Well I have been in La Graciosa for just over 2 weeks and thought it was time to update you with our progress, Jo is currently back in the UK serving her notice.
The first impressions of La Graciosa is like being in one of the old western films, no roads as such, just sandy tracks the place is really nice and so laid back it is untrue, which is just what I needed after the build up to accepting the boat and the delivery trip. Nearly everything you need is here, supermarkets, bars, restaurants etc. A very reliable ferry service runs to Orzola with a connecting bus to Arrecife, for the things which do not, gas refill and petrol, yes no gazoline on the island only gasoil. On the whole things are a little more expensive than mainland Lanzarote, but this is due to all the goods being transported via an independent ferry service (old fishing boat). The people are all very friendly, which is no surprise with the pace of life they have.
I have already hade contact with other cruisers who are all a helpful friendly bunch. My first encounter was with a French family in a Dean Catamaran (Lou) who were really very outgoing with respect to water sports, every toy you can imagine, they only stayed a couple of days before leaving on route to the west coast of Africa.
Manfred and Godrun from Germany who are on their own designed and built 50 foot monohull, which in typical German fashion is built to last.
Alan and Christine a French couple who have just completed a refit on a boat they bought here 2 years ago, yes they have been here 2 years and love the place, but plan is to leave in a weeks time, now the refit is complete. They will be back, I am not sure how long they will last without the local banta every evening in the bars they have now become accustomed to, plus all the invites they seem to get to party nights with the locals, I think they have been adopted by the people of Graciosa.
Jean-Martial and Aurora another French boat, Martial has been cruising for 27 years, with over 100,000 nautical miles on the clock in his boat Capitaine Ulysse. Aurore who is now crewing for Martial and being taught the tricks of the trade. Martial is on his way to Brazil, via the Cape Verdes. On his arrival Martial invited all the cruisers together and made us all a 3 course meal, which was fabulous, followed by some very entertaining tales form both Martial and Manfred, all in English, which was the common language, luckily for me. This has now set a precedence and I am not sure I can keep pace with the late nights and the quantity of alcohol being consumed.
My contribution was a requested afternoon sailing round the island on Invincible with lunch and gallons of red wine being brought by the soon to be very happy sailing party. The weather was ideal, the sky was blue, so was the sea, the boat was an absolute pleasure to sail in these conditions and a very good time was had by all. Certainly a memorable day I will never forget!
As I type this Alan has just passed in his tender, with the now customary wave on passing.
On the whole I can certainly recommend an extended stay in La Graciosa, which for anyone with or without a boat will not be disappointed.
Saturday 31 May 2008
Tuesday 20 May 2008
Boat Work
Well now that Jo has gone back to the UK for a short while, allows me to crack on with some outstanding jobs.
The one I have been waiting to do is in the engine bays to finish off the generator stand and the compressor stand, one stand in each engine bay. When I was in La Rochelle, I measured up and created a drawing of exactly what I wanted, and then to find someone in La Rochelle to fabricate my design.
The hardest part was measuring up inside the engine bay with bits of string, gaffer tape and shackles acting as the plumb weight, to ensure I get the correct shape.
After about 2 hours of measuring and climbing in and out of the engine bay, I had the design. There was only a very small tolerance to work with. The stands were made from 12mm marine grade aluminium, which keeps the weight down and maintains the strength.
When fitting the stands and then loading the generator on top was a great moment, it fitted perfectly, big sigh of relief!
The journey form La Rochelle to Graciosa was a fair test and the stands passed without a hint of any problems.
The generator is the small Honda commercial set EC 2200, which when running puts out 2.2KW, having both 230V and 115V, I have seen this unit on most building sites back in the UK, running power tools, talking to the guys who were using them confirmed that this was what was needed for the boat. I am using the 230V plugged into the shore power lead (230V), which when the generator is running supplies the whole boat with power, charges the battery and heats up the hot water, it’s great!
The generator is running as I write this update, the unit is reasonably quite 76db, the fuel consumption is low and being the only bloke in Graciosa with a portable generator and no power supplied to the pontoons makes you very popular with other yachties.
The one I have been waiting to do is in the engine bays to finish off the generator stand and the compressor stand, one stand in each engine bay. When I was in La Rochelle, I measured up and created a drawing of exactly what I wanted, and then to find someone in La Rochelle to fabricate my design.
The hardest part was measuring up inside the engine bay with bits of string, gaffer tape and shackles acting as the plumb weight, to ensure I get the correct shape.
After about 2 hours of measuring and climbing in and out of the engine bay, I had the design. There was only a very small tolerance to work with. The stands were made from 12mm marine grade aluminium, which keeps the weight down and maintains the strength.
When fitting the stands and then loading the generator on top was a great moment, it fitted perfectly, big sigh of relief!
The journey form La Rochelle to Graciosa was a fair test and the stands passed without a hint of any problems.
The generator is the small Honda commercial set EC 2200, which when running puts out 2.2KW, having both 230V and 115V, I have seen this unit on most building sites back in the UK, running power tools, talking to the guys who were using them confirmed that this was what was needed for the boat. I am using the 230V plugged into the shore power lead (230V), which when the generator is running supplies the whole boat with power, charges the battery and heats up the hot water, it’s great!
The generator is running as I write this update, the unit is reasonably quite 76db, the fuel consumption is low and being the only bloke in Graciosa with a portable generator and no power supplied to the pontoons makes you very popular with other yachties.
Monday 19 May 2008
Good Byes
This update comes from Arrecife airport check in queue. I said good bye to Kevin at 3.45 pm to catch the Orzola ferry, then connecting bus to Arrecife. My parents have kindly left my car at Leeds Bradford airport for me. I get back late tonight then start work in Newcastle on Monday. It is not yet decided the amount of notice which will be required, but we are obviously both keen to get things wrapped up back in the UK and finally set off properly.
We did manage to have a good day before I left as we set off in our wetsuits in our tender to do some snorkelling. We did not have long to explore by the time I was packed and we had dug out our dive kit. So we set off to a reef just outside the marina bordering the long sandy beach beyond. It was another lovely sunny day, though with high cloud and a bit windier.
We threw in the anchor in what looked like a likely spot on the edge of the rock and sand. Kev went in first and had a good swim round before I took my turn.
The visibility of the water is fantastic, the colour of the water made a noticeable change to the more azure blue after we came south of Gibraltar. There was a good assortment of fish including the local emblem which I think is called the Vieja and looks a bit like a parrot fish.
There was sea cucumbers and some various weeds but no rays as we'd hoped. Kevin took us a bit further along the beach for another look and the fish were bigger there but still no rays!
