Winter in the tropics … it is not always as we imagine it!
With this article I will try to catch my phenomenal late, cheating a little I admit by just sharing with you the pictures of the last few months (see links below). More detailed articles will follow later, I promise.
For those who have not followed the events, we spent the winter between the Grenadines and Guadeloupe sharing our adventure with friends and family. So far, it sounds good. The heat, the golden shores, small romantic islands and lush vegetation … You already feel the straw floating in your glass of Piña colada!? We’re almost there.
To view photos click on these links:
http://flickr.com/gp/3metz/Tf4wd7/
http://flickr.com/gp/3metz/npR23N
http://flickr.com/gp/3metz/73Kb35/
http://flickr.com/gp/3metz/S24Ve3/
In March we had an extended stay on earth in Martinique to do significant work on PlanetOcean. Work that we constantly pushed back since we bought Planet but if we want to cross the pacific ocean next year, we had no choic but ?reaking inour bank account.
This long layover got children back on the benches of the school. To the delight of Noand “misfortune” of Camille (who prefers ?chool on the boat he says)… We rented a small house in the west of Martinique near Le Francois and every morning we could admire the breathtaking scenery of the wildest ocean coast. Meanwhile, Olivier had stayed on the boat, in the drydock , to keep him company he had the mosquitoes, cockroaches and rats without counting the 35 degrees in the cabin at night in the absence of sea breeze.
Olivier:
“Our Martinique stop was very technical and I met more mosquitoes than grains of sand. We put PlanetOcean on the drydock for a refit session:
Starboard hull was pierced in a very vicious place and we had to make some holes in the hull before deciding any repairing action. So to the most curious: rudder tube (1) was drilled under the waterline (2) and the leak filled a crashbox (3) rear engine. Nothing very serious because the volume of embedded water could not increase thanks to judicious partition (the leak had already been present for a few months.) But a repair was needed, and I was lucky, we had to an appropriate site and had a careenage (4) to do.
PlanetOcean has thus found her buttom out of the water for nearly a month, and in that same time I suffered the dust, resin fumes and the incessant attacks of mosquitoes (well organized in 8 hours shifts). Fortunately, Stephanie and the kids were able to stay on the ground and avoid this hell.
The boat has enjoyed a good fitness, including: review of the windlass (5), the engines, the steering system and transmission, new hot water circuit (Mmmm), new jib and revision of the safety gear.
Anyway, here we go again in our adventures with a safer boat, a honed crew who know their boat and at the same time a serene captain!
Notes:
- rudder tube: tube through the hull at the stern of the boat and keeps the axis of the rudder (the stuff that makes the boat turn). Wherein the tube, due to the age of the boat, and the aluminum was completely eaten by corrosion and electrolysis. Changed to new, here we go again for 20 years.
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waterline: theoretical line of healthy vessel. If it disappears under the water, you have to change boat.
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crashbox: “Collision” box in French. This is a buoyancy compartmentalized, front and rear of the boat. If pressed or crashed, the boat should still float.
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The careenage is the underwater hull cleaning, sanding and changing the antifouling paint (which retards the growth of algae and shells).
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Windlass: electric motor for slackers who do not want to raise the anchor and chain by hand.
See photos: http://flickr.com/gp/3metz/5ZMgG8/
On Noe’s birthday PlanetOcean was back on sea (at last!) and a week later we set sail (at last!) towards Guadeloupe, St Marteen, Dominican republic and then Cuba.
We were in Luperon in May. To see pictures click on the following link: http://flickr.com/gp/3metz/SXxvyX/
Good wind to you all and we’ll send you more news about Cuba later… Then it will be Panama in July.
Planetocean