Splashhh!

Nous devions retourner dans l'eau hier mais comme sous les soleil des Antilles tout prend toujours plus longtemps que prevu, nous n'y serons que ce matin. Encore 2 heures et Merlin retrouvera son element naturel. Un bateau est fait pour etre sur l'eau. Nous n'avons pas pense a notre consommation d'eau et d'electricite pendant ces 10 jours et nous avons sans doute consomme plus que d'habitude. Toutefois, nous ne regretterons ni la chaleur, ni les moustiques, ni les guepes, ni la poussiere et encore moins le non acces a nos toilettes.

Voici donc Merlin "apres", tout beau et fier.

Nous devrions reprendre la mer tres bientot. La saison des cyclones touche a sa fin et le voyage va se poursuivre. Nous sommes impatients de reprendre nos decouvertes.

Almost there...

Still on the hard. Merlin is looking good and it is only a question of finishes. The damage patch has almost disappeared. Greg is still doing hundreds of different things which are impossible to do when we are in the water. The rest of the family is hot inside, doing school in the morning and then enjoying a very good connection.  

Working Sunday

Greg is still working hard and trying to make the most of our time on the hard. Today was dedicated to the transducer and the props. He started cleaning them and was very disappointed to see that the advice from the guys at the yard wasn't working. In fact he was cleaning them with bleach and not acid (the bottles look similar)! After some more minutes of painting them with the right stuff they came back as new. Amazing!

We have some fishermen as neighbours and we asked them if they could have a look at the broken net. They came today and fixed it. We can't even see where the hole was.

The day was hot and we accepted the invitation from another boat to go to the beach. They came to pick us up. The kids enjoyed so much being in the water again.

Two more days on the hard are still planned. Getting there...

Lentement mais surement

Les travaux avancent. La premiere couche d'antifoulling a ete mise ce matin (ce n'est pas le meme rouge mais nous avons une garantie de 1 an avec cette peinture: aucun coquillage ne devrait s'y accrocher!).

Le trou a ete bouche mais les gars du chantier essaient de trouver le bon blanc pour la derniere couche de gelcoat. Notre blanc n'est pas si blanc et ils jouent donc avec des tubes de gouches pour essayer de trouver ce que le soleil du Cap a fait en 5 ans (depuis que la coque est sortie de l'usine Dean).

Les garcons font ecole dans le carre. Nous avons finalement loue une petite clim qui permet de baisser la temperature de quelques degres. Mais 31 valent bien mieux que 37! Clea est bien sur toujours derriere son papa et pret a aider.

Nous devrions retourner a l'eau mercredi car les dernieres finitions vont prendre du temps. Greg en profite pour faire quelques travaux qui sont plus faciles a faire sur terre.

Hard work

The repairs continue and the hull was open widely to fix it properly with balsa wood, fiberglass and then gelcoat.

As we decided to lift up the waterline, Greg was busy today with the special primer we need to apply above the old waterline...which needs 4 coats. The other primer was also put on today. It looks like Merlin is not too sure which colour "he" wants to wear.

 Check behing the genoa, there is a big spot light!

It is on all night long and is the meeting point of all the mosquitoes of Prickly Bay. Our nights are hitchy and our days sweaty!Still very hot here and we are missing our daily jumps in the water. However, we are able to use fresh water with a strong hose pipe so Merlin is having good showers nearly everyday!