Appeasing Neptune and christening KWILENA

There are 2 ways to christening a boat. Pour the champagne overboard to appease Neptune while splashing some on the boat hull. An alternative is to smash a bottle of champagne on the boat hull, so Neptune and the boat both get their appropriate portions.

However, because Sven does not believe in these kind of things he suggested we should drink it :-)

We managed to find a font, size and colour we liked for the boat name and had the label printed and put on our hull. KWILENA means Dolphin in Australian aboriginal language which we felt is quite fitting since we both call Australia home.

We have registered the boat in Australia. So in addition to flying the Australian Ship Flag we will also be flying flags showing our nationalities (Australian, Swiss and German) and as a matter of courtesy and tradition, we will also fly the French flag (whilst in France).

It still feels a bit strange to see water under the kitchen/saloon area or see fish swim past

What else have we been up to? Well first of all we have used the boat more as a house boat than a sailing boat :-) but are enjoying Les Sables d'Olonne. We have been busy with organising the boat (registering EPIRP, setting up AIS system etc). Sven has also been adding shelves, draws, hooks, add electric cables to make more use of the current space. See some of his work below on the platoon whilst Caroline has been cooking up local fresh foods. Due to Covid no restaurants are open.

Sven bought a small washing machine in Germany. After not being able to find a local plumber in Les Sables for 3 weeks he decided to install it himself! His confidence to drill holes into a brand new boat is to be admired. We are just doing our first wash and it works perfectly.

Tomorrow will be a spring tide which occurs during new and full moon. In the marina in Les Sables we are on a floating platoon so we mainly notice it when we walk up to the street. Today was a difference between high and low of 5.25 m. We have tried to capture the difference but will take it from a different angle another time. The highest tides in Europe are in the French town of Saint Malo (which is on the coast of Brittany), with water that can rise 13m over the course of six hours.

Caroline is also learning to park this big boat. There is lots to think about, Where the wind is coming from and what the tidal flow is doing. It is a heavy boat which means it can't just be stopped straight away. And there are always seem to be people watching.... always!