Blog

Space…the final frontier!…..

July 20th, 2013 Time: -3 on GMT

Happy 44th anniversary of the first walk on the moon! It was 44 years ago today that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took that first step.

We were indeed able to get in to the Space Center tour yesterday. Despite the long waiting list, only three of us showed up for it, so we got in.
The limitation is due to the fact that they use two large busses. So, the number of seats is the limiting factor. The entire tour is in French, but for the most part I got the details. Our other \”wait lister\” spoke enough English to help out.

The facility is quite large and we were shown the buildings where the satellites are prepared to be installed on the rockets. There are three active programs here.
The Ariene 5 is strictly speaking a French affair and is the largest. Next down in size is the Russian technology (licensed by the Space Center) for the Soyuz launcher. Smallest is the Italian Vega. The Vega is mostly used for military launches if I heard correctly. Earth watching stuff with high resolution cameras.

The Soyuz is the most cost effective for commercial satellite industry and as such, the Ariene SIX is being developed. It will be smaller, very powerful and more fuel efficient. We also got to visit \”Mission Control\” in two different buildings. We could watch software being uploaded and checked. All in all quite interesting.

The next launch will be Thursday, July 25th in the late afternoon here. It can be watched LIVE on the internet. If interested, Google Korou Space Center and you\’ll find the link.

The Museum was also quite nice and fortunately the signage was also in English! There is a nice display on the history of the first lunar landing and the early space race between the Soviet Union and the USA.

We left the Korou river at low tide this morning and saw water less than 5 feet under the hulls. Glad we\’ve a catamaran with daggerboards. That way, Miss Piggy can hike up her skirts a bit to get through the shallow stuff….:-)

We again passed the Illes Salut (Salvation Islands) where the infamous Devil\’s Island is. Unfortunately, the refurbishments are just underway and there needs to be guides, not just \”self guided\” tours. I suspect in French, the tourists may get more of that? There does seem to be a small hotel/hostel on Ille Royal. We saw some peacocks; one male in full display. I\’ll post the photos when I get internet, most likely in Trinidad.

It\’s an over nighter to Paramaribo, Suriname, we should be there around mid day tomorrow.
KIT!
Scott and Nikki

Cayenne to Ille de Salut (Devil\’s Island)…..

July 19th, 2013 – Time: -3 on GMT

We were able to rent a car in Cayenne and a very nice young guy who spoke fluent English (originally from Guiana ex: Brit Colony) gave us a bit of tour of the town.
Andre brought us to the Tourist Office and we quickly discovered that despite this being very low tourist season, the Korou Space Center tour was booked for two weeks!

We are wait listed for Friday, but it doesn\’t look good. They have a Space Museum there which can be visited for a small fee anytime. The tour, when available takes a maximum of 15 people, twice a day and is free.

We got fuel, went to Carrefours (a well known French Food Market chain). We also met a nice Scottish Couple, Ian and Meg who were anchored next to us at the marina. Marina is an odd word to use for Cayenne, it\’s more like an old rest home for very old boats. Most of these boats don\’t seem that they ever may leave the dock again. All the locals said that they were so badly maintained that they all stopped paying slip rental as a group. No one said anything and it will be interesting to see how the local politics play out. Fortunately, we\’ll be long gone by then!…:-)

The town itself is a bit old French Colonial and things don\’t look like they change very often – lots of cafe\’s and bistros. We went to \”Palmistes\” Pizza and Cafe where we had good internet briefly and an okay pizza.

We left yesterday morning for the 40 mile jaunt up to where we are at Ille de Salut. These three islands made up the infamous French Penal Colony known as \”Devil\’s Island\”. All three are quite small and within 100-200 meters of each other (250 yds). We are anchored at Ille Royal which is the main area and Ille St. Joseph is within a shout. Ille Diable (Devil\’s Island) is on the other side of Ille Royal. We\’re experiencing heavy rain at the moment and as I write we\’re waiting it out to go ashore in the dinghy. Not sure if we\’ll go to Korou to try the Space Center Tour or not. They are open tomorrow, but closed Sat/Sun/Wed and Thursday mornings. Welcome to France!…:-)

We think we can see the Space Center facilities from where we are anchored and we understand that when they launch, these islands must be cleared of all people!
We\’re due East of the facility and it\’s the direction they sling shot their Ariene spacecraft toward to maximize fuel efficiency during a launch.

I\’m not sure, but we may be able to see from here, either a real Ariene Rocket or perhaps a model at the museum which is full scale?

That\’s it for now. We\’re getting near the end of the ITCZ. The NE Trade Winds should be as close as 50-150 miles north of us.

KIT,
Scott and Nikki

Cayenne to Ille de Salut (Devil\’s Island)…..

July 19th, 2013 – Time: -3 on GMT

We were able to rent a car in Cayenne and a very nice young guy who spoke fluent English (originally from Guiana ex: Brit Colony) gave us a bit of tour of the town.
Andre brought us to the Tourist Office and we quickly discovered that despite this being very low tourist season, the Korou Space Center tour was booked for two weeks!

We are wait listed for Friday, but it doesn\’t look good. They have a Space Museum there which can be visited for a small fee anytime. The tour, when available takes a maximum of 15 people, twice a day and is free.

We got fuel, went to Carrefours (a well known French Food Market chain). We also met a nice Scottish Couple, Ian and Meg who were anchored next to us at the marina. Marina is an odd word to use for Cayenne, it\’s more like an old rest home for very old boats. Most of these boats don\’t seem that they ever may leave the dock again. All the locals said that they were so badly maintained that they all stopped paying slip rental as a group. No one said anything and it will be interesting to see how the local politics play out. Fortunately, we\’ll be long gone by then!…:-)

The town itself is a bit old French Colonial and things don\’t look like they change very often – lots of cafe\’s and bistros. We went to \”Palmistes\” Pizza and Cafe where we had good internet briefly and an okay pizza.

