Coco Chanel - life as a ship's Cat
Chapter 6
click below to accompany the text with sweet music
So we are nearing our pick-up point - the seaside port of Agde having travelled all the way from Toulouse Dry Dock, on the Canal Du Midi, meeting up with Bob and Christine Hoye-Turner on their boat Sassi - who ran out of holiday time and sadly had to turn back, in Le Someil, for their mooring at Meilhan. It was a wonderful trip with happy memories of lovely alternate evenings in each others boats. I had learnt to love Rosie and George, their two black labradors who didn't seem to mind me climbing all over their boat. Alas, since then, they have both died of old age in their home in Cumbria. It was really sad to hear that.
Bigdad and Mum decide to moor up at the town of Vias in order to wait a week or two for the transport company and the crane people, Allemande's Chandlery Services, to co-ordinate and to tell us when they were ready to go. The timing of all this is very impressive. It is down to Mum to speak to them all in French so that the big transporter arrives at Allemande's, (the Ships Chandlery with the Cradle/Crane) at exactly the same time as Bigdad sails Body and Soul, in reverse, into the cradle to be cradled out onto the low loader. It took him some time - what with the tide, wind and current playing havoc with his steering, but he made it just fine.
Amazingly, Mum has already found a French transport company after lots of research and she negotiates an amazingly good deal with them - Altead Augizeau. Bigdad says he's rather ashamed at still having little use for his limited French - Unlike Mum's absolute fluency with her native tongue. She does it so well and apparently without a foreign accent. He is dependant upon her for all these negotiations and is eternally grateful to his Brother Rob, for moneys given to them for this major and risky adventure.
Finally we get a date - the 15th of June - and we still have two weeks to play about and explore the Herault river and prepare the boat for her epic journey to St. Malo where she will be lifted into the sea in the Bassin Naval Jacques Cartier - this to be done by an even larger cradle - large enough for boats of 200 tons or more. Body and Soul is a mere 34 tons. More of this journey and arrival at St. Malo later.
the Bassins at the Port of St. Malo - Le Bassin J. Cartier, centre of the four.
But whilst at Vias, I climb up a tree just by our mooring; Mum is horrified because she thinks I am stuck in its branches, so I play the game by "mewing" pitifully - just pretending; the trick works and Bigdad is persuaded, reluctantly, to put the step ladder (a sort of 12 ft. converted gang plank) up against the tree trunk. Happily, it is no-where near long enough to reach me. Even when he puts the base of the ladder on his shoulders - that is no "mean feat" because it's very heavy! - but the top of the ladder is still within 6 feet of my position. I am enjoying this - but judging by his red face and angry expression; he is not.
After about half an hour of this game, I get bored and start to creep down to the top of the ladder and then shuffle down the remaining steps, planning to jump off upon reaching the bottom rung. Bigdad, who is about to have a "coronary", has other plans and, dropping the ladder on his foot, he grabs me firmly around my middle as I move to within his grasp - it's as if he was trying to save me. Doesn't he understand? I have been joking! I don't need saving!
I am extremely annoyed at this; his uneccessary domination over me. They do not understand that I am only playing. As an insulted teenager; reacting with rage and, with a shriek, I wriggle free of his grasp, lashing out with my talons at his bare hands and racing off to the nearest big tree - one much taller than the one on which I was supposed to be stuck. This new tree, a huge ash, I climb and climb and climb, right to the very top-most bough which is waving in the wind and where I have a wonderful view of Vias and of Bigdad and Mum, now wringing their hands and tending to Bigdad's scratches and sore foot - far below.
They are not to be fooled again however and, in the end, hunger and cold drives me back to earth, safe and sound - boy! can I climb trees? I had made my point but am calm now, feeling rather silly as I enjoy supper - my favourite raw breast of turkey - by the wood burning stove. I curl up on Bigdad's lap, as if nothing had happened; I go to sleep as usual. We are reunited.
Just another experience, I suppose, along with the others already described, I have learnt to be particularly self-reliant and independent and that, regrettably, even when you are lucky enough to be part of a loving family, life is never going to be plain sailing, is it?
Chapter 7 will describe our eventual departure from Agde, the journey to St. Malo and the lift into the sea and our sea crossing to the Barrage across the Estuary of the Ille et Rance. Don't miss it.