Monte Carlo to Anse de la Salis (off Nice - France)

The distances off the coast of France are quite small ... There are lots of marinas and anchorages to go to in distances of 20 to 30 miles. Unlike Italy where the distances are more like 50 miles apart and where there are really very few places to anchor. This is a welcome change because the kids prefer to be at anchor and our sailing kitty likes saving the 70 to 100 euros a night for moorage. High season rates kick in July 1 and are minimum 100 euros a night so if we aren't careful we can go through our entire months' budget on moorage (assuming we don't eat, drink, use fuel, or anything else that costs money) .... not to mention house taxes are due the first week of July. Yikes!

The kids and Marina dropped me off in the Nice Harbour and I took the dinghy to shore on a quest for an Internet stick and some food. I found a place but they were sold out. Finally got to a SFR store and got an Internet stick. It amazes me how big a disparity in telecoms cost there is across Europe. In France it was 125 euros for a stick and 1 gig of transfer. In Italy, a stick and 5 gig was 29 euros, in Malta it was 49 euros. Greece was 49 euros but they blocked Skype, Turkey was 75 euros but gave 4 gig transfer and they only count uploads. Israel was about $100 with about 3 gigs of transfer. So about a 5x difference in price ... across a fairly close proximity. No wonder the EU is regulating these companies, all of whom make healthy profits.

After all that I got back to the boat with an internet stick and some food too and we left for an anchorage about 10 miles out of town. We settled in and I lit up my Internet stick and ... it wouldn't work. I tried everything, different computers to no avail. In desperation I pulled out my iPad and actually connected to a beach restaurant on the shore's WiFi. Being resourceful, I pulled out our WiFi repeater and poached the Internet all night (merci beaucoup Plage Keller). We were treated to a local fireworks show that night too.

While I did watch the entire game it wasn't very fulfilling. One, then two, then the killer third goal while we were on the PP, you could tell it wasn't going to be. Twice in my lifetime the Canucks have made it to the 7th game of the finals and come up short. It is so gutting that I may not watch hockey for a while next season. It would have been different with Samuelson, Hamhuis, Raymond,a healthy Kessler, Henrik and Edler. The bright side was Bieksa, Salo, Hansen and Tanev, the big question mark is Luongo. Maybe in 2012 we can win it all. They certainly could have used the 3 wasted games against Chicago and Nashville to add to their energy reserves against the Bruins.

Bottom line, it hurts to be a Canucks fan.