Just as Kevin was coming back to the boat we were visited by the rather imposing looking reserve protection vessel. If asked us whether we were fishing and had a look in our tender presumably for a speargun. If seemed quite happy that we were only taking photos and went on his way. We decided it was probably time to head back though, so we up anchored and motored back.
Kevin took the opportunity to inspect the hulls and remove some plastic we had managed to pick up on route. A clean bill of health was reported although there is already a surprising amount of growth of the brass props and wear on the anodes. We both really enjoyed being back in the water, it's certainly whet our appetites for some diving as soon as we can get compressor and cylinders sorted though it is not allowed in the reserve.
We did manage to have a good day before I left as we set off in our wetsuits in our tender to do some snorkelling. We did not have long to explore by the time I was packed and we had dug out our dive kit. So we set off to a reef just outside the marina bordering the long sandy beach beyond. It was another lovely sunny day, though with high cloud and a bit windier.
We threw in the anchor in what looked like a likely spot on the edge of the rock and sand. Kev went in first and had a good swim round before I took my turn.
The visibility of the water is fantastic, the colour of the water made a noticeable change to the more azure blue after we came south of Gibraltar. There was a good assortment of fish including the local emblem which I think is called the Vieja and looks a bit like a parrot fish.
There was sea cucumbers and some various weeds but no rays as we'd hoped. Kevin took us a bit further along the beach for another look and the fish were bigger there but still no rays!
Just as Kevin was coming back to the boat we were visited by the rather imposing looking reserve protection vessel. If asked us whether we were fishing and had a look in our tender presumably for a speargun. If seemed quite happy that we were only taking photos and went on his way. We decided it was probably time to head back though, so we up anchored and motored back.
Kevin took the opportunity to inspect the hulls and remove some plastic we had managed to pick up on route. A clean bill of health was reported although there is already a surprising amount of growth of the brass props and wear on the anodes. We both really enjoyed being back in the water, it's certainly whet our appetites for some diving as soon as we can get compressor and cylinders sorted though it is not allowed in the reserve.
Saturday 17 May 2008
A little adventure
I am not sure where time has gone since we arrived in Graciosa, we have had a few boat jobs to do and don't seem to have sat down for 5 minutes since we got here. Yesterday the priority was establishing the self sufficiency of the boat as we have no water or electricity on the pontoons where we are moored. We sussed out the diesel and that is available on the main quay at a staggering 0.68 Euros/litre, Kevin is thinking of setting up an export company!
Water can be collected from the main quay, so we have commissioned the tender from it's cruising position upside down on the trampoline and got the outboard running. This cuts off a mile long walk to the water supply and makes the whole exercise much more fun. We did our first sortie rather late after dinner yesterday when we realised how low the water had got. The whole area we are staying in is a marine reserve therefore use of the heads toilet) and detergent etc in the water is not allowed. We decided to make a run across to the shower block in the tender on the main quay to allow me to wash my hair and Kevin to fill the portable water tanks. Everywhere we have been in Spain the public toilets have been spotless and those at the port office were no exception. There is however no lighting at all, just loose wiring in the appropriate spot, so ablutions must be timed with the sun. When we arrived the ladies shower/toilet was occupied so we hung around for 5 minutes long enough to see a rather fresher looking local fisherman emerge! It seems that Europe wide they are slightly less prudish about gender divides than in the UK, in La Rochelle and La Coruna husbands were regularly found in the ladies block sharing the charge of a shower with their wives (2 Euros in La Rochelle). Therefore we decided to join forces in the ladies, Kevin filling our water container and me having a shower. Unfortunately, my rather prudish requirement to shut the door to the main quay rendered the whole place rather dark, nonetheless Kevin persevered trying to fill from the basin and me to have a rather cool shower (hot water not plumbed). During opening hours for the port office a hosepipe is available to the dockside, but the source is locked when the office closes at 2 pm. Anyway, we managed to complete both jobs successfully by unscrewing the showerhead due to the absolute lack of water pressure to the basin. You get quite used to the on tap water in your average marina and we were really keen to wash off all the salt off the boat when we arrived here from her maiden voyage, but because there is no natural water on Lanzarote and presumably Graciosa, the supply is mostly desalinated this kind of water usage would not be fair. Luckily a downpour overnight yesterday has remedied the boat cleaning, so now we just have to be economical on boat usage, but as we plan to be at anchorage most of trip if we possibly can, we think this is good practice. Our other job yesterday was commissioning of the generator to give us a battery top up, I will however let Kevin provide the details of that in a later blog update.
I have to return to the UK to complete my notice period for work, which will involve a ferry to Lanzarote (Orzola) and then a flight from Arrecife. 
We decided to do a reccy of that trip today to allow me to time things to catch my flight tomorrow, by taking a day trip to Lanzarote today in order to get supplies of Camping Gas, Petrol and Spanish Pay-As-You-Go Mobile plus some fresh fruit and vegetables which are not very available here on Graciosa. We cunningly disguised the Camping Gas bottle and 5 litre petrol jerry can in backpacks and carrier bags so as not to alarm the ferry crew and headed off for the 8 am ferry. We are both still suffering from waking up in the nightseparately believing we should be on watch and have fallen asleep, I managed to do this three times yesterday and had to look out of the porthole in our cabin to see the boat next to us to convince myself we were not making way and get back to sleep! Anyway, we were both still a little groggy for the 7 am alarm this morning and had to make a dash for the ferry in the end. We were the last on board and the ferry pulled away promptly at 8 am, we now realise that the glass bottom tourist boats are also ferries, which run up to 5 times a day to the mainland. It is a very professional service and within 20 minutes we were in Orzola, complete with a pilot whale sighting on the way. There is a bus which meets the ferry which we took for a very reasonable 5.90 Euros each way for 2 passengers (as opposed to the 40 Euros one cunning taxi company try to get you to pre-book before leaving Graciosa).
The young Spanish bus driver complete with shades and hair band rallied the bus down the slightly diverted route to Arrecife in about an hour and we saw all the locals pilling on to complete their shopping and errands and agreed this was definitely the best way to travel to see a more real experience of the local culture. Luckily the bus station is opposite a EuroSpar Hypermarket, which for those of us from the UK used to them as corner shops will seem a little strange, there are actually two Spar Hyper markets with 2 miles of the bus station. We decided to head to the centre of Arrecife first before loading ourselves down with shopping. There were no signs, so we opted to head down hill and took note of where we were heading. As it happened we did take a slightly long route, but by chance that took us past a diving shop where we picked up some new snorkels and past the best stocked hardware store we have ever seen and could easily beat B&Q in their range. They were able to exchange our Camping Gas and within 5 minutes walk we also found a petrol station, but opted to head into the centre first. Now ironically we spent 45 minutes walking around looking for the mobile shop,which again if from the UK, where these seem to take up every other shop on the high street, this was not where we were expecting problems with our provisioning. In the end we found an Orange shop and bought a mobile and SIM for 35 Euro and a international dialling card for 4.15 Euro for 150 minutes from the very helpful assistant plus a 12 V charger.
