On arrival in Cape Town, Nomade des Mers was suffering from three split bulkheads, a rickety hen-house, and a part smashed up forward. We spent a week doing odd jobs, eating... We then had a boat and the morale ready to brave the storms. Yvon Fauconnier joined us aboard to guide us to Madagascar. And the big new event: the hen-house has become telescopic. In case of bad weather, we can close it up. The hens even have a brand new ‘sandbath’ (a hen cleans itself in the sand). They were lucky enough to see some sea lions jumping just a few meters from them. Despite their ‘I-don’t-care-nothing-amazes-me-since-I-saw-the-whales’ attitude, I think that this encounter marked them. To be effective on this quick stopover in South Africa, Elina, Louis-Marie and Hugo left via the land to discover the local ‘low-tech-ers’, while with Yvon and Clément, we sailed towards Durban. While awaiting the warmth of the tropics, we optimized the low-tech devices on board: the latest version of the wind generator we designed in Dakar is working well. The new hydroponic systems are almost ready to receive the plants sown after the storm. The new process set up for raising mealworms is now up and running. The hens are participating in a big research experiment for our compost.
Boat: Kennex 445
Where: South Africa, Atlantic Ocean
Who: Corentin, Louis-Marie, Camille, Elina, Clément, Hugo, Yvon, and the others…
Blogs: www.lowtechlab.org
www.goldofbengal.com
www.live.nomadedesmers.org
