Bundy-Cairns or a little bit more about our daily life…

We are currently in Cairns.

We have travelled 500miles in about 1 week…this is a lot of sailing and not much exploring…a part for 1 afternoon in the Whitsundays and 1 day on Magnetic Island, we’ve been sailing all the time. We have a lot of distance to cover in very short time, as we have to be in Darwin by November 1^st, to meet a crew member, and to avoid the cyclone season…We won’t see much of Australia, which is a shame as it seems to be quite a beautiful country…

During the 1st part of our trip, between Bunddy and the Whitsundays, we were gifted with whales sightings every day, sometimes more than once…we had one cow-calf pair coming nearly under our boat, probably for teaching purpose and mating couples making shows…you can have a look at Vincent’s web site…he’s got a movie of a beautiful breach…

www.lonelypeanut.net

This is for the glamourous part of the trip: sea, wind, sails and all…but today I’d like to tell you more about our daily life, which, for those who haven’t sail before (I know there is some who are reading this, althougth most of our english readers are well accointed with sailing) will seem quite exotic…

First imagine a small mobilhome, then put it on a 45degree angle then shake it like hell…this is about what it feels to be inside the boat at sea!!!

You can have a look at Vincent’s website as there is a little movie of the living quarter…

How to be a yatchie in 4 lessons :

Lesson Number 1: Food!

This is really important and not only because we’re french…meals are a good heart and body warmer when you are at sea…

The galley…and the bar (bellow our bed)

The cooker is supposed to always stay horizontal, despite the moves of the boat…but sometimes, if the boat jerks unexpectedly, the pans might end up on the opposite wall so we cook basic stuffs in order to always keep one hand free to catch the pan before it lands on the ground…menus are Pastas, rice, potatoes and start again…we tried corned beef but it nearly made us become vegetarian…even Romain!

BUT…since we got to Australia, our fishing luck changed and we were able to eat tuna…and even dry some of it!…

Cutting out some fillets…

Lesson Number 2 : Shower !

We don’t have a bathroom on board (our boat is quite basic…) so we invested in a solar shower that we hoist up the mast.

Let’s face it, we only clean ourselves in really flat seas or at anchorage…

For the moment, we are marina-based every 10 days or so, so it is not too bad…but in Indonesia, this little black bag will be our only weapon against smells!!!

We can happily get 4 showers out of it…and hot too !

Lesson Number 3 : Poo and pee !

This is not too much of a problem for the guys…althougth we had a good performance from the captain, who managed to poo on the misaine sail

I took a much safer option by using a bucket

This is my flush :

Lesson Number 4 : On deck

We have given names to all our gear on board…let me introduce them to you :

Lesson 4.1 : Sails…our primary propulsion medium…luckily (see previous articles)

Tequila is a ketch…which means we have 2 masts; the main sail, whose was named Blake after Sir Peter Blake and the misain sail, named Mortimer (which makes reference to a french comic).

We also have Archibald, the Genois (from comic Tintin : this is captain haddock name) and Paulette the storm gib (Paulette the trinquette in french!).

With all those, we have quite a lot of sails combinations, which means we keep hoisting, sheeting, etc…so our arms are getting strong (mine at least!)

Lesson 4.2 : Our motor : Higgins…secondary propulsion medium…most of the time

Our motor got an english name, given that it’s an english brand…as all english motors (ref our defender), it gave us quite a few worries…but now it seems that he is now performing much better…starting straightaway and roaring happily.

This is lucky, because we had to motor for 2 days, as the wind totally let us down…

Lesson 4.3 : The tiller

As I say, we are not on a flash boat, so no flash automatic pilot…luckily we have Régis, the wind vane…this is a very simple, easy to use device, based on the wind, so it never break down from fuel or electricity shortage…

Nothing better was invented since Soclum’s time, and when we put it on, we can happily turn our attentions to other activities such as : reading, cooking, watching the sea (never ending occupation, especially now that we can look at islands, mountains and other landscape features…)

Regis the wind vane…and our 2 trailing lines

Lesson 4.4 : Where do we go from here? or navigation…

Given that we have : maps+2GPS+1computer programm+1Romain to activate all of them…we are meant to find our way…

I keep a good old sextant and compas…just in case!!!

Lesson 4.5 : PAF!, our dinggy

We named our dinggy Paf, after the drink Tequila Paf, which is the french name of Tequila+lime+salt

After a few days of rowing, we decided to buy a motor…we chose a japaneese brand, this time…no offence to our POM friends!!! ;-)

Paf, in wonderful Nara Inlet anchorage (Whitsunday Islands)…you can see Tequila, in the background

I think you know all the little guys we have on board…which are helping us in our trip…

We are now in Cairns, where we intend to spend 2 days.

We are going for a dive on the great barrier reef tomorrow, and also need quite a bit of stores, given that we will not see a supermarket for the next 3 weeks.

Our next stop is Thursday island, at the very north tip of Australia. From there we will sail 1 week across Gulf of carpentaria to Gove, then in a few hops, anchoring in small bays and island, we will end up in Darwin.

We will most probably post our next story from Darwin, where we will once again fill our stores and catch up with 1 more crew member before sailing to Indonesia.

Bear with us until early november for more news…and please post some comments on our web site, so we know whose visiting…and who I should be writing for…

We send all of you a big sunny and windy hello!

10:00 - 4/10/2006 - Ajouter un commentaire