Very pleased to have located all of our supplies so well, we went to have a sadly overpriced lunch of a small bowl of prawns (for Kevin) and slice of tortilla and salad for myself. We headed to the supermarket, the first we have been to since La Rochelle. We still have good supplies left over, so the main aim was fresh supplies, we did also stock up on a range of wines for only 2-3 Euros, the same brands selling for 3 times that amount in the UK. Although they didn't have the live lobster and crab tank they had in La Coruna, we did manage to get some nice frozen prawns. We finished in plenty of time and went to get a coffee, where we gave Kev's brother Phil a call from our new Spanish mobile, he told us about our blog following there, so hello to all in Wigan!
Tomorrow morning is some time off to enjoy ourselves before I head back, so we are heading round the coast in our tender with our snorkelling gear and sunscreen. We will take our underwater camera housing, so we will let you know, however if it is anything like the marina which is teaming with fish, it should be great. Infact, we have some new neighbours, on a Dean catamaran, Guillam and Benie and their son, daughter and dog who are also on an extended cruise via North Africa, Mexico and the Amazon. Within 15 minutes of docking their children where in the water swimming up between our hulls and had spotted a large ray apparently, they were obviously loving the cruising lifestyle and we are looking forward to a few beers with them soon.
Thursday 15 May 2008
La Graciosa
Well, we have a double reason for celebration this morning, I have just had a phone call from our solicitor to say that we have completed on our house!! This also means that I will be handing in my notice today too.
View from our bunk this morning
We are settling in nicely to Graciosa, we are moored up alongside a number of very large obviously long distance cruising boats, though few seem to be occupied. Though we are very early in the season for the usual cruising boats to be arriving in the Canaries, this being the port of call before Atlantic crossings in November – January.
We went to see the very nice and polite customs man this morning to officially check in (they shut at 2pm, so we just missed this yesterday). He took a few details, though it was far from a grilling and told us that it would be 177 Euro for the month (equiv. 5.9 Euro / day) we are planning to take here to recuperate from months of planning and hard work and complete our last boat jobs. There is no electricity and water to the pontoons, but we have a generator and you can go alongside the main quay to fill up water tanks. Compared with 33.75 Euro per day – 15% for 30 day stay (860 Euro total for the month) for Marina Rubicon on Lanzarote we are pretty happy with the facilities!
Graciosa is quite a bustling little harbour and there seems to always be lots of coming and going. The glass bottom boat tourists presumably from Lanzarote arrive for the lunch apparently daily and there are three supermarkets and about 6 restaurants that we have found so far in the village of village of Caleto de Sebo. The village of La Sociedad which is ajoining, we haven’t ventured to yet, but will be doing so to find the internet café/bar for this update.
We had a lovely meal with all the day trippers when we arrived yesterday, we didn’t realise then that was where they had come from, but we could see a busy pavement restaurant overlooking us from where we were docking so we just headed straight there and ordered a couple of beers! Kevin had green lipped mussels and Canarian potatoes (which he had been eulogising about for the previous 2 days of motoring) and I had grilled fish and Canarian potatoes. They were both excellent, though obviously the mussels were not a local dish, they are a favourite of Kevin’s and after 8 days on boat rations we’d agreed it was open choice on the menu. I therefore insisted on a desert, I had flan and Kevin the cheesecake and another beer, all this plus some bread and dips for the princely sum of 31 Euro. The desert was a special treat for me after 3 months of dieting before we set off for this trip in the usual pre-wedding bride torments, although after 8 days on the boat all my newly bought smaller clothes are now hanging off me with the weight I have lost on route just with all of the daily activity compared to my desk job. Long distance sailing certainly beats dieting, certainly sounds like a better scheme than some of these other crazy dieting money spinners.
They have a fairly extensive siesta on the island from 12 to about 6, so after our lunch we decided to do the same and grab an hours snooze. Unfortunately, the hour turned into 6 hours and we didn’t wake up until 10.30, so all of our wild plans for celebration were rather reduced to a last couple of beers before all the bars shut! However, I am confident after our further good news today that we will make up for that tonight.
View from our bunk this morning
We are settling in nicely to Graciosa, we are moored up alongside a number of very large obviously long distance cruising boats, though few seem to be occupied. Though we are very early in the season for the usual cruising boats to be arriving in the Canaries, this being the port of call before Atlantic crossings in November – January.
We went to see the very nice and polite customs man this morning to officially check in (they shut at 2pm, so we just missed this yesterday). He took a few details, though it was far from a grilling and told us that it would be 177 Euro for the month (equiv. 5.9 Euro / day) we are planning to take here to recuperate from months of planning and hard work and complete our last boat jobs. There is no electricity and water to the pontoons, but we have a generator and you can go alongside the main quay to fill up water tanks. Compared with 33.75 Euro per day – 15% for 30 day stay (860 Euro total for the month) for Marina Rubicon on Lanzarote we are pretty happy with the facilities!
Graciosa is quite a bustling little harbour and there seems to always be lots of coming and going. The glass bottom boat tourists presumably from Lanzarote arrive for the lunch apparently daily and there are three supermarkets and about 6 restaurants that we have found so far in the village of village of Caleto de Sebo. The village of La Sociedad which is ajoining, we haven’t ventured to yet, but will be doing so to find the internet café/bar for this update.
We had a lovely meal with all the day trippers when we arrived yesterday, we didn’t realise then that was where they had come from, but we could see a busy pavement restaurant overlooking us from where we were docking so we just headed straight there and ordered a couple of beers! Kevin had green lipped mussels and Canarian potatoes (which he had been eulogising about for the previous 2 days of motoring) and I had grilled fish and Canarian potatoes. They were both excellent, though obviously the mussels were not a local dish, they are a favourite of Kevin’s and after 8 days on boat rations we’d agreed it was open choice on the menu. I therefore insisted on a desert, I had flan and Kevin the cheesecake and another beer, all this plus some bread and dips for the princely sum of 31 Euro. The desert was a special treat for me after 3 months of dieting before we set off for this trip in the usual pre-wedding bride torments, although after 8 days on the boat all my newly bought smaller clothes are now hanging off me with the weight I have lost on route just with all of the daily activity compared to my desk job. Long distance sailing certainly beats dieting, certainly sounds like a better scheme than some of these other crazy dieting money spinners.
