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Atlantic Crossing

In our last travel story, we had indicated that we had left the Canaries Is-
lands on September 28, leaving our boat Karhammel IV there, under the
watch of John Crouch.
We flew from Nantes on November 16 to prepare for the "big passage"
from Las Palmas to Rodney Bay in Saint Lucia. We arrived in Las Palmas in
the middle of the night, after a long flight with a stopover in Barcelona, the
direct flight having been canceled. We hadn't had any information, and
Gilbert had discovered it by chance but luckily two days earlier. We had in
our bags a lot of bits and kits to make some repairs or improvements to the
boat.

The ARC organisation had just opened the preparation week programme
for the participating crews.

Preparing the boat and the crew
In September, we had already made a part of the preparation, repairing
the few anomalies that appeared during the trip from Pornichet, and be-
ginning to resupply: replacement of the bow thruster joystick, installation
of an additional solar panel, supply of durable foodstuffs (one hundred
bottles of water, canned food, pasta, rice, mash, ..), and we had refueled
thendiesel, including the two reserve jerrycans.
This time we had on the programme for the boat:
• Engine overhaul: oil change, replacement of oil and diesel filters,
checking the water pump. These operations are not complicated in
themselves, but first you have to access the engine by removing the
engine box, which is no small matter.
• The cleaning of the three-way valve of the toilet, which we suspect-
ed to be the cause of the malfunction observed since the overhaul in
Itchenor.
• The installation of pulleys and ropes for the boom preventers and
the Parasail sheet, and a remote locking system for the jib car.
• Cleaning the hull, rudders and propeller.

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