You can only enter and leave the Bassin a Flot at high tide (5 metres high to low) and as we had arrived with the ebb we would have to wait till the next day at 2.00pm to get in. Meanwhile we had to arrange where we were to stay once in the Bassin. A quick ride on the bike and a recce with Eric from Cap Ver - the generator repair company - and we had located a likely mooring and agreed it with the >captain= of the port by VHF radio. We waited for the appointed opening time and, just like the slinking tubes of death 60 years ago, we slid into the ecluse that took us through the two swing bridges into the Bassin for our approach towards the huge, cavernous, concrete sub pens. Turning right just before the second swing bridge we turned bows out and reversed in between two other barges to moor up, stern on to the quay, bow held out by a floating buoy.

The submarine pens are awesome. Almost black with grime and age, they comprise 12 bays let into a vast concrete monolith, topped by curious semi circular roof sections - obviously designed to divert the shock of bombs. If they were ever bombed by the allies there are no signs of damage except for one small chip in the centre of the outside roof. I managed to get inside one day and was overawed by the cavernous interior with its interconnecting pens that would have taken two or four submarines in each of the 12 bays. All equipped with double overhead cranes and vast repair shops at the opposite end to the water filled entrances, each pen could be dried out to work under and over the shark like U-Boats. The pens are now filled with a mixture of barges, yachts, jet skis and other craft either stored or being worked on or, available for demonstration. Part of the building is an expo centre for tourists and a theatre also exists within its walls. The greater part of some three bays are occupied by a metal fabrication company where exotic sculptures and large metal parts are made. It looks like the monolith will last forever !

Of course our main aim in being here is to get the generator fixed and as I write this, having been here for nearly two weeks we are no further on that when we arrived. Two whole new sets of parts have arrived and been fitted - including the electronic control packages, the rotor and the wiring windings - and no power emits from the set while the auto shut off cuts in after a few minutes. And so far the cost has mounted to over 2500 euros - over $A 4500. We wait in hope.

The company is run by a young man who employs one other mechanic. They are in contact with the company agent in Antibes on the south coast. All the tests have been run and the parts appear faulty so they are changed but the results are still negative. Pierre - the French speaking owner, is non-plussed, while Eric (who speaks good English), toils away cheerfully in the heat of the engine room, assisted by me. I have been very useful (I have to add), having been able to remove parts and fix others while they have not. I have decided that if their final part replacement does not fix the system I will call in another company.

Eric is pleasant and his wife Miriam is eight months pregnant with their first daughter. They invited us to drinks on their boat and we reciprocated with a barbecue on Van Nelle. Fortunately Miriam was away on the night of the BBQ as it was also the night of THE STORM.

The air was growing hazy during the late afternoon and we were on the back deck in the low comfortable chairs, sipping cool drinks while we waited for Eric to arrive for dinner and looking forward to a cooling off as the temperature had constantly hovered around the high 30s and into the 40s. Eric arrived, accepted a gin and tonic and I lit the barbecue. The sky darkened.

From a hazy blue, the sky changed to grey, then black and finally to a viscous, pungent green. This took place in 10 minutes and then, with almost no warning the storm hit. First it was sand and wind, driving in horizontally over 100 kmh, the grit and sand blasting skin and varnished wood, then the rain hit. Driven rain, arriving almost parallel to the surface, it blasted its way into the cabin through cracks that had never been breached before. Rivulets were soon running into the boat from firmly closed and dogged skylights, windows and ports. The wind screamed and we watched as the dinghy spun 90 degrees on the deck and then hung half over the port side of the boat together with the wind surfer. The two were held there only by the fact that we had been blown alongside the next door barge which was secured by two heavy buoys at its bow. Ours had been swept sideways towards these others.

The roof of the wheelhouse on the boat next to us suddenly reared up and was gone into the maelstrom. We could see only 20 metres around us - just to the bow of Van Nelle and to the sides of the boats on either side of us. We had no idea of what was possibly flying towards us in the mash of wind and rain and grit and fury outside the wheelhouse. The surface of the water of the bassin was now whipped into full size waves with curling white tops - amazing in such an enclosed space. Sections of cargo cover ripped off the next door barge, which fortunately for us was on our down-wind side. These sections of steel weigh 80 kgm each and are 5 metres long by a metre wide. They would cut a body in half without stopping.

Our own roof locks began to vibrate open with the shock and rattle of the wind and rain. We grabbed and re-locked them just before our own roof ripped off.

AA hurricane@ said Eric, Athe last was in 1986".

At this stage the lightning started to light up the sky, which at this time (about 9.00pm) was normally bright daylight but now was dark as the pitch on our hull. Huge bolts of lightning jagged sideways across the sky, low down to the surface, not more than 100 feet high but hundreds of metres long, stabbing light poles and yacht masts every few seconds.

This was the most amazing storm I have ever witnessed and in less than an hour it was gone, followed by moderate (by comparison) winds and scattered rain showers.

The barbecue lid and fires had stayed on through all of this, sheltered by the wheelhouse, so dinner was quickly brought in and demolished with a very good Bordeaux red before Eric rushed off to check his own boat and to help his boss Pierre, who had rung to inform that his chimney had come down causing a hole in his roof.