They have a fairly extensive siesta on the island from 12 to about 6, so after our lunch we decided to do the same and grab an hours snooze. Unfortunately, the hour turned into 6 hours and we didn’t wake up until 10.30, so all of our wild plans for celebration were rather reduced to a last couple of beers before all the bars shut! However, I am confident after our further good news today that we will make up for that tonight.
Wednesday 14 May 2008
Journey to La Graciosa, Canaries
Position @ 14/05/2008 14:40:
Distance Logged: 854 nM
Position: 29 13'.701N, 13 30'.175W
Distance to La Graciosa: 0nm
Total Ships Log: 1245nM
We have finally moored at La Graciosa, Canary Islands, 1212 nM after leaving La Rochelle and 11 days at sea. Overall we are extremely pleased with how well the voyage has gone, the boat has done excellently and we have are really pleased with our own performance in getting here through some fairly challenging conditions and circumstances on route. We were under a certain amount of time pressure for me to get back to work and also the exportation rules for the boat which made us decide to do the La Coruna to Canaries run in one hit, otherwise I think we would definitely have spent some more time visiting other ports on the way. Additionally for all those prophesising divorce before the wedding, we got on extremely well throughout!
The boat has been great, we both agreed that to do such a long trip relatively short-handed would have been far harder without the comfort of our boat. The deck level saloon definitely came in very handy for getting out of the elements and making watch duty less taxing. The lack of heeling on a catamaran and high freeboard also reduces the stress on the crew. Our favourite day on the boat was definitely when we eventually got favourable winds and managed to log 149 miles in a day. We are still pretty conservative in terms of sail area and were by no means pushing the manufactures recommendations, in 20 knots we had 2 reefs in the main and half genoa yet were touching 10 knots. You could really feel the boat hit the plane and fly. A really exhilarating sailing day and made up for all of the motoring!
The Spifurl sail (additional very large foresail bought for light winds) certainly gave us some great speed coming out of La Rochelle, but we seem to have consistent problems with furling in light or building winds, so we will be contacting Facnor to get some advice as we have discovered the furler we were supplied with was not the latest model and there are some considerable design improvements in the later version.
One of the highlights have definitely been the regular visits of dolphins, we even had a pod come and join us on the way into Graciosa. They always seem to arrive in fairly large numbers and take great delight in circling the boat and performing various acrobatics mostly in groups of two or three. They are certainly social creatures and it’s hard to tell if these games are for our benefit or theirs.
Dolphin visit along Portuguese Coast
I think one of the major challenges was also the shipping traffic, routing wise we are really happy with when we chose to get across the Traffic Separation Scheme (controlled motorway for large ships in congested area channelling them into a specific area marked on the charts) just North of the Lisbon Scheme last Friday afternoon. There are a number of TSS’s down the coast of Portugal and into the Gibraltar Straits, we picked a really clear calm afternoon with good visibility, put the radar on long range and made our way across. The crossing was extremely stressful, we were 90% across and just two more ships to pass clear of which were tracking nicely across on the radar, when the second of the two which was the size of a small island decided to slow down then eventually come to almost a stop in front of us! We can only imagine that he must have been in contact with the TSS controllers who were getting him in queue, it was rather hard to tell with the amount of VHF traffic. Either way we had to make a rapid turn to starboard, once we had established that we weren’t imagining things and take a massive 2 mile detour round his stern!
Kevin catches a garfish
We were on short watches the rest of that day and night with the other sleeping on the saloon seats until we were sure we were far enough west to be out of the way. We found all of the big ships we encountered to be extremely courteous and made there intentions clear very early, well all except one… It was the early hours of Saturday morning when one of the ships approaching from astern (we were lined up with the outer of the southbound traffic), continued to follow us without any apparent intention to overtake with the gap gradually closing as I came on watch. Kevin stayed on too, as we decided on the next course of actions. Kevin suggested that we shine the searchlight on the sail to make them aware that we are just a yacht and not another tanker to be following and get them to make their intentions clear, whilst he prepared the VHF and white collision flares just in case. Luckily after a two or three flashes of light on the sails the vessel immediately showed us a port light and made his overtaking manoeuvre. As he drew level with us he gave us a flash of his searchlight, we assume as a thanks for waking him up! Kevin returned the gesture and went to get some sleep.
Alegranza – Nature reserve to the north of Graciosa - our first sight of land
He had managed about an hour and a half when I had to wake him again to inform him that the flash I had seen behind us a few minutes before had been confirmed as lightening by a second flash a few minutes later. I moved our EPIRB and sat phone to the oven (though I’ve always been a bit dubious on the effectiveness of that, but we always keep a handheld GPS in a tin too just incase). We had managed to clear the squalls the preceding morning by getting further west going across the shipping lanes, however, they were now back surrounding us and now with sheet lightening! The textbook anvil shaped black angry clouds were passing either side of the boat and we just had to move away from metal items and hope we passed clear, luckily about 1-2 hours later the last ones did and we were untouched and all electronics still operating. The rest of the day was some fairly big swells and we both took turns to catch up on some sleep as much as possible through Saturday. Luckily the following day was our fast sailing day so that soon lifted our spirits again after a stressful few hours!
The rest of the trip was pretty slow, we had to motor the last two days and just caught up on some sleep and got ready for arrival. I cut Kevin’s hair, he shaved off his cruising beard and we got the boat clean, in fact we were so effective in our preparation that I was worried that immigration would not believe we had just completed 8 days at sea!
Arriving into Estrecho del Rio – strait between Lanzarote (to left) and Graciosa (to right)
Distance Logged: 854 nM
Position: 29 13'.701N, 13 30'.175W
Distance to La Graciosa: 0nm
Total Ships Log: 1245nM
We have finally moored at La Graciosa, Canary Islands, 1212 nM after leaving La Rochelle and 11 days at sea. Overall we are extremely pleased with how well the voyage has gone, the boat has done excellently and we have are really pleased with our own performance in getting here through some fairly challenging conditions and circumstances on route. We were under a certain amount of time pressure for me to get back to work and also the exportation rules for the boat which made us decide to do the La Coruna to Canaries run in one hit, otherwise I think we would definitely have spent some more time visiting other ports on the way. Additionally for all those prophesising divorce before the wedding, we got on extremely well throughout!
The boat has been great, we both agreed that to do such a long trip relatively short-handed would have been far harder without the comfort of our boat. The deck level saloon definitely came in very handy for getting out of the elements and making watch duty less taxing. The lack of heeling on a catamaran and high freeboard also reduces the stress on the crew. Our favourite day on the boat was definitely when we eventually got favourable winds and managed to log 149 miles in a day. We are still pretty conservative in terms of sail area and were by no means pushing the manufactures recommendations, in 20 knots we had 2 reefs in the main and half genoa yet were touching 10 knots. You could really feel the boat hit the plane and fly. A really exhilarating sailing day and made up for all of the motoring!
