story is a bit crazy, it's ours.
mid-December, we are invited by the parents of Stephanie to spend the holidays in Switzerland. We realize Mindelo to leave the boat in a safe anchorage.
The price of the marina and "friendliness" of the official deter us to give them Enea. We anchor chain 50 m by 5 m deep with two anchors empenelées to face the wind can get up in the bay. We're very close to the marina does not suffer the chop, which rises when the wind became stronger.
It's been three weeks since we are there and everything is fine.
We can leave alone.
Lawrence, Azyadé is wet at 30 m from us and stay here until we return mid-January. It will take a look and come on board from time to time to ensure that everything goes well.
ago 1 year and a half we did not put shoes and procurement are essential for children to face the winter in Switzerland: Visit the shops of Chinese Mindelo and purchase beautiful baskets plastic (with pink lights, please!).
Our arrival in Geneva is surreal.
After the French coast, Spain and Gibraltar - in winter then the Canaries, six months in Senegal, and three in Cape Verde, the holiday season year-end Swiss stun us.
We become aware of unsuspected an offset against our current lifestyles and that which was ours before leaving.
In Senegal and Cape Verde we bought what we were. If there is jam, perfect, we are happy and we take ... whatever the flavor! We have always found the necessary, sometimes had to ration some fresh vegetables after three weeks without racing, but nothing has ever failed. So to find in supermarkets is endless rays really strange: we are completely taken before the choice before us. And even more surprised by the stress of buyers who are moaning because they will perhaps not find a particular brand of chocolate for dessert ...
The holiday of years accentuate the impression.
We are very pleased to see family, friends and buddies and we are also pleased to find places and villages as Nioumoune in Casamance.
increasingly crossing the Atlantic, which is provided upon our return in Mindelo, call us.
This orgy of consumption, more than other years, we amazes me.
We feel so strong that we're not done with life on board, sailing, meetings and counting (related to life in the West).
A week before our return on board, Lawrence calls us to tell us the flight of Enea.
is Stephanie who responds and takes it rather well. Theft, it happens, it's annoying but there is no loss of life.
She quickly understands that is not a burglary but the disappearance of the whole boat ...
Lawrence went to bed around midnight and six o'clock in the morning Enea was gone.
After the tour of the bay with his schedule to make sure it has not slipped, or that has failed, it raises the alarm.
Enea can not be far off.
enrgistre Marine police complaint and can not do more than report the theft of items in the archipelago. They have no speedboat and even less air.
Two days after posting the review of research on the net, messages of support and encouragement we received from all around the Atlantic. Afriquaine coasts and South American.
messages from friends, and brief encounters dense and way too unknown.
It touches us deeply.
I realize only in Mindelo to move things and make a formal complaint. I realize quickly that Lawrence has been incredibly effective.
The posters are everywhere, all the boats left the bay have received notice of flight and even the U.S. Navy patrolling the area for stories of drug is advised. All browser arriving at Mindelo were questioned.
Thanks Lawrence for your help and we will investigate your were valuable.
After Lawrence had left for Dakar and the head of the marina Myself company noted that it has nothing to do and, having no boat I have nothing to do on its pontoons, I am back in Switzerland ...
Enea was our home, everything we had.
Starting with a single ticket, we had nothing in Switzerland. More car, more apartments and more work.
We stay in the parents of Stephanie, Geneva. We are very good. We have two very spacious duplex rooms and lack nothing. Children benefit the most from their grandparents.
So although we may be, we are still squatters and it does not let the situation drag on.
After three weeks of waiting, Enea is found in Brazil. The information we have not yet confirmed that the messages raining!
Brazilian architecture workshop where I worked, called to say that it prepared me a list of links on the Brazilian national and local press and it proposes to me translation.
It allucinant.
I see pictures of Enea lying on its side on a beautiful beach in Tutoia.
It's sunny, white sand, coconut palms ... and full of policemen.
There is no doubt it is Enea and did not seem to have suffered a lot.
Our insurance mandated MCS Germany, specializes in finding lost ships, tells me that an expert is on the way to Fortaleza and asked me to join him as soon as possible Brazil.
At the airport, Kai is waiting for me and took me to the hotel where he shows me the pictures he has taken two days before.
I was dumbfounded.
If the hull seems to have suffered little, saffron is still torn, the sails were cut with a cutter and have all disappeared and the compass was snatched and taken away.
Inside, a hurricane has passed. More electronics, electrical panel snatch away toilet, lockers and drawers ripped open and obviously any personal effects.
After the night bus and three hours from 4x4 to go there, was even worse. Despite SURVEILLANCE the establishment, Enea has been visited and there is really nothing more to recover.
I am shocked and am unable to take pictures. I felt like a voyeur, like those gents who s'aglutinent on the scene of an accident to see the wounded expire.
Without surprises, says Enea insurance total loss. We are asked for € 40,000 out of there and the cost to repair it are enormous. Much more than the insured value.
Back in Switzerland, we spend hours on the internet looking for a new boat. This is not about to let fly our dream. We want to leave quickly. Our school is made daily in the morning and search the rest of the day.
The impression of being returned two years ago.
Everything has resumed. But this time with experience. And a more precise specification of a part, but also less restrictive, since we do not keen to find a sailboat metal: we consider a very good eye old tupperware.
On a sailboat, space is limited. You can not pick that much and we thought we had.
In retooling ahead, we realize that we still had too many superfluous and that the surprise in this case.
We had a bunch of useless stuff and theft of Enea we caught consience.
We will leave lighter.
After selection, we saw an aluminum monocoque 13m in Italy that turned out not to be ours. The fonts are congested two inboard engines and a large group but renewables are not at the rendezvous. All lockers are full of pipes and cables, those in the cabin air conditioning and two water heaters and more.
Besides sending children into their cabins, real caves without light have found the true punishment.
Back in Switzerland. (Not without us being stung our bags to Milan: question to be even lighter!)
Second visit.
A Sun Fizz the 1981 dry at Mortagne / Gironde Charente Maritime after a world tour with a family.
's him.
Some cosmetic work inside. The boom, the plexiglass roof and a little hardware change and we leave.
For now, we expect an expert (overbooked due to storm), registration of Phileas and we begin the work.
Mortagne is a beautiful town on the Gironde and will gladly prepare Phileas in this peaceful setting.
the harbor, we met the couple who holds the creperie (Marc and Francoise de Fanfan for those who know them). They come to reopen the institution for the season. These are sailors who have left their boat in Brazil a few days earlier.
We did not come back when we realize that the day of their departure for the recliner from Mindelo, a "long hair Laurent" gave them a placard to placard in front.
The world is really tiny and decidedly Lawrence devilishly effective!
Good luck to you all
And soon, for drinks on Phil!
