Preparing the Jump

Preparing the Jump

It takes 3-4 weeks to get to our first land fall in the south sea. We expect fewer services for the boat and us. So we prepared: getting the ship ready, getting us ready.

Did you ever try to shop food for a month? Or even for 6 months? As we want to be as independent as possible, our Adventure Room was turned into Jade Akka's Mini Market. And anywhere we sit and there is storage below, there is food in there.

While you probably service your car once a year, we did this, too, with our ship's engine. However, we most likely have to service our engines inbetween here and New Zealand again, so all spares are on board as well. Maintaining the ship under way? Yes, tons of things from screws to engine parts and sail repair items: all there. We are already now trying to identify the thing we will need first that we do not have on board - for sure it will take us by surprise. Whatever, after 9 months on Jade Akka and many learnings we feel we will manage surprises - and there are supposedly also good ones right ahead of us!

Big part of the preps was to get new anti-fouling. Our hull showed quite some growth under water and we felt the slow down. Furthermore we wanted to work on some rusty patches, so we checked if we do it or if we get it done. Turns out, due to capacities at the provider, we did it ourselfes. Exactly what we wanted.

Getting on the dry and back again turned out to be challenging timewise. We had the option to get out and back in quickly, as we were put in front of a boat already in the yard but scheduled to get back in. The other option was waiting another week. So we hopped out quickly, worked over the weekend and got back into the water on Tuesday. Great cooperation with Technomar!

In the meantime we provisioned and hauled bags of food and drinks on board - while the deck was probably 4-5m above ground! So our electric winches did the job. Even though this was a big help, it was a sweaty job in the dry heat of La Paz. However, the cooling down in the rooftop pool of Marina Fonatur was waiting for us. So it was not too bad :-)

Finally we serviced the winches with Dawn Rigging while Technomar took the injectors of the main engine to the lab and got them serviced. So they did with the starter of the main engine. As we get the electricity 95% from the solar panels, we decided to service the generator much later as it still runs smoothly when needed. As soon as we got the main engine back to work we tried to leave - bad luck, the port just closed due to heavy winds. While waiting at anchor for the port to open, we did not notice any wind. A few days later however we met sailing yachts that had torn their sails in the gale. Lucky we were! So after refueling besides Steve Job's yacht we were ready to go. Mentally as well as ship wise. Let's see how the wind developed ...

Here the photos from the yard at Fonatur and the work of Technomar