Night was short. I sleep very well on the boat, but woke up at around 2am and couldn't get back to sleep until at least 4:30am. I don't know, I guess I was a little anxious. It was so windy that night. Well, that's nothing compared to what Louis experienced in his solo transatlantic last summer, but still. The last time I did a 4-5 ocean day was in 2018 after a hurricane, so the sea was pretty calm. It's not that I'm afraid. But I imagine that the fatigue, the night, the unknown that we will soon live, all that did not help my night. Don't get me wrong, I can't wait to go. It just happened!
Oh, I forgot to tell you, or I'm telling you twice and if so I apologize. We forgot a grocery bag in Armando's car yesterday. Crisps, instant soups, chocolates, sweets, until then, we thought that if we didn't see Armando again today, too bad for these little sweet / savory treats, but this morning Louis asks me where the coffee is …er…in the bag we don't have. It went less well after 3 days without coffee for him. So we go back to see our Portuguese friend who lent us the old charger, since he had offered us his car if we needed it. We have difficulty communicating since he only knows a few words of English, but we manage. I try my translation applications on my cell phone but the network is bad at that time and I don't succeed. He lends us the car for 2 hours, standard stick, Louis is happy. We go looking for gas stations that have diesel and empty cans to buy. We are looking but no cans on the horizon. So we filled the one we had because we should have a few days with little or no wind. And we filled the tank of the car as requested by our friend. It's very nice of him to have lent us his vehicle so we filled the tank completely.
We then go to the grocery store to buy what we needed, less candy and just 1-2 chocolates each. We eat at the small restaurant that was in the supermarket. Sandwiches, an espresso for Louis and a natas for me. We then continue our search for cans that we will eventually find 3 gas stations further.
We bring everything back to the car and what we discover in the cockpit: our bag of food that Armando brought us. We need more people like that in our lifes! Thank you, friend! We will not forget you and we wish you to sail as you wish on a sailboat one day. We then bring the car back and tackle all our tasks.
Climbing the genoa into the wind, not easy. Especially since there is sand everywhere and the pulley is ready to give up the ghost. No danger, we no longer touch this pulley until the Canary Islands. We won't be able to hoist the sail next year with this pulley.
Install lazy jack and battons. Louis in his harness chair, me securing him so he can also check the ropes and rigging up to the top of the mast
Change iridium go chip so you can follow us with gps. The batteries are dead and we forgot the charging wire in Montreal. We finally get lucky thanks to the recharging wire of my backup cell phone battery. We don't want moms to worry. Nevertheless, it should work, we are waiting to check all the settings. but if not. We will let you know when we arrive in the Canary Islands.
We finished removing the mold, each in our corners. It is always to start again with a wooden boat interior. But what do you want, we like wood.
Install the hydro vane at the back of the boat. Louis feet in the water in my sandals used only for public showers. He has difficulty putting them on, but it hurts his feet less on the ladder afterwards. He says the water is warm, warmer than the outside temperature. A bit like when we bathed there last summer.
Finish installing/placing everything in the boat cut and glue the rope for the hydrovane. That was special.
Cut a rope in half and burn both ends to then glue it back together using the plastic part. And it holds strong. I wouldn't have thought it possible until I saw it.
As I write to you, Louis is hooking up the lifelines, checking the exterior lights and attaching the last diesel canisters. If everything goes as planned, we should leave tomorrow morning early. So we won't have time to write to you again, that's why I'm publishing 2 writings to you in the same day.
Here is the link to follow us by sailboat:
At least, if it works. Otherwise, we will write to you as soon as possible upon our arrival in the Canary Islands. It should take 7-8 days. Mainly crosswind, with 30% upwind. Mostly 2-3m wave, with some smaller and some bigger. We will have a few days at the engine it seems. Well, all that can change but it gives you an idea if ever the gps to follow us does not work.
Time to go to bed! We'll talk soon!
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