This is an authorized translation in English of a post in French by Vincent Le Roy (@vincentleroy): La Saga PLOUF [Episode 7] : Ne jamais baisser les bras

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 an 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! In the last few days, we have finished preparing the D-Day to clean it ... So, Day D! Except that everything does not go as planned!

The PLOUF Saga [Part 7 of 17]: Never give up

Sometimes the technical realities annihilate your excitement instantly. While the day had started well with a 100% fine move in the harbor to put Plouf in the right place, now, returning to the fairing area, we discover with René the scope of the job. There is 5 centimeters of very hard shells on this fucking hull. I am beginning to understand the usefulness of scrapers. René seems confident. With 250 bars, it will be cleared in no time!
The machinery is installed in a bungalow just above. Yann gave me a special badge that starts it. When the indicator goes from orange to green, you press it and there is nothing to do but play with the hose. On the surface, it's simple. So I press a first time and the button changes to orange. I'm waiting for the green to push it. 5 minutes. 10 minutes. And still no green. It is already ten o'clock and given the size of the project, I cannot wait to start the job.

10:15, the button still orange, I decided to call the Harbor Master's office because it seems to me it takes a very long time to go green. Yann on the other end of the line confirms me. He arrives ten minutes later and opens the bungalow. He checks everything: the valves, the pressures, the engines ... Everything seems to be in order. Not so much in the second instance. Verification done, one of the two pumps is KO. It starts really well. Clearly, we have no pressure cleaner. And the time is passing by. I do not know much about it, that's for sure but to manage a work schedule, it is my job and that I master. There, we are downright late. The children will arrive that we will still not have started the cleaning and at 16:00, the sea will be back.

Zen. We stay zen. I can only rely on Yann for a miracle. Always imperturbable, he takes things in hand again. He's going to pick up the gas-powered pressure cleaner at the workshop and he's coming back. A quarter of an hour later, the port van reappears with the pressure cleaner on wheel. Yann connects and starts it. It makes a lot of noise! But unfortunately, we will only have cold water and 165 bars. According to the harbor master, this will do it, it will be just a little longer.

René attacks. Hose in hand, he begins the stripping. And we will have realize quickly: the power is not enough. Yann tells us that we should start with scratching, scraper and hammer in hand! He shows us how to avoid damaging the hull. We stick to it too. That's what hangs these fucking shellfish and shells ... 11:30, most of them have been removed. We make another pass. A pressure shot, a scraper. At noon, the boat is naked so to speak. We are wet from head to foot, literally and figuratively. We are hot. We are thirsty too.

Noon, the children have not arrived yet. There are times, they annoy me. It's D-day, the most important thing! And these gentlemen sleep in the morning. I send them a text message a little assassin. Go to the barge to eat a dish on the terrace in the sun. In ten minutes. Thank you. No, but it's true, really! They are pissing me off! I just want to share all that with them. What if we went for a drink?

-- Vincent Le Roy (@vincentleroy)

Continue to Part 8

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6

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