Sail Vessel Khalifavideo
#29 Strategic Stop in French Guiana | Exploring Île Royale
December 13, 2025 · 29 min · 4K views · Île Royale, Salvation Islands
What this video covers
Adriano, Denise, and Alexandre aboard the 38-foot Khalifa stop at the Îles du Salut (Salvation Islands) in French Guiana, spending two days exploring Île Royale before continuing their circumnavigation. After a seven-day offshore passage, Adriano was too exhausted to go ashore the first day; the family from sailing vessel Runa, a Danish-Brazilian couple with three children, waited an extra day at anchor to welcome Khalifa's arrival with beer and croissants.▶ 9:29 The outboard dinghy motor, a Mercury, failed on arrival — a clogged carburetor — which Adriano cleaned with remote step-by-step guidance from a mechanic named Ziza via a Mercury owners' group.▶ 3:08 Once repaired, the crew explored Île Royale's 19th-century penal colony ruins: a former prison, hospital, chapel, oil-lamp lighthouse, and a 4,000-cubic-meter rainwater cistern still partially in use. Île du Diable, visible from shore, is closed to visitors and was France's harshest political prison.▶ 7:37 A French Guiana water company barge delivers fresh water to the island three times a week, pumping it roughly 500 meters uphill.▶ 0:52 Adriano also explains buying a desalinator from AIC in Tijuca, Santa Catarina for R$45,000 — R$10,000 more than a Caribbean purchase — to secure post-sale support and avoid paying 35,000 reais upfront to an unknown importer.▶ 26:18
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