlo?!
We ended up going to a nearby casino that had a craps table, and I won 12 euros there. No entry fee, and a lot more table games available.
There is a lot of money in Monaco:
There were Ferraris and Lamborghinis everywhere. I saw a Dubai license plate, which I thought was funny but I suppose makes perfect sense.