We surveyed the damage to the port the next morning after rigging a jury roof on the next door boat and assisting another owner to recover his passarelle which had gone over the side into the 6-7 metre deep harbour. The whole of one side of the roof of iron sheets on one of the huge dockside warehouses had been blown off. The sheets had hit and demolished yacht masts, car windows, boat rigging and building walls - no one was injured. One boat had sunk next to the sub pens and three others lay on their sides on the hard standing, including a 16m ketch, now with a broken fore mast. The rain had gone through the open roof into the warehouse which is used as showrooms for a number of companies, and their exhibits were damaged and waterlogged. All around were signs of damage and destruction. Trees uprooted, building signs blown out, damaged vehicles, boats and buildings. And through all the wreckage, owners and crews with cameras accompanying port officials inspecting and documenting the damage for the inevitable insurance claims. We could only wander and wonder. There was no damage to us and our boat, but all around - destruction.

You cannot spend time in Bordeaux and ignore the surrounding wine districts of Medoc, Pomerol, St Emilion, Graves and Sauternes (just to name a few), or desist from wine tasting. The whole business of wine making, labelling and marketing of the 850,000,000 bottles produced each year is a huge undertaking that has grown over the past couple of millennium as vines were first planted here in the first century after the birth of Christ by the Romans. Wine has been produced here continuously since then and has enjoyed increasing popularity in England and further afield from the beginning of the second millennium- as Eleanor of Aquitaine married Henry Plantagenant, soon to be the English king, and brought the Gascon area and Bordeaux to the crown as her dowry. The rest of the world followed as export by sea was easier than transport by land until modern times.

This is NOT the area where Cabernet Sauvignon as a varietal wine rules, as I imagined. Indeed it was to my surprise that I learned that five red wine grape varieties are grown and blended here into the major wines of the region. Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the smaller harvests at around 20 - 40% depending on the area. Merlot at 60% - 70% dominates, but Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot also are used for the blends. Only the great Chateau Petrus is made from a single grape type - and that is Merlot. Not only to the Bordelais not produce varietal Cab Sauv, they often add sugar to their blends if the sun has not fully ripened the grapes.

There are five producers of red wine picked out as Great First Growths - Chateaux Lafite, Latour, Mouton Rothschild, Margaux and Haut Brion. These giants of the industry are followed by over 150 other classified chateaux wines, followed by the rest of the 4,500 producers in the Bordeaux area.

White wines are produced from three grape varieties - Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Muscadelle and include dry white Bordeaux, Entre Deux Mers and Graves and the fabulous dessert wines of Sauternes and Barsac, sweet wines which are subject to >the noble rot= to increase the sugar content.

The wines are produced by a first fermentation where each different grape type and plot from each vineyard are put into separate vats for 5-8 days after de-stalking and light crushing. The whole grapes are included in the vats for colour (red wine) but not at this stage actually pressed. After first fermentation, free run juice is run off and the balance pressed. Secondary fermentation is then started, again in separate vats, after which blending is conducted and the result put in bottles (ordinaire) or oak casks (cru) for a year, after which this higher quality wine is then bottled.

We visited St Emilion, a charming and beautifully restored village on a hill about 20km from Bordeaux city. The town boats the largest monolithic church in Europe, carved into a single stone and currently in the throes of restoration. Its=s catacombs are fascinating but once back above ground, many wine merchants offer a range of even the most rare (and expensive) wines. Here you can buy and arrange shipping of Petrus (2000 Euros per bottle - at an exchange rate 1.7 $ per Euro that is $A 3400 per bottle !) or the fabulous Latour, Lafite, Mouton Rothschild etc. During the tour, it was interesting to hear the guide extolling the >superior= method of wine labelling in France where by using just the Chateau Name and Region (ie Bordeaux or Margaux - Chateau St George or Lafite) one should instantly be able to tell the wine type, grape type, soil type and quality. ??

I had to take exception, suggesting that to detail the grape type (Cabernet Sauvignon / Shiraz etc) and the area (Margaret River / Napa Valley etc) was a far more transparent and effective method. I was met by a stony lack of agreement to that, despite the fact that French producers tried to force the French government to get Australia and other countries to stop doing exactly that, as it was more successful that their hard won method. It is interesting to see in supermarkets and wine >caves= the number of French producers now copying Australian, US and other labelling methods - especially Rosemount=s distinctive diamond shape label orientation, bi-colour and layout !

Being in Bordeaux for Bastille Day was almost worth the trip alone. A series of >Feu d=Artifice= (fireworks) displays were run for two days before and culminating on the night of the 14^th from the famous Pont Pierre (stone bridge), accompanied by the spirited Latin rhythms of the young and VERY energetic band on the huge foreshore area.

Well, if you have to be in France - you may as well enjoy whatever is available. And there are huge amounts of free entertainment during June, July and August. Almost every big town and City tries to outdo it=s nearest neighbours with festivals and even the smaller towns get into the act with festivals of Jazz, Soul, Country, Rock, Blues, plus theatre seasons and art shows. It=s a hard act to follow !