From France to Germany on a sailingboat

Current location: Le Mesnil-Amelot Ile-de-France, Paris(ish), 49°0’14N 2°34’16’’E

I am in France, the country notorious for their baguettes and their rudeness. I have been in this country less than half an hour and I have already been approached three times with questions. They seem polite enough, perhaps a little confused about their own railway system. In about an hour I’ll take the train from Paris to La Rochelle. From what I learnt googling La Rochelle for 10 minutes it’s an old picturesque costal town with the harbor as it’s heart – that fit’s me perfectly as I am going there to find a boat. It is an Adventure 55 sailing boat that I will help transport to Bremerhaven, Germany. It will be my first long-distance transport and I am very excited to have been given this opportunity to learn. I suppose I wasn’t so much given the opportunity, I searched it out in what I thought was kind of a long shot, but it seemed to have paid off well, because here I am ready to go. I feel a little unprepared; I would have wanted to read up a little on tidal waters and such, but when is one ever truly prepared? The only thing I am truly prepared for is foul weather, I have a large bag that is packed only with clothes. Rain - bring it on. The first leg of the trip we will sail in the Bay of Biscaya, a place infamous for harsh conditions and large waves. My father chuckled when he heard where I was going to sail, and left it at that. I am excited though, because I always tell my sea-sick students that someone once told me that you aren’t a sailor until you’ve thrown up on a boat. I still haven’t, and I would very much like to call myself a sailor. Biscaya – do your best