Day 183, Year 5: A Dinner Invitation
Date: Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Weather: Another Beautiful Day
Location: Ile Fouquet, Salomon Atoll, Chagos
Early this morning a neighbor we have not met came to invite us to dinner tonight. Jean-Alain and his wife Armelle are from Brittany in France, but they now live in Belgium. Their boat, the Armelle T, is a 17.5 meter (57 foot) boat that came in a couple of days ago. Yesterday Mark and Ed took them a huge chunk of the yellowfin tuna Ed caught. So as a good neighbor, they invited us all to dinner. We learned that they left Europe in 2003 and ended their first season in New Zealand. Then they went back to the South Pacific, up to Japan, Alaska, back down to San Francisco, and back to New Zealand. While in Raitea in French Polynesia they met Phillipe who is now permanent crew. Jean-Remy flies in from Europe to crew with them and will stay with them until they get to Mauritius. We had a great evening aboard and hope to see them again in Madagascar or South Africa.
My morning was spent in the dinghy cleaning the waterline and then the whole outside of the boat. I washed it down with Awl Wash and then put Awl Care on the green stripe at the top of the hull. I was going to Awl Care the waterline, but it was noon by this time and the water was no longer flat, so that will wait for another day. Once a boat is painted with AwlGrip paint, the recommendation is to wash the boat with Awl Wash, and then once a year apply the Awl Care. So I will continue doing a bit of this each day until the whole boat is done. Mark worked upside down in the engine room for most of the morning fixing one of the bilge pumps that got struck in the wrong position on the bumpy ride here from Peros Banhos. He also adjusted the oven as it has been unreliable lately. Then he worked on his fishing gear, replacing the lure he lost yesterday. In the afternoon, we worked together on our Madagascar anchorages spreadsheet and then we jumped in the water and snorkeled the reef in front of our boats close to the shore. The water was not as clear as we would have liked, but we had a delightful time exploring and enjoying the colorful rusty orange brain coral that is interspersed among much less colorful coral. There are some lovely little clams here that will someday be giants and the same array of fish that we have been seeing since we reached the Maldives, all of which are beautiful.
When I wrote the date for this log, I realized it is my niece Jennifer’s birthday. And then I remembered that yesterday was the birthday of another niece, Candi. So happy birthday Jennifer and Candi.
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| 100427 Day 183 Salomon, Chagos–Dinner on Armelle T |
