Joining the Antibes rat race

Port Antibes
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Well finally off the boat and freedom for a bit! Got dropped off at hotel in Antibes...thanks owners! Decky & I decide to celebrate with a beer, which leads to a consistent 12hr session! oh dear...

Wake up the next day feeling pretty average. off to see antibes, but first its coffee and big english breakfast to get us going. Cruise around and run into more kiwis. Honestly this place has more kiwis and aussies than home! So funny seeing all the newbies in the rat race walking the docks and running to agencies to get jobs! I will join soon, but not quite ready to sell my soul yet! Run into some friends of Daz's (decky) and they tell us about a camp ground in Biot (5 min train from Antibes), so its off their to find somewhere to stay for a few days. Get their and book this mad little cabin amongst 300 other empty ones. The place is like something out of Narnia. This white fluff falls from the trees everywhere and looks like snow all around the cabins! Has 3 pools, tennis, bar etc, so we are living in luxury. Another friend joins us so now its a spacious cabin for only $100euro a week...luck is on our side! Catch the train back to get our bags, and run into more kiwis who intice us into a beer or two. Come 10pm, 3 of us grab our bags and head to train station, see the train, start running,and miss it by seconds. Random thing in France is noone is keen to make money! Taxis are impossible to get and buses don't run past 10, so its a long wait and some random french words before we finally get a taxi back to our love pad!

Antibes Beach - full of jellyfish
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Next day and its a early start rining agencies. Get two interviews, and luckily ones a good friend of the skipper & stew we just left so she goes out of her way to help me. Back to internet to update CVs and then time for a beer...Back to camp ground for a big vegie cook up and 4 bottles of wine later its lights out!

Up early next day and its straight into Antibes via bus for interviews. Both go really well, and within an hour am rung by a skipper wanting to meet me. Interviews on friday but sounds pretty sweet, hes irish...time for some family history research! Back to campground after this. Arrive back just as two ambulances and two fire engines go flying past...oh dear what have boys done to our love shack?! Thankfully just a big bushfire next to us, but at least its a bit of entertainment! Decide to play tennis, bad idea in 40degree temps, but a bit of a laugh anyways. cold shower and its over to the bar for a few games of pool! get rung by the agency in barcelona i was with, who have job offers for me! Good day! Will hopefully hear from the skippers tomorrow. Boys decide their going to italy tomorrow to look for day work so its another early night, seen as they need to be up by 5am.

Main street...
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Day 4? Sleep in then back into antibes to send off more CVs. Never had to work so hard for a job! But then again, never earnt such easy money tax free crusing the med either! Guess its all worth it in the end!

Day 8? No idea. Had an interview this morning, and fianlly success! Took the job on a 35m brand spanking new italian reva boat. its the tender the owners 130m boat, so all we do is transfer the owners from the boat to the port as their boat is too big to get in. Crew on the boat seems sweet, total of 6 so its a bit more spread than the last one. Start mid june which works out perfect with my plans to get to london. they start paying me next week which is even better and means i can spend a few days just cruising the coast here. so yeah thats where im at right now. ran into lucas's mate Di from last season today and started the day with a beer around 11am, then caught up with ambo from home for lunch & we're out to dinner later on tonight with her crew. Such a nice day here compared to yesterday, crazy winds here which apparently means the french women can kill their husbands if they leave home and blame their maddness on the wind...strange but true!