Yesterday was yet another chore day. Sometimes we feel like the boat chores are cumbersome and we wish we were traveling like a regular tourist, where every day is a sightseeing day and you never have to take time away from sightseeing to clean and do maintenance. But our trip to Paris was a reminder of why we chose to travel by boat. Going to and from Paris we schlepped our bag on several trains, busses and subways, and up and down at least a million stairs. Our bag was small and light, but it was still a hassle, especially on the tightly packed subways. How much of a hassle would it be with the big, heavy bags we would have for long term traveling? And it is so nice to have your own bed and your own bathroom, never having to wonder if your hotel is going to be up to your preferred standards. Another bonus of traveling via private boat is not having to pack up your stuff every time you move on to the next place. And, we have figured out that no matter how you travel, whether plane, train, or boat, traveling for many hours wears you out exactly the same. We prefer the privacy and comfort of our own home as we travel, instead of in an uncomfortable, public medium.

Eric was busy all day. He changed the main engine oil, oil filter, and fuel filter. He changed transfer fuel filter. He changed the filter on the seagull water filter (the drinking water filter). On the propane system the sensor in the propane locker has stopped working. It had been giving us false alarms before it died. Eric brushed all the fittings with soapy water looking for any bubbling that would signal a leak. We are happy to report there are no leaks. We do have another sensor in the boat that sniffs for leaks.

Christi put in the laundry and settled down to write blogs. But then the washing machine died again, like it did the day we broke the handle off of it. Grrr. We had called the manufacturer of the washing machine the day it freaked out to tell them about the machine dying and asking about a replacement handle. We had to leave a message for the service department and they had never called us back.

We went to dinner at a Hungarian restaurant. They had a prixe fixe menu with some nice looking choices. For one our appetizers we got crepe hortobagy, which is a crepe stuffed with some kind of incredibly tender pulled meat and topped with a cheese sauce, pictured below. We also got an appetizer with bacon wrapped around a mushroom stuffed with foie gras, and served with a gravy-like sauce. One of our main courses was goulasch, which is a rich all meat stew, and was served with spaetzel, a type of pasta. Our other main course was Kaposvar style chicken, which was small pieces of chicken in a cream sauce. It was served with little deep fried balls. We think they are potato, but the texture was light, almost like a bread. The chicken was well seasoned and tasty, but we couldn’t identify what seasonings they used. It is also pictured. All the food was really good. Maybe we should visit Hungary. The third photo is one of the pedestrian walkways in the old section of town. It is really cute there.

After dinner, we tried to do laundry again. We were hoping the problem would magically fix itself like it did last time. The machine worked, although it is making another new and not good sound, kind of like a door hinge seriously in need of oil. We decided to call the manufacturer again. We left another message and got a return call in 2 minutes. They only offer service in America, from our verbal description of the problem they thought nothing was wrong with the machine, and they can only ship the handle to a US address because they don’t like to deal with international customs and taxes. So, we are basically on our own to fix the problems. To be fair, they were very nice and tried to be as helpful as they could given their limits.

This morning we went through the usual get ready to go ritual and pulled out of port around noon. Neither of us are very happy about this passage. We have been studying the weather carefully, and it is crappy overall. Our passage to Mallorca will take approximately 52 hours, and our best weather window over the next couple weeks looks to be now, and it is only a 48 hour window. And at the end of the 48 hours, an ugly batch of wind is coming. It’ll start rough, get nice for a couple days, and be miserable at the very end. Sigh. But if we don’t leave now, we will be stuck in Le Lavandou for weeks. And being stuck isn’t an option we have a schedule to keep.

The passage started off better than expected. The wind was light and the seas were gentle. It was bright and sunny during the day. The sunset was especially pretty — very red, which seems to be common in the Med. Tonight it is dark the moon is a tiny crescent casting little light. After dark, the seas really picked up, despite the fact that the wind is still light. The stabilizers are really working hard right now. There has been little boat traffic all day. We have been running at 1800 RPM instead of usual 1650 in an effort to outrun the storm, and our speed has been good overall.