Changing a lightbulb

The Mistral winds howled through the rigging all night but by morning the tempest had subsided. Despite the improved conditions Eva and I decided stay at port and play tourist for a day and Port du Lavandou did not disappoint (see http://www.lelavandou.eu/port2001/index.htm).
There’s good access to chandlers and sail makers in the port so I took the opportunity to do some basic maintenance, i.e. replace my jack stays, and fix a bad connection on the tri-light which involved climbing the mast, (as I don’t have a bosun’s chair I use my life jacket’s harness to attach a safety line). I felt that taking the mast down in this case was over-kill. Eva found the whole exercise very amusing and instead of keeping the line taught was busying herself taking unflattering photos of me.
Believe it or not, we met another couple in the marina whose sailboat was smaller than Eileen! No small feat in the Cote d’Azur, and before long we had made some new friends, dental students of German heritage but living and studying in France. Over a few drinks that evening it was decided to leave on Wednesday and sail together for a few hours before heading our separate ways. The weather forecast promised nothing more violent than occasional gusts of Force 5 so we expected a leisurely sail.