Nov. 11th Las Palmas

We left Gran Tarajal and sailed to Moro Jable just another 20 nm south. We had a sort of race with Mike and Alexandra. The wind was kind of light and they were overtaking us... So we set the genaker and were catching up fast. Then we entered an acceleration zone and we sort of took off :-) still, we had to drop the genaker, the wind was to strong. With one reef and the genoa we still made over 10 kts. Mike and Alexandra had to much canvas and had to bare away, so we won :-)

Next morning we left for las Palmas, Gran Canaria, a 60 nm trip. It was a great sail, sunny, warm and with a great 15 kts of wind. I knew there was little chance we would get a berth in the marina because of the ARC. Actually there was no chance at all... :-o

Just north of the marina is an anchorage though. That too was kind of crowded but we found a nice spot. The anchor seemed to think differently though... it dragged. So after Rutger hauled the anchor by muscle power, cheered by the crew of the next by boats, we found a better place also according to the anchor... it held perfectly.

Next morning we rowed to the marina and found a place to fix the outboard. You can row in a dinghy but that's just for emergency... Manjana it would be ready...

Next thing was to find someone that could fix the windlass.. Also I needed to have the gascanister filled.... well first things first. One thing I learned is that you just have to take things as they come nothing gets to be planned.

Anyway, next day we went to pick up the outboard and it was fixed. It make's a lot of noise for some reason but it works. Getting the windlass fixed was another thing though. Because of the ARC all the mechanics were too busy.

We spend the time to reorganize the boat a bit more. We need to stow a lot of stuff for the crossing, stuff that needs to stay dry too.

We also had the chance to clean the outside of the boat from the dinghy. After I finished I could use a bath too so I jumped out of the dinghy and had my first swim :-o The water was great, clean and warm but, has it's own inhabitants like ... jellyfish... This one was just a tiny one but stung like hell. I got out of the water and put a sponge with vinegar on my arm. Since we had just reorganized the whole lot I knew were to find it :-)

Getting the gas canister filled too turned out to be not possible. There is this Disa company that does gas but the filling station is about 20 miles south. You can't take a gascanister in a cab and if you'd rent a car there's still no guarantee they can or will fill it...

According to the pilotbook there should be a service station in las Palmas also. So next day Rutger and I spend the afternoon exploring the town in search of this station. We had a great walk through the place and did actually find the station. The manager told me to bring the canister so he could have a look and if possible it was no problem to fill it. Since it was already 4 pm we aggreed I'd come back next manjana. When I did, he wasn't there and the others had no clue. If I would come back in an hour they would get in touch with the guy I spoke to yesterday...

Anyway I had to get to pick up some stuff at the chandler y, which hadn't come in yet... manjana or worse.. Monday, because manjana is Saturday... Being there though I ran into the mechanic and if I would leave the windlass at the shop he would pick it up and check it.... :-) Well, we'll see.

Anyway after I returned to the gas station, they couldn't help me. They weren't allowed to transport my canister because it's not a local one … If I would bring it myself... to the airport they would see if it was possible to fill it but.. no guarantee . Well whatever, I'll use the camping gas I also have.

We'll just have to take things as they are and happen. Maybe the windlass gets fixed after all.. manjana... :-o

Adrift

Nov 5th - We left Puerto Calero Nov. 4th heading for Corralejo, Fuerteventura. The wind was westerly and about 20 – 25 kts. So on a beam reach we made over 8.5 kts of speed over ground. The sailing was great!

However with that speed we would be in Corralejo in less then 2 hrs.... We had been too long in the marina for so short a trip. We decided to keep on sailing and go to the next place on our list: Puerto del Castillo. At around 4 pm we went into the narrow channel leading to the marina. I knew from the pilot book that the marina wasn't too big so I called them by vhf... no response... We went up the channel anyway. No response isn't that uncommon..

The marine was indeed kind of small and looked kind of crowded, too. I was already having second thoughts on entering, because the 25 kts of wind was on the beam and would leave me little room to manouver. I called them again  and again; no response. Then I realized it wasn't 4 pm yet and thus still siesta time.... We went up and down the channel until they were awake again. This time I got a response …. the marina was closed ….  well, whatever … So we set sail again and sped to an anchorage, Pozo Negro, just 9 nm further South.

The anchorage was nice but desolated.  About 6 to 10 houses on the shore. We stayed for the night and I cooked dinner for the first time this trip … pasta with tuna sauce :-)

I had looked at my watch for the log and had seen it was Saturday … meaning we had to get to a supermercado to stock up. So next morning we left Pozo Negro sailed to Gran Tarajal, a short trip of about 15 nm., a real sort of town were we could do some shopping.