The Spifurl sail (additional very large foresail bought for light winds) certainly gave us some great speed coming out of La Rochelle, but we seem to have consistent problems with furling in light or building winds, so we will be contacting Facnor to get some advice as we have discovered the furler we were supplied with was not the latest model and there are some considerable design improvements in the later version.
One of the highlights have definitely been the regular visits of dolphins, we even had a pod come and join us on the way into Graciosa. They always seem to arrive in fairly large numbers and take great delight in circling the boat and performing various acrobatics mostly in groups of two or three. They are certainly social creatures and it’s hard to tell if these games are for our benefit or theirs.
Dolphin visit along Portuguese Coast
I think one of the major challenges was also the shipping traffic, routing wise we are really happy with when we chose to get across the Traffic Separation Scheme (controlled motorway for large ships in congested area channelling them into a specific area marked on the charts) just North of the Lisbon Scheme last Friday afternoon. There are a number of TSS’s down the coast of Portugal and into the Gibraltar Straits, we picked a really clear calm afternoon with good visibility, put the radar on long range and made our way across. The crossing was extremely stressful, we were 90% across and just two more ships to pass clear of which were tracking nicely across on the radar, when the second of the two which was the size of a small island decided to slow down then eventually come to almost a stop in front of us! We can only imagine that he must have been in contact with the TSS controllers who were getting him in queue, it was rather hard to tell with the amount of VHF traffic. Either way we had to make a rapid turn to starboard, once we had established that we weren’t imagining things and take a massive 2 mile detour round his stern!
Kevin catches a garfish
We were on short watches the rest of that day and night with the other sleeping on the saloon seats until we were sure we were far enough west to be out of the way. We found all of the big ships we encountered to be extremely courteous and made there intentions clear very early, well all except one… It was the early hours of Saturday morning when one of the ships approaching from astern (we were lined up with the outer of the southbound traffic), continued to follow us without any apparent intention to overtake with the gap gradually closing as I came on watch. Kevin stayed on too, as we decided on the next course of actions. Kevin suggested that we shine the searchlight on the sail to make them aware that we are just a yacht and not another tanker to be following and get them to make their intentions clear, whilst he prepared the VHF and white collision flares just in case. Luckily after a two or three flashes of light on the sails the vessel immediately showed us a port light and made his overtaking manoeuvre. As he drew level with us he gave us a flash of his searchlight, we assume as a thanks for waking him up! Kevin returned the gesture and went to get some sleep.
Alegranza – Nature reserve to the north of Graciosa - our first sight of land
He had managed about an hour and a half when I had to wake him again to inform him that the flash I had seen behind us a few minutes before had been confirmed as lightening by a second flash a few minutes later. I moved our EPIRB and sat phone to the oven (though I’ve always been a bit dubious on the effectiveness of that, but we always keep a handheld GPS in a tin too just incase). We had managed to clear the squalls the preceding morning by getting further west going across the shipping lanes, however, they were now back surrounding us and now with sheet lightening! The textbook anvil shaped black angry clouds were passing either side of the boat and we just had to move away from metal items and hope we passed clear, luckily about 1-2 hours later the last ones did and we were untouched and all electronics still operating. The rest of the day was some fairly big swells and we both took turns to catch up on some sleep as much as possible through Saturday. Luckily the following day was our fast sailing day so that soon lifted our spirits again after a stressful few hours!
The rest of the trip was pretty slow, we had to motor the last two days and just caught up on some sleep and got ready for arrival. I cut Kevin’s hair, he shaved off his cruising beard and we got the boat clean, in fact we were so effective in our preparation that I was worried that immigration would not believe we had just completed 8 days at sea!
Arriving into Estrecho del Rio – strait between Lanzarote (to left) and Graciosa (to right)
Ice Cold in Graciosa
Land Ho! Land was sighted at 09:18 this morning, but such is the high speed
nature of yacht travel, we are not expecting to dock until about 14:00. The
seas are still calm and the sun is shining, we even picked up the Canaries
Current yesterday which is pushing us towards the Islands a little faster.
We are trying to remember the last time we saw land, we'd guess about 5
days, though to be honest we are pretty contented in our little boat world
and are by no means desperate to get in.
nature of yacht travel, we are not expecting to dock until about 14:00. The
seas are still calm and the sun is shining, we even picked up the Canaries
Current yesterday which is pushing us towards the Islands a little faster.
We are trying to remember the last time we saw land, we'd guess about 5
days, though to be honest we are pretty contented in our little boat world
and are by no means desperate to get in.
Shipping traffic built up overnight a little as we got closer in, obviously
someone reading the blog has tipped them off and they are getting the stocks
in before we get there! Once the boat is safely moored and we are checked in
with the authorities, we are planning a little recreation of the end of the
film Ice Cold in Alex (as we keep a dry boat on route and besides we are
celebrating!), then probably a very long sleep not interrupted in 3 hour
intervals. Full blog update with pictures to follow tomorrow!
Tuesday 13 May 2008
North of Canary Islands
We are now approximately 150 nautical miles from La Graciosa and are still
looking at a Wednesday arrival likely to be late afternoon. We are still
motor sailing as the reputed trade winds are still eluding us, which is as
per the latest forecast we have arrived into something of a doldrum, in fact
only about an hour after our last update the trade mark bands of clouds
denoting tradewinds even disappeared leaving clear blue skies for 360
degrees and flat calm seas. I don't think I have ever been in anything so
calm so far out to sea and it really did feel as if literally you are on top
of the world as the horizon was so infinitive.
looking at a Wednesday arrival likely to be late afternoon. We are still
motor sailing as the reputed trade winds are still eluding us, which is as
per the latest forecast we have arrived into something of a doldrum, in fact
only about an hour after our last update the trade mark bands of clouds
denoting tradewinds even disappeared leaving clear blue skies for 360
degrees and flat calm seas. I don't think I have ever been in anything so
calm so far out to sea and it really did feel as if literally you are on top
of the world as the horizon was so infinitive.
We are finally out of our thermals both day and night now, we were amazed we
had to be off Africa before we managed that. The sun is very hot during the
day and we are making use of the bimini (sun shade) on the back of the boat
to protect our unseasoned northern skins. Total ship count for the day and
night yesterday was 3 which also makes for some very much more relaxed
sailing. Kevin also saw our first turtle yesterday, which passed very close
to the boat sunning itself on the surface. There are a few seabirds, but
much less wildlife than Biscay to be seen, although we do keep having close
encounters of another kind, yesterday morning we had 5 squid like creatures
lying on the deck, two of which were on the coachhouse (saloon) roof, which
must be 2 meters off sea level which is a bit of a mystery as we have very
little spray on deck, in fact I can count only 3 occasions we have been
splashed since we left La Rochelle.
