Nomade des Mers: back to the Atlantic !
At the end of March, we left the Nomade des Mers crew in Nicaragua after meeting with the NGO blueEnergy to document the biosand water filters.
Caroline and Corentin then ferryed the catamaran to Panama before departing for Europe. What has happened since? What next stopover for the Nomade des Mers? They give us an update in this week’s blog, present the latest fittings in the catamaran and tell us about the passage of the Panama Canal.
Last March, after a year of traveling aboard Nomade des Mers, we spent a month and a half in Europe, happy to reunite with family, friends and colleagues. It was also an opportunity to have a series of media meetings, to thank the association’s support and to work alongside the association’s permanent team - while respecting barrier gestures!
Back in Panama for a few weeks, we find to our surprise an healthy boat (thanks to Maël and his traveling companions who saved some systems in extremis!).
Quick tour of the low-tech on board
Spirulina survived, our plants and shrubs too. Since then, life on board has been resuming little by little!
The black soldier fly larvae, still in the egg state 3 weeks ago, have grown and are enjoying our organic waste! A new cycle of reproduction is launched.
The hydroponics system offers us its finest leaves with new local arrivals: lemon balm, sage, thyme, mint and lavender for herbal teas; climbing spinach, small peppers, celery, parsley and coriander for our salads.
The new ones
We are proud to present the latest low-tech installed aboard the Nomade des mers:
The dry toilets have been given a major facelift: the larvae of black soldier flies are now integrated. You will notice the reading corner!
We made a first prototype of a manual compost crusher to save space and facilitate the digestion of the larvae. Another low-tech refurbishment: the desert fridge for vegetables. The most recent low-tech on board: oyas, terracotta water irrigators to be planted at the roots of shrubs!
On the kitchen side, the low-tech cooking recipe trials resume: Here, they are vegan idli balls seasoned with garlic and chopped onions, accompanied by a small salad with freshly grown basil on board. Yummy, isn’t it ?
The famous Panama Canal
On Saturday May 8, 2021 at 4 a.m., we welcomed on board a pilot specializing in canal passage. His name is Moses! 😎 He takes us to the first lock and explains how to become a hand-liner. The principle is simple: you have to keep the lines at the four corners of the catamaran and make sure that she is well centered in the channel during the rising waters. A bad surprise for beginners, the lines were dropped too early and the starboard bow point collided against the channel. Thankfully, we are not Evergreen / Ever Given … We stay one night in the middle of a lake to start again the next day. After X locks and 77 km of canal, Nomade des Mers returns to the Atlantic Ocean four and a half years after leaving it.
David vs. Goliath impression …
We were overwhelmed by the size of the neighboring freighters. About 40 ships cross the canal each day and the largest can go up to 366m in length (that’s even longer than the Eiffel Tower!). We cannot imagine the monster amount of everything they are carrying.
This has strengthened us in our minimalist and zero waste approach!
Currently anchored in the Caribbean, we are preparing the boat for the next stopover: Cuba, another low-tech paradise.