The marina at Gran Tarajal is also not too big and most yachts anchor just North of the marina in a beautiful bay. There were already several yachts at anchor. We found a nice spot, but not for long... the anchor dragged and since the windlass for some reason had given up on us Rutger had to pull the anchor in by mussle power... :-o We found a new place, but again not for long... this time it was my turn to haul the anchor in.... :-(

Third time it held..  We launched the dinghy to get ashore. It turned out the windlass had a companion in failing; we couldn't get the outboard started. The pulling cord was jammed. I got that fixed but nonetheless it wouldn't start :-(

So we rowed ashore.... By that time we were in for lunch … I didn´t want to leave the boat by itself and the dinghy by it´s own on the beach, so I went to do the shopping while Rutger would keep an eye on things.

When I came back the dinghy was gone...  so was Rutger … I saw the boat a bit further offshore steaming up to the beach … ? I saw Rutger dropping the anchor and then another yacht came along side and I saw Rutger rowing over with another person...

Later, when he picked me up from the beach, he told me that when he went back to the dinghy he noticed that the boat was further away. We had the boat all the time in sight when we had lunch. I even took some pictures and all seemed okay then.

Anyway the anchor did drag again and was about half a mile away. Since Rutger could not see me coming back yet, he took the dinghy and started rowing. A yacht that was just leaving the bay gave him a tow. It turned out that the first yacht had noticed that there must be something wrong, no one would anchor that far from shore and when they called there was no response from us. They notified the people at the marina but by that time Rutger was already back on board. The people of the yacht helped Rutger out in steering the boat while he hauled in the anchor.

Anyway, all went well and we invited the couple from the yacht that helped us out over for a drink. It turned out that we had met Mike and Alexandra before in Oeiros and we had a nice chat. They're sailing the ARC by the two of them.

While Rutger rowed them back later, I let out some 10 meters more of anchor chain. You would expect that 30 meters of chain in 5 meters of water should do, but the 'sand' over here is more like gravel - very loose and not very holding... Well, everyday is a school day I guess :-)

All set again :-)

Yesterday the rigger finished his jobs. He also closed part of the hatch of the anchor locker. On the front the hatch was completely open, meaning that every time we had a serious wave over, the anchor locker was filled with water in a split second. The self draining holes aren't big enough to let it all out in time for the next wave so over time the bilge got filled also :-o

In the mean time, Rutger and I got to tick off a lot of jobs from 'the list' and cleaned the boat inside out and  now we're all set for sailing again.

So today we'll leave Lanzarote and sail over to Fuerteventura to hop down the East coast. The wind is West so that will give us some nice and sheltered anchorages. In a few days the trade winds will be back and then we'll hop over to Gran Canaria.

It will be daysails mostly with also time to snorkel. There are some nice reefs out here according to the pilot book :-)

Change in plans

Sunday night Phil and Kim came over after dinner and we had very nice evening. They're planning to go cycling next year first 6 months in Argentina then Europe and after that they want to go to New Zealand. So there won't be much sailing for Phil then anymore... :-o

Anyway, when the rigger came on Monday to change the fitting of the halliard he was done in 15 minutes. However, since he was up the mast he also checked the rest of the rigging and it turned out that the inner fore stay was broken. Apparently the 40 kts coming down here had taken its toll.. :-(

Well, we can't cross the Atlantic with a broken stay. It's not hard to fix that but not on the spot so the plans had to change.

Andy had to be in Las Palmas on Wednesday to get there in time for his flight home and we couldn't sail there. So he booked a flight from Lanzarote to Las Palmas for Tuesday.

Well that was the end of his trip... we all enjoyed it very much. The 6 weeks were quite eventful and looked way longer, until it's over,.... then it seems only a week ago since I picked him up at Schiphol.

Rutger and I spend the whole day cleaning and doing all kind of little jobs. Also we got the inner fore stay off and it was definitely broken.

Wednesday, the rigger will come over to pick it up and hopefully Thursday the new one will be ready. We'll see. In the mean time we'll reorganize the boat a bit to get it ready for the crossing, we have to stow a lot of things then.

Vulcanos

Oct. 28^th Today Rutger and I rented a car and explored the Island a bit.

We drove to the South and checked out the bay we'll be anchoring this weekend. It looked really nice and, for he first time we won't be the only boat anchoring...

