LIFE ON A BOAT............IN A YARD 

We were pretty excited to move out of the Airbnb and onto the boat.  It was great fun unpacking our small amount of gear we were able to bring and decide which cabin would be ours.  The owners had kindly left all the bedding and spare linen for the boat along with a fairly substantial amount of kitchen gear so we were pretty set.  The one major dilemma is that the fridge and freezer don't run when not in the water. (Definitely a Tony answer here but something to do with them being water cooled) so we had to buy a bar fridge for our food.  It felt quite extravagant initially to buy a fridge but in hindsight after over a month on the boat the esky and ice we were initially planning just wouldn't have cut the mustard.
The other thing is you can not use the toilet or shower or sink whilst in the yard. So every function that requires the use of water means a trip down the ladder and across to the facilities. For us, it's a short walk across from the boat, for others its a longer walk, pushbike ride or even a car ride.
We are also right near the front gate so we get a ringside seat of the comings and goings in the yard. It's pretty exciting watching the yachts and catamarans get taken out of the yard and launched. Although, slightly less exciting as the yard slowly empties and we are still here.
The yard is pretty dusty and the wind at times in Port Saint Louis is fairly savage so the sound of the wind through all the masts can sound pretty loud then add any loose halyards or lines banging against masts and you soon know about it.
The usual greeting is "Bonjour" when you pass someone which is great. The only trouble for me is
how do you know who is French or who may speak English but is just saying "Bonjour". Any time I hear any English I pounce on them and have a chat. I did find it quite isolating for a while as those of you that know me, know I do like the occasional chat!
We have gotten friendly with a couple Michael from Germany & Julia from Russia. They have been in the yard longer than us.  They are waiting on a part for their engine before they head off towards the Balearic Islands and eventually to cross the Atlantic.
Ashley & Sarah, an English couple were in the yard for just over a week and we had an opportunity to chat with them. They had lived in France for around 20 years and had just bought their boat and are heading to Greece so we have exchanged email addresses in case we can meet up again.
The time in the yard has been great in the sense that Tony has had lots of time to learn all the systems on the boat - and there are a lot! He's just about duplicated all his tools from home here and created a workshop on the boat. He's also tweaked, changed or replaced lots of things that were not up to his exacting standards so he's feeling more comfortable now.
There's a saying in yachting worlds that "Cruising is just doing boat jobs in exotic locations", well I can tell you now Port Saint Louis boat yard is not an exotic location and we are both hanging out for the first time we can get off the boat by jumping into the ocean rather that climbing down a ladder!!