We left yesterday morning for the 40 mile jaunt up to where we are at Ille de Salut. These three islands made up the infamous French Penal Colony known as \”Devil\’s Island\”. All three are quite small and within 100-200 meters of each other (250 yds). We are anchored at Ille Royal which is the main area and Ille St. Joseph is within a shout. Ille Diable (Devil\’s Island) is on the other side of Ille Royal. We\’re experiencing heavy rain at the moment and as I write we\’re waiting it out to go ashore in the dinghy. Not sure if we\’ll go to Korou to try the Space Center Tour or not. They are open tomorrow, but closed Sat/Sun/Wed and Thursday mornings. Welcome to France!…:-)

We think we can see the Space Center facilities from where we are anchored and we understand that when they launch, these islands must be cleared of all people!
We\’re due East of the facility and it\’s the direction they sling shot their Ariene spacecraft toward to maximize fuel efficiency during a launch.

I\’m not sure, but we may be able to see from here, either a real Ariene Rocket or perhaps a model at the museum which is full scale?

That\’s it for now. We\’re getting near the end of the ITCZ. The NE Trade Winds should be as close as 50-150 miles north of us.

KIT,
Scott and Nikki

Ariival at Cayenne, French Guyana…..

July 14th 2013 – Time: -3 on GMT

We motored yet again most of yesterday, teasing our record previous motor sail at 72 hours. Fortunately, with a few sailing attempts including yesterday afternoons few hour spinnaker run, we didn\’t break it! Late yesterday, we again tried to use the spinnaker and it was brilliant…for about an hour and twenty minutes! Then poof went the winds and back to the iron genoa\’s.

The water had notably turned \”Amazon Green\” yesterday and remained that way as we entered the shallow waters off the coast. Interestingly and most likely due to the centuries of the outflow of the Amazon and the Orinoco, this coast is very shallow a long way off shore. In some areas, a few hundred miles out, it\’s less than 250 feet deep.

Timing is always an issue on a sailboat with arrivals as to try and enter ports during the day and not on weekends. We flopped on both counts and arrived on Sunday morning at 0330 a.m.! The French are sticklers when it comes to proper navigational aids and lights and fortunately here they are no different. The lights were all where they were supposed to be and the narrow, shallow, long (8 mile!) channel was properly buoyed. The average depth of the outer channel was only 15 feet (3.8 meters); no worries for shallow draft \”Miss Piggy\”. I kept one daggerboard down at 2 meters as if we\’re going to go bump in the night, that\’s what I want to touch bottom with first. Alas, no \”wukken furries\” as the Aussie\’s say and we hooked up near a docking area with lots of small boats.

It IS hot and humid here and I cannot imagine being in this \”jungle\” without some modern conveniences like air conditioning to rely on in their homes and offices. Ah, those pioneers of yester-year. The Cayenne river is a dark muddy color and jungle mangroves come right down to the river banks edge. This is a sparsely populated and with a population about 90,000 in the entire country – Cayenne is it\’s largest \”city\”.

We\’ll do a shore recky later and find out about check in\’s/fuel/marketing/taxi\’s and most likely make our attempt tomorrow morning. It\’s Sunday and the offices are all likely to be closed. If they give us the \”you have to pay 500 USD for an agent\” story, we\’ll food/fuel up and do a day sail up to Korou (where the space center is) and try our luck there. Korou is directly adjacent to the famous \”Devil\’s Island\” in the three island, Ile de Salut group only about 8 miles off the coast. We\’d like to see if we can do a tour there as well.

I spoke with the \”boys\” this morning on \”TSU\”, \”OZ\” and \”Jongilanga\”. All is well, passed on the weather to them and we\’ll try and catch their evening schedule (when I\’m usually asleep).

The trip here was 5 days, 18 hours (misprint in the position report) – 895 miles.

So from HOT CAYENNE, KIT. Only 860 miles to Trinidad and Tobago.
Scott and Nikki

Forteleza, Brazil to Cayenne, French Guyana…..Day 5

July 13th, 2013 – Time -3 on GMT

We got the current back yesterday and it really showed in the days run of 190 miles. All but 2 1/2 motoring!
We did put the spinnaker up for a few hours, but the heading was really bad and the speed just okay. Hence, back to the iron genoa\’s.

Despite the short break yesterday, this is effectively the longest motor ride ever for Beach House. I\’m not afraid to motor when the sailing conditions are not happening, so off we\’ve been. It\’s been very comfortable and after all. WE ARE IN THE ITCZ. The two boats behind us, \”This Side Up\” and \”OZ\” are going to hit this area with much better winds and most likely be able to sail it most of the way through. Ah, the luck of the draw.

The magic latitude seems to be between 6 – 8 degrees North. Once there, the North East Trade Winds will be re-established and we\’ll be off sailing the rest of the way to Tobago. That will happen essentially as we leave French Guyana.

Last night we passed the local fishing fleet. I thought we were back in Indonesia. Really junkie looking, improperly lit 70-80 footers. We could pick them up on radar, so no worries on dodging them which indeed Nikki had to do on her watch.

This morning, we\’ve seen two Super Tankers and that\’s it. It\’s squall-ier now, but still little rain and less wind. We have seen some interesting lightening shows the last two nights. Fortunately, none close!

Short one for today as there isn\’t much to report. 130 miles to go, Cayenne is French and the navigational aids therefore will be superb. A very well lit big ship channel is there and I think we\’ll be able to go in after dark. Next blog and position report will hopefully be \”at anchor\”.
KIT,
Scott and Stargazer Nik