We'll be staying over for the weekend and return to Puerto Calero on Monday to have the rigging of the genoa halliard fixed. Antonio in Lagos suggested to use the uphaul as a halliard for the genoa and that worked out very well. However, I can't use the originally halliard as a uphaul for the spinnaker pole. So when I went over to check on how to refill the gas canister, I saw this van with all this advertisement about rigging, electronics, fitting and stuff. I asked the guy if he could help me with the rigging. The boss was a German technician and came down to have a look. He suggested a better way so I didn't actually had to rig a new halliard and he could help me... only not before Monday. He also told me that with the ARC and stuff, I would not have a chance to get somebody at Grand Canaria to fix it. Anyway, if we leave Lanzarote Monday, we'll still be in time for Andy to catch his plane, so that's what we'll gonna do then.

Also, we can get together with Phil Sommervile and his partner. They happen to fly in on Sunday for a short holiday. Phil was our instructor at Cornish Cruising and was also in the picture to join us for the crossing of Bisquay, so that would be nice.

Anyway, after having checked out the bay, we drove up North to the national park with the vulcanos. The drive itself was along the coastline with the swell breaking spectacular on the rocks.

After a while we came at the national park where we did a 40 minutes bus tour through an amazing landscape. Just black lava stones and rumble with no vegetation at all. The rocks were even darker then the asphalt of the road.

We ended at the restaurant where there were several holes in the ground down to the still very hot lava. To show that, they poured water into one of them and a few seconds later it turned into a geyser. In another hole they threw a bunch of twigs that was set on fire a few seconds later. At one point you could see the reddish glow of the lava. Over it they had mounted a rack and used it for a barbeque. You couldn't really look into it because of the heat.

The whole Island is just one big lump of lava with none to very little vegetation. That's also because it hardly ever rains. Not even enough to provide drinking water for the inhabitants.

Anyway, it was a very interesting tour in a moonlike landscape :-)

Puerto Calero

We made landfall at Lazarote in Puerto Calero, a great marina with all the facilities we were up to like excellent showers and a laundry :-)

After the storm was over, we had a really great sail. With a 10 to 15 kts wind on a beam reach we made 7 to 8 kts in speed over ground. The plan was that Rutger would do the cooking at least once on this trip and with the sea state calmed down he made a great carbonare!

As the gribfiles indicated, the wind decreased to 5 kts, backing to SW. With still a 60 nm to go we decided to start the engine and set it at 1500 rpm so that we would make landfall next morning instead of in the middle of the night.

At around 9.30-ish we got into the marina. Time is getting confusing. The Canaries are on UT time but they're actually a bit too far west for that. When I checked in I also had to ask the receptionist what date it was.. When you're at sea for 5 or 6 days, you loose track of days and dates.

Anyway. Today, Rutger and I will rent a car to explore the Island. Andy has a real trouble with his foot so he'll stay on the boat. He has to see a doctor fort that as soon as he gets home.

By the way, the fish we couldn't identify turned out to be a dolphin fish.

On our way to Lanzarote - Canary Islands

Oct. 24th @ 22:45hrs - Position: 31°10.907N/012°47.826W

We're 5 days at sea now since we left Lagos, Portugal. All is fine and we are having a great time.


As posted earlier, we had to change our plan of destination because of the low that was coming in from the Azores. The best course was going South. That way we would be on the best side of the depression. That course was directly heading for the Canaries. We waited until the evening to decide whether we would keep this course or tack to get to Madeira. When I downloaded a new gribfile it showed that we would have to steer directly into the depression if we would tack to get to Madeira so we decided to keep our course to the Canaries.

However, there was a secondary low developing rather quickly that wasn't om the gribfile yet. When the wind kept picking up I downloaded a new file and that showed a SW wind increasing to 30 kts. Still this was the best course to steer; you don't want to go West into the northern section of a depression. East was the direction the depression itself was heading and North would take us to the primary depression. And, after all,  South is the best option if you can stay East of the center.

We just made it to stay East of the center but came really close. The barometer stayed just 1 millibar over the lowest on the gribfile. The wind picked up to 35 kts :-o With the second reef in the main and the staysail ½ furled in, the boat was in perfect balance and so we sailed close reach into the night. Dinner was changed to noodles, cooking was no real option anymore. At day break the wind had increased to 40 kts with a spectacular sea state. Good thing that you can't see the waves at night …. :-o

Beating a force 9 in the Atlantic by hand-steering was originally not in the plan but nonetheless quite an experience. I changed the watch system back to 4 on 4 off with Rutger's watch overlapping the last half of Andy's and the first half of my watch every other watch. I slept on the floor of the saloon in case an extra hand was needed. We managed very well and apart from the moments you'd wish someone would turn off the wind for a moment, we were okay.

Next morning I downloaded a new gribfile that showed that we were coming out of the heavy wind section, By noon the wind should have decreased to 15 kts and so it did. By that time we had all the sails back on and were speeding with 8 kts over ground to Lanzarote, the first of the Canary Islands we could get to. After 5 days we all are very well in for a decent shit, shave and shower :-)