So, it is slow and steady progress for the last day of sailing, we are
busying ourselves with various boat jobs, I am polishing internal chrome,
woodwork and windows whilst Kevin is seeing if he can make progress on our
jobs list whilst we are afloat. We have also started to study the Pilot
Guides and charts for the Canaries in more depth and have found quite a few
places of interest. Our previous holidays in the last couple of years were
places such as the Western Isles and Orkney Islands, so you might imagine
that we are not planning to spend a great deal of time in Playa de Las
Americas etc, Kevin found a really interesting looking lagoon in Isla de
Lobos just north of Fuerteventura which is accessible only by relative
shallow drafted boats (such as 36ft catamarans..), by day it is a
uninhabited nature reserve with fantastic views and long sandy beaches
unfortunately though with tourist boats arriving, but by evening you have
the place to yourself in a sheltered anchorage - I'm sure you can all
picture that one ;-)
The last part of any trip always seems the slowest to me, especially with
the frustrating progress under motor, so all your comments and emails of
encouragement are being received and are much appreciated, please do keep
them coming and we will do our best to get back to you as soon as we have
access. We moderate comments posted to the blog as we get some spam, so they
will not be posted until we get to the internet cafe on La Graciosa, which
is actually a bar oh dear never mind!
Position @ 09:00 (BST / Canaries Time - Changed ships clock from Continental
Europe time):
Distance Logged: 712 nm
Position: 31 50'.008N, 12 28'.212W
Distance to La Graciosa: 155nm
Total Ships Log: 1103nm
Update: Error correction- Isla de Lobos actually has one village and one restaurant, gets better and better ;-)
Monday 12 May 2008
Off Morocco
We had our best day yet of sailing yesterday with 148 miles logged from
08:00 - 08:00. We were flying along under a reefed main sail and genoa with
the reduced swell and 15-20 knots of wind. The GPS had us arriving on
Tuesday evening and the boat was performing brilliantly... and then the wind
died!
Today is absolutely glorious, the sun is bright there are the usual fluffy
clouds of the trade winds but just not a lot of wind to go with them. We
preserved all morning with various sail combinations and just generally
enjoyed our first day of no swell and bright sunshine and a hot shower. We
have now given up and put on the motors, so with all that extra power we
might be treated to DVD tonight unless the wind comes back. ETA is still
Wednesday, probably early afternoon.
08:00 - 08:00. We were flying along under a reefed main sail and genoa with
the reduced swell and 15-20 knots of wind. The GPS had us arriving on
Tuesday evening and the boat was performing brilliantly... and then the wind
died!
Today is absolutely glorious, the sun is bright there are the usual fluffy
clouds of the trade winds but just not a lot of wind to go with them. We
preserved all morning with various sail combinations and just generally
enjoyed our first day of no swell and bright sunshine and a hot shower. We
have now given up and put on the motors, so with all that extra power we
might be treated to DVD tonight unless the wind comes back. ETA is still
Wednesday, probably early afternoon.
Position @ 15:20:
Distance run = 625 miles
Position = 33 24'.007N, 11 41'.142W
Distance to Graciosa, Canaries = 262 miles
Sunday 11 May 2008
South of Gibraltar
We are now officially south of the Gibraltar Strait, we made our passing a
long way west of the entrance and passed only three ships and only one all
day yesterday which is a definite improvement on that many sightings in 30
minutes closer inland.
long way west of the entrance and passed only three ships and only one all
day yesterday which is a definite improvement on that many sightings in 30
minutes closer inland.
Yesterday went very well with still slightly stronger winds at 20-25kts, but
with just the genoa (front sail) we were able to crack along at 6-7 knots
and really knock off some miles off. Rough estimate for arrival is Wed 14th
May, but this is obviously dependent on the weather between then and now. We
are hoping for a shift in the wind to the west, as per the forecasts and the
general trade wind route sometime soon to allow us to keep downwind sailing
all the way there. We have passed the half way mark for this passage now,
which is always a good milestone, although we have now logged 826 miles
since we left La Rochelle, so really we are 75% there!
Provisions are holding up well, we had a lovely cheese and tomato omelette
for breakfast with our last fresh tomato this morning. So we will be back to
homemade soups, spaghetti bolognese and pasta etc. Oh, for those who are
interested, the garfish was delicious, cooked with fresh parsley butter and
accompanied
our last remaining salad. Pictures to follow, Kevin has the rods out again
hoping for fresh tuna today so will keep you updated.
Position @ 12:00:
Distance run = 469 miles
Position = 35 36'.632N, 09 43'.073W
Distance to Graciosa, Canaries = 423 miles (will reduce after westerly turn)
Saturday 10 May 2008
Portugal
We are still gradually working our way pass Portugal and expect to pass
level to Gibraltar tomorrow. However, if you look at a map, it's still a
fair way from there, so we are just taking one day at a time.
level to Gibraltar tomorrow. However, if you look at a map, it's still a
fair way from there, so we are just taking one day at a time.
The squalls of yesterday's update continued until about lunchtime today
throughout the night with higher winds (20-25kts) and 30kts under the
squalls and some fairly large swell. Invincible is handling it all very well
though and we are just taking everything steadily. When looking at progress
and likely transit points we made a choice not to pass the inshore route
across Lisbon Harbour and Gibraltar Straits by night (as we would have done
on the previous track) with all of the shipping traffic and crazy trawlers
that entails but to cut across the shipping traffic early yesterday when we
had some good visibility and obliging winds. We had originally planned to
take this route but couldn't cut across earlier due to misty conditions the
first day. We managed to get across the traffic and headed south outside of
the south bound lane.
The shipping traffic has been much better since and so we are now on a
direct route south to the Canaries and well out of the way of the busy
heading into the Med.
Position @ 17:00:
Distance run = 363 miles
Position = 37 32'.465N, 09 55'.117W
Distance to Graciosa, Canaries = 525 miles (reduced by more direct route)
Friday 9 May 2008
Northern Portugal
After a grey and drizzly day on Thursday, by Friday lunchtime we finally had
sunshine and the 15 knot winds which were forecast. We could see the blue
skies on the horizon all morning as they gradually worked their way to us
and what an afternoon when they did!
sunshine and the 15 knot winds which were forecast. We could see the blue
skies on the horizon all morning as they gradually worked their way to us
and what an afternoon when they did!
