Hysterical!

Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Sun 18 Nov 2012 21:14
The reason nothing is written on the blogg is the hysterical pace we are going through right now.
The nice part of it is that we had a visit by Mary and Kelvin who are as always delightful to meet.
They brought some important spare parts etc and we had a chance to have a good day together.
We took a walk together in the old town, pictures and more will be posted later.
Unfortunately our generator is half loose since we are changing the holding on it and we could not go sailing with them.
Next day Ellinor went to seminars all day and I was working on board (with that dammed generator) and taking care of our children and their friends from other boats.
Soon thereafter our kids got sick (probably from meeting a lot of other kids). We got some bad stuff and the whole family runs on antibiotics.
This also means that we are far from 100% in shape. Especially Erika has had very high fever.
Then we understood that we need to fill the boat with food, not only for a three week voyage but actually for the whole stay in the Caribbean.
Most of the islands have very little to sell and if they have it it is very expensive.
Then Ellinor started to provision and soon thereafter trucks with boxes came to our boat (and all the others as well believe me).
Then we have learned that all carbon boxes have to be taken away because cockroaches lay eggs in the glue (we have a neighbors
that has gone through that route including bombing the boat to get rid of them, and if that is not enough you just have to go out at night on the pontoon to see them running).
Then we have learned that pasta for instance has to be sealed in different bags so any nice animals that can be with the product only destroys that bag and not the whole rest. That goes with most products. So we have been working late nights, one of us repacking every single item and one packing in the boat and making lists of where everything is.
On top of that we have a long list of safety items to be taken care of.
Today we sailed with a guy from Hydrovane (our wind rudder) to check whats wrong with it. He changed the rudder itself because they think it is wrongly manufactured from the beginning. Now it works. But an operation like that forces you to schedule the whole day. First you have to pack the boat and make her ship shape, and then there is the rest, sick children, food, etc.
On top of that was the opening ceremony which was fun, we are only seven Swedish boats in the ARC so we had to make a lot of noise, the hard part being in competition with the Norwegians that are pro on bringing the biggest flags and they are also a lot more boats.
Hopefully we can post pictures soon, the wifi in the harbor is a joke but I have to go to an internet facility to download charts for the Caribbean in the iPad and do some upgrading so I will post a big chunk then.
One week to go from today! What an adventure!






Salsa af Stavsnäs
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