Avis de coup de mer

Last night we were kept awake by a shutter downstairs banging in the wind. No surprise, really, as the weatherman had warned of dangerous conditions on the coast. It was an easterly gale, the usual culprit for damage and shipwreck here.



This morning we went for a walk along the ramparts, liberally soused by packets of saltspray coming over the battlements. The sea was churning like a washing-machine, full of tree trunks and assorted wreckage, including, sinisterly, a lifebelt. Not a time to venture out in a boat.



Suitable weather, then, for the AGM of the lifeboat station. Their challenge isn't so much the sea state (they've been out in much worse, and they were out today for rough weather helmsman training) but the financial forecast, with choppy liquidity, along with dangerous squalls in the offing, such as having to replace the batteries, and giving the engines' turbocompressors a long-deserved overhaul. Both are likely to cost a lot. Nicolas Esselin, the station treasurer, on the right, needs all his rough weather training to keep the accounts on an even keel.