July 2012

Hello everyone,

As our friend Bernard, on his ketch Pitcairn, had done a good job, a couple of lobsters were waiting for us when we reached our favorite islet; and the small hangout below four coconut palms where we like to enjoy our pastis ( a typical, licorice tasting drink very popular in Provence, drink with moderation), our spot is now temporarily ornate with a plate of exquisite good taste bought from a gas station in the central mountains of France.

So, life could be mighty sweet under our latitudes, had not a team of playful gremlins come to verify one again the famous principle I?ve had the immodesty of calling ?Antoine?s Principle?, that says ? Any mechanism knows a normal, natural, stable state called the state of ?breakdown?; it may sometimes, always for a limited amount of time and with lots of efforts, be kept it in an unstable and abnormal state known as ?working?. So, this time, outboard engine, electric circuits and pumps of all kinds have come to tease us in our spot of paradise?

Fortunately, providence was keeping an eye on us, and even in the most deserted places, we have always been lucky enough to suddenly see materialize from thin air some guy, happy to help us: in Makemo, for instance, at the end of a week of absolute solitude, the smiling Paumotu (native of the Tuamotu islands) who passed by on board his speed boat, just when I was totally unable to free a fuel filter that had been tightened much to tight. I had just lost hope of freeing it, and was raging at the fact that I had put my engine out of service precisely while trying to service it, when that guy came from a neighboring island? looking for a box of matches! I gave him one, and in exchange, strong as he was, he took only a few seconds to free that impossibly stuck filter.

The same, this time: my small outboard engine hag gulped some sea water and a long time without use had paralyzed it : so Bernard jumps on it with a 24 mm ratchet tool, and lo, 15 minutes later , the engine?s up and running; and even when, in a deserted island, I had to install a new alternator, an other navigator who had anchored a short distance away, happened to be an electrician who helped me install it with no trouble./.. And the other day, it was another navigator stuck in Fakarava as his starter battery had died on him.. I happened to have a spare one, so I gave it to him; he?ll give it back to me some time, or he will give it to another navigator experiencing the same trouble, that?s how it works in these anchorages at the end of the World.