We are still being slightly conservative on sail area due to the heavy swell
on our aft quarter, but even so we were flying along at 6 knots in bright
sunshine and finally engines off and a full day and night of sailing. We
were joined by a pod of around 40 dolphins for about 30 minutes as they
circled the boat and performed acrobatics all around us. I will try and post
the video when we get on internet again.
Last night there was considerably less traffic than the dramas of Cap
Finistere where you are literally surrounded on all sides, but those ships
which were around made their presence felt. Kevin passed a cruise liner in
the night, with all cabin lights blazing obscuring navigation lights it is
impossible to see the direction it is travelling, he took a cautious
approach using MARPA to track their course and moved away, which is just as
well because they did not flinch an inch from course.
This morning we have been dodging a series of squalls (rain clouds which
carry high winds), the first which we clipped had 30 knots of wind, again we
were ready for it but preferred to avoid the rest!
The blue skies are on the horizon though and we are hoping when the squalls
have passed we will get another great day of sailing in as we make good
progress along the Portuguese coast. We are currently level with Cabo
Mondego.
Position @ 09:00:
Distance run = 217 miles
Position = 40 15'.238N, 09 33'.731W (type into Google Earth or Maps to see)
Distance to Graciosa, Canaries = 691 miles
Final Update: Just as I was typing this we have had our first catch on
board, we are on Garfish for lunch and probably dinner too!
Thursday 8 May 2008
Finistere
We left La Coruna at 8.30am, into a misty morning which persisted for the
rest of the day. We opted to head along the coast instead of trying to cross
the busy shipping lanes of Cape Finistere in only one mile of visibility. We
were expecting a slight head wind coming round the Northern Spanish coast
which picked up as we rounded the corner to head more southerly out of the
lee of the land. We slowly tacked our way round Finistere until the wind
dropped overnight and we started motoring.
Forecast today is for the wind to veer behind us to a gentle wind pushing us
to the Canaries, which is now happening and we are now back under sail. The
inshore forecast has also improved so we now plan to stay along the coast
until after Gibraltar. We are just about to reach the Portuguese coast line
and are making good progress although the seas are a little unsettled due to
the wind shift.
Position @ 08:00:
Distance Run = 101 miles
Position = 42 17'.876N, 09 16'985W
rest of the day. We opted to head along the coast instead of trying to cross
the busy shipping lanes of Cape Finistere in only one mile of visibility. We
were expecting a slight head wind coming round the Northern Spanish coast
which picked up as we rounded the corner to head more southerly out of the
lee of the land. We slowly tacked our way round Finistere until the wind
dropped overnight and we started motoring.
Forecast today is for the wind to veer behind us to a gentle wind pushing us
to the Canaries, which is now happening and we are now back under sail. The
inshore forecast has also improved so we now plan to stay along the coast
until after Gibraltar. We are just about to reach the Portuguese coast line
and are making good progress although the seas are a little unsettled due to
the wind shift.
Position @ 08:00:
Distance Run = 101 miles
Position = 42 17'.876N, 09 16'985W
Tuesday 6 May 2008
La Coruna
In a welcome change from updates sent from ferries and trains, at last I am writing this update sat on our boat in Spain wearing shorts and a t-shirt and getting ready for our next voyage! We are currently overshadowed by the US Supply ship “USN Big Horn” which sits on the large ship dock the other side of a harbour wall from our berth. When we arrived there was a large cruise ship, which announced it’s departure during our post-crossing afternoon snooze by the loudest horn you have ever heard, which certainly got our attention. This is a port of many comings and goings, being a good jumping off point for south or west journeys. The town itself is a little run down but large and has all the facilities we need for our restocking.
Landfall at the Spanish Rias
I thought I would also write a little more about our journey across Biscay, because I know that it has been a question from many friends about the actual passages and what it is like. We did manage to time the crossing perfectly with a really good weather window so it was very smooth, this was not luck as some would have it, Kevin has been studying various forecasts for months and judging their accuracy (Ugrib being the program of choice, which proved accurate to the hour). He had also spend 2 months before the actual crossing looking specifically at the Biscay forecasts, so we knew when we saw that forecast that it was the right time to go. We had planned a delivery skipper previously when I was not going to be doing the crossing. However he was delayed two weeks from our original planned delivery date which would mean we would miss the good weather, so we ended up as so many times in the past reverting to our first original plan which was Kevin and I doing the passage together.
One thing which wasn’t in our original plan was a 1 am finish the day before our 7 am departure. However, as we were enjoying a drink on the beautiful Fountaine Pajot Eleuthera “Papillon” with owners Lawrence and Lexie and crew Harvey and Todd. A very pleasant evening was had and I guess it helped us to sleep when we did go. Best Wishes to all on board Papillon for her onward journey and we hope to see you in the Canaries.
We had to fuel up before departure and finally slipped our lines from La Rochelle at 8.30am. It was a steady crossing out of the bay of La Rochelle with some adverse tides as we entered the Atlantic but by midday we were out in the open ocean and beginning to loose sight of land which is always an exciting time for both of us. I think we were both a little tense on the first day as a forecast is only a forecast, we are not the most experienced sailors and the Bay of Biscay has a fearsome reputation and we both struggled to sleep on our first night of night watches, which we gather is a common phenomenon for new boat owners. However, I think things really started to relax coming into the second day, Kevin had had a very close sighting of our first dolphins at night and saw a fantastic sunrise. We had the Spifurl out and we averaging 7 knots the sun was out and weather was sticking to the predictions. The shipping traffic is always worse nearer land, so by now the manoeuvring and watching of approaching vessels had reduced. The dolphins sightings started about three times a day from day two, sometimes just for a few moments, other times a pod would stay and play in the bow waves for a while.
I was quite surprised by the amount of wildlife we did see out at sea, we saw sunfish a weird looking almost rugby ball shaped fish that lies on the surfaces and flaps one fin above the surface as it warms itself in the sun, beautiful white fulmars and cormorants (?) which kept making Kevin wind in his fishing lines as they kept trying to dive bomb for his lures! We even had flies invading the boat over 100 miles from land when the sea was glassy calm! Perhaps associated was the visit of a little house martin when Kevin and I were sitting in the salon dinner one evening, which we thought was very sweet trying to find a little perch to rest its weary wings after it’s long flight. Little did we know he was casing the joint for his mates, as Kevin came in from a night watch to find 4 house martins perched on the galley cupboard! Luckily they flew away without making any mess. They obviously found the deck level salon a welcome respite from the weather like ourselves!
Finally Kevin also had a very close encounter with two whales alongside the boat, possibly pilot whales but very large. I managed to get on deck in time to see the still patch on the surface as they left, I think I have still got to get my eye in, as you can see from the above, most of these sightings are Kevin’s.
