Preparing our departure (#3)

Hi everyone and welcome back for this week's blogpost. It’s a little shorter than usual because I’m writing it in a bit of a hurry since we are getting ready to start sailing again tomorrow. As you might have noticed our blog posts run a few weeks behind of where we currently are. But we’ll catch up on that later. Enjoy …

All moved in and enjoying the life on board of our new boat, it was time to start thinking about leaving Les Sables d’Olonne and preparing for our very first passage…

The sails …

We had ordered some additional sails so we’ll be equipped for different wind conditions. A local sailmaker in Les Sables d’Olonne, Voilerie Tarot, has made a code zero and a spinnaker sail for us. It’s definitely an advantage to have your sails made locally, especially regarding the after-sales. But it’s also a lot of fun to be able to see how they are made. Jérôme gave us a tour in the workshop and explained to us the different steps to make the sail. You’ll be able to see all of this later in our YouTube videos.

With the code-0 sail, we’ll be able to sail closer to the wind in light air. And the spinnaker sail is designed specifically for sailing off the wind from a reaching course to a downwind. The spinnaker fills with wind and balloons out in front of the boat when it is deployed, called flying. Ours will be in different colors of blue fabric. Can’t wait to see it!

The safety and boat supplies …

While we waited for the sails to be ready we also ordered all safety and boat supplies needed such as a liferaft, life jackets, safety lines, a lifebuoy, extra fenders and a lot of more stuff that will keep us safe on the boat when needed.

Sven also ordered the parts he will need for the watermaker that he’ll install later.

When everything was ordered there wasn’t a lot for us to do in Les Sables d’Ollone so it was time to drive the camper to Belgium. Oh wait first we had to go grocery shopping to provision the boat, we bought a looot of food!

The trip to Belgium

Although the main reason for our trip to Belgium was to take the camper there to sell it, we always love going to Belgium to visit our families. We had a great time there but unfortunately the weather was already getting unpleasant and that always makes us impatient to travel back South. We managed to take care of some of our business in Belgium, we had some nice family moments and Sven got his marine VHF license. While we were in Belgium I worked on the website during my free moments and we ordered some fun merchandising stuff like pillows, t-shirts, hoodies, flags, … for the boat, you’ll definitely see all of it in our future videos.

The departure …

After spending a little more than a week in Belgium we drove back to France in one go and we only had two days left to prepare for our departure in Les Sables d’Ollonne. So we picked up all the stuff we ordered, the sails were delivered and the lazy bag was installed, also by Voilerie Tarot. A beautiful lazy bag in the ‘Nohma’ colors and with our name on it!

We also went to buy some extra warm clothes for the nights on the water and some fresh food for the next days.

On Friday morning the big moment had come, we were ready to leave Les Sables d’Ollone and start our big sailing adventure.

Read all about our first, challenging passage next week. Stay tuned!!