This is an authorized translation in English of a post in French by Vincent Le Roy (@vincentleroy): La Saga PLOUF [Episode 5] : Mais alors rien de rien!

Remember that the person who speaks here is NOT me, Vincent Celier (@vcelier), but Vincent Le Roy (@vincentleroy), a French guy.

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Note: "Plouf", in French, is a onomatopoeia that phonetically imitates the sound of an object that falls in the water. The equivalent in English would be "Plop" or "Splash". That is a strange name for a boat!

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Brief summary of previous episodes

In January 2016, I am given a boat, a tiny sailboat. A kid's dream. Her name is Plouf. And in fact the canoe is in a state not possible and I do not know much except sailing. I tell you the journey that I traveled with this small boat, that have become my fourth baby!

The PLOUF Saga [Part 5 of 17]: When you do not understand anything ...

The port of Binic has a fairing area. Concretely, we position the boat at high tide, it is moored everywhere, it is crutched and then we wait for the sea to go down. Once the sea is removed, we start the big big high-pressure cleaner and we must remove the crustaceans under the hull! The song says "Coquillages et crustacés" (shells and shellfish), well, for a boat owner it would be rather: shells and bloody shellfish. By the way, the chosen day for the cleaning of Plouf is February 5th ... and today is the 4th!

[Note: "Coquillages et crustacés" is from a French song, "La Madrague that Brigitte Bardot sang in 1963]

The day before, I finalized everything. I went to Ronan at the marine hardware store and retrieved all the necessary products and equipment. Scraper, brushes, rollers and especially the anti-fouling paint. Ronan asks me what color do I want? I love his question ... The color? But I don't even know what an anti-fouling paint is. He smiles and explains to me: "When you have finished scratching the hull and it will be dry, you will apply the product, one to two layers. This is the paint that protects your hull against the shellfish. Must be done every year or every two years. Don't worry, it'll finish drying in the water. What color do you want? "

Red. I want some red. The old is red and with its black shell, it slams well! As long as I'm there, I'll take some rope to replace my mooring lines. Those in place do not seem very thick and they are really in a bad state. It's not complicated, they are green! Ronan takes things in his hands again: "clean your canoe and when she will be back to her pontoon, I'll come and change all that and make you tailor-made splices". It's funny this need for sailors to make big sentences, as Audiard would say. Especially with words that I do not understand. But if he says it, you have to let him guide you sometimes. In my head, I know that the reasoning is always the same: I listen with humility, I impregnate myself with the knowledge and one day or another, I'll know more than him. Because I learn quickly. Very quickly. But for now, low profile. I am in school and that's it!

Philippe, my buddy, went over to Plouf. He promised to redo the bilge door. So we went on what looks like a tub to take the measurements. In the middle of the green environment, it is not only the hatch that is dead. The amounts too. The tiny cabin contains nothing. A little mess in the dock bay. Two stays in particular. Stays? What for. Really, I do not understand anything.

I went to the Harbor Master's Office too. There too, I am not mastering the subject. OK to put the boat on the fairing area, but how do we do that? Especially since Plouf still has no engine and mooring a boat ... I just know how to make a figure of eight knot ... Yann welcomes me. He is in a very good mood my harbor master. "You have the luck of a cuckold! the tide times are the best possible and in addition the weather will be nice! Bright sun! I am not sure I get it ... I do not care about the weather. How do you move the boat there? I sensed that he was confident and he said to me: "No worry, at 6:30 come here at the Harbor Master's office. We'll be there to help you."

Yeah, me who likes to understand everything and master everything, it will not be for today. Tomorrow is the big day and I have my team up to the task! I show nothing of my questions and anxieties to the troop, I am the captain, right?

-- Vincent Le Roy (@vincentleroy)

Continue to Part 6

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4

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