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| -- 1st to 13th July 2011 -- |
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A longer stay in Kersolff, South Brittany, wrapping up the last details and celebrating our departure with families and friends.
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Camille’s family’s holiday house – our playing field during those two weeks.Still 1245 miles since the Netherlands...
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1st to 6th July 2011 : the very last details
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Here we are in Concarneau, our harbour for the last days before jumping into the Great Adventure on the Great Ocean. We have some more last details to fix and repair (change a clam cleat, check the mast and stays, clean the injection circuit on the engine...). Friends visiting for a day enjoy a small trip in the bay.
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Then the most stressing time before any holiday: time to pack! How to fit all the pairs of shoes, summer dresses and extra books I desperately need in one little suitcase compliant with the ever more stringent luggage allowance of my airline? Same game here, only with a boat. We start by getting rid of some junk we might not need right now after all: European guides and charts, worn-out fenders and the “legs” Saltimbanque uses to stand on the sand sometimes as the water gets out too far – well, they’re big and heavy and a boat is not made to stand anyways.
One trip to Camille’s parents’ to drop the junk in exchange for some more useful stuff: 20 meters of chain, a garden water spray that will become our shower, a fish hook, a small foldable cart, soap that works with seawater, guides and charts of the Antilles... and of course a good stock of “French cuisine” tin cans!
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4 shopping carts to fit in one boat...how the hell are we going to make it?
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Actually everything fits on the sides !
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Operation charts : this is where we are going... all those islands !
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We prepare also an emergency “grab bag”: this is a bag that we will grab as we evacuate the boat, with emergency items. We have another waterproof container with water, distress rockets, a first aid kit, a distress beacon, a GPS and portable VHF, a fishing line and mussels in a tin can to bait, a sponge, some rubber repair patches for the life raft, a flashlight, spare batteries, our passports, a few dollars, a whistle, swimming goggles, our satellite phone Iridium. In the second bag there’s mainly food (self-heating dried food, high energy jelly, biscuits etc) and a floating anchor. Should we have to evacuate, Camille will be charged of the lift raft and the spare water cans outside, and Laure will grab the grab bag and waterproof container, as well as Saltimbanque’s papers andlog-book. Well, that’s the theory – we hope never to execute...
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Saltimbanque is ready, soon the D-day...
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After all the shopping and stocking, we have about 300 liters fresh water onboard, 30 kg food... and a few more degrees heel to backboard! Saltimbanque is a few cm deeper into the water as well... so that’s the price of our autonomy: we will sail a bit slower.
Now we’re definitely ready to go!
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Saltimbanque is ready, soon the D-day...
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Once the boat is all set, we leave him in Concarneau and become landsmen for a few days. Laure’s parents came from Bordeaux and rented a small house near Kersolff. Camille’s parents are getting the garden ready to fit 28 people!
Saturday afternoon: open doors day on Saltimbanque. 11 persons onboard at the same time, we had never done that much before! (and the boat sinks just a little bit deeper...)
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Camille’s father and friends onboard
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Some of our visitors find the boat a bit small inside !
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On Saturday night we have diner in the garden under a big tent.
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« Brittany » is the theme
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« Brittany » is the theme
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A number of hours later we count the bottles: champagne, Bordeaux wines and spirits brought back from previous trips in exotic places...
On the Sunday the bravest go for a swim, before enjoying a giant barbeque in the garden.
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Waching the experts play with fire
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Everyone at the table
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After two days of feast, everyone goes back to his normal life and we start watching the weather charts... doesn’t look so good in the days to come... to be continued!
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