The sailing aspect went really well and we enjoyed the chance to work out our way of doing things together as we went, which I believe is the best way to learn. The Mahe 36 is an excellent boat to sail short handed, we are both now doing sail changes single handed as all lines lead back to the helm. The Spifurl is however a bit of a handful and this one is still a two man job, especially furling which is difficult and needs to be done early, we had problems with a jamming line on this trip and opted to drop it to the trampoline and try again in easier conditions. We have just had it out on deck now in the marina and think we have solved that problem. Generally, we are really pleased that all our preparation has paid off, there was nothing we needed at sea that we didn’t have. We did some stock cooking before departure and didn’t need to cook until the last day which worked really well. We did 3 hour watch system starting with me at 6pm and Kevin getting the 3-6am graveyard shift but also sunsets and sunrise, which works very well for us.
It does get very cold at night and we are looking forward to wearing a few less layers as we head further south. We are planning to depart tomorrow morning at 7am for the Canaries, taking the route via Madeira, though we may choose not to stop in depending on time, the forecast is for some steady trade winds rather than some stronger blasts down the Portuguese coast. Additionally there will be less trawlers on that route, something which we both already wish to build into our route planning!
Overall then we are extremely happy with both the boat and our change in lifestyle, we have taken really well to life at sea, so much so that Kevin did not want to come into La Coruna, but to keep going! He has also taken to calling our last leg the La La Run (La Rochelle – La Coruna) which is I guess a sign of our comfort. We got to see a bit of more difficult conditions on our last day in Biscay with some long Atlantic rollers which we were tacking into in order to make our course for La Coruna which makes for a bumpier ride. However, both crew and boat handled this well and we are ready for the next leg which is a good sign, which should in steady trades be a comfortable run.
We will endeavour to update via our Iridium phone on route, but please do not worry if we miss any days, we won’t risk damage to kit or boat by that distraction if the conditions aren’t good.
Landfall at the Spanish Rias
I thought I would also write a little more about our journey across Biscay, because I know that it has been a question from many friends about the actual passages and what it is like. We did manage to time the crossing perfectly with a really good weather window so it was very smooth, this was not luck as some would have it, Kevin has been studying various forecasts for months and judging their accuracy (Ugrib being the program of choice, which proved accurate to the hour). He had also spend 2 months before the actual crossing looking specifically at the Biscay forecasts, so we knew when we saw that forecast that it was the right time to go. We had planned a delivery skipper previously when I was not going to be doing the crossing. However he was delayed two weeks from our original planned delivery date which would mean we would miss the good weather, so we ended up as so many times in the past reverting to our first original plan which was Kevin and I doing the passage together.
One thing which wasn’t in our original plan was a 1 am finish the day before our 7 am departure. However, as we were enjoying a drink on the beautiful Fountaine Pajot Eleuthera “Papillon” with owners Lawrence and Lexie and crew Harvey and Todd. A very pleasant evening was had and I guess it helped us to sleep when we did go. Best Wishes to all on board Papillon for her onward journey and we hope to see you in the Canaries.
We had to fuel up before departure and finally slipped our lines from La Rochelle at 8.30am. It was a steady crossing out of the bay of La Rochelle with some adverse tides as we entered the Atlantic but by midday we were out in the open ocean and beginning to loose sight of land which is always an exciting time for both of us. I think we were both a little tense on the first day as a forecast is only a forecast, we are not the most experienced sailors and the Bay of Biscay has a fearsome reputation and we both struggled to sleep on our first night of night watches, which we gather is a common phenomenon for new boat owners. However, I think things really started to relax coming into the second day, Kevin had had a very close sighting of our first dolphins at night and saw a fantastic sunrise. We had the Spifurl out and we averaging 7 knots the sun was out and weather was sticking to the predictions. The shipping traffic is always worse nearer land, so by now the manoeuvring and watching of approaching vessels had reduced. The dolphins sightings started about three times a day from day two, sometimes just for a few moments, other times a pod would stay and play in the bow waves for a while.
I was quite surprised by the amount of wildlife we did see out at sea, we saw sunfish a weird looking almost rugby ball shaped fish that lies on the surfaces and flaps one fin above the surface as it warms itself in the sun, beautiful white fulmars and cormorants (?) which kept making Kevin wind in his fishing lines as they kept trying to dive bomb for his lures! We even had flies invading the boat over 100 miles from land when the sea was glassy calm! Perhaps associated was the visit of a little house martin when Kevin and I were sitting in the salon dinner one evening, which we thought was very sweet trying to find a little perch to rest its weary wings after it’s long flight. Little did we know he was casing the joint for his mates, as Kevin came in from a night watch to find 4 house martins perched on the galley cupboard! Luckily they flew away without making any mess. They obviously found the deck level salon a welcome respite from the weather like ourselves!
Finally Kevin also had a very close encounter with two whales alongside the boat, possibly pilot whales but very large. I managed to get on deck in time to see the still patch on the surface as they left, I think I have still got to get my eye in, as you can see from the above, most of these sightings are Kevin’s.
The sailing aspect went really well and we enjoyed the chance to work out our way of doing things together as we went, which I believe is the best way to learn. The Mahe 36 is an excellent boat to sail short handed, we are both now doing sail changes single handed as all lines lead back to the helm. The Spifurl is however a bit of a handful and this one is still a two man job, especially furling which is difficult and needs to be done early, we had problems with a jamming line on this trip and opted to drop it to the trampoline and try again in easier conditions. We have just had it out on deck now in the marina and think we have solved that problem. Generally, we are really pleased that all our preparation has paid off, there was nothing we needed at sea that we didn’t have. We did some stock cooking before departure and didn’t need to cook until the last day which worked really well. We did 3 hour watch system starting with me at 6pm and Kevin getting the 3-6am graveyard shift but also sunsets and sunrise, which works very well for us.
It does get very cold at night and we are looking forward to wearing a few less layers as we head further south. We are planning to depart tomorrow morning at 7am for the Canaries, taking the route via Madeira, though we may choose not to stop in depending on time, the forecast is for some steady trade winds rather than some stronger blasts down the Portuguese coast. Additionally there will be less trawlers on that route, something which we both already wish to build into our route planning!
Overall then we are extremely happy with both the boat and our change in lifestyle, we have taken really well to life at sea, so much so that Kevin did not want to come into La Coruna, but to keep going! He has also taken to calling our last leg the La La Run (La Rochelle – La Coruna) which is I guess a sign of our comfort. We got to see a bit of more difficult conditions on our last day in Biscay with some long Atlantic rollers which we were tacking into in order to make our course for La Coruna which makes for a bumpier ride. However, both crew and boat handled this well and we are ready for the next leg which is a good sign, which should in steady trades be a comfortable run.
We will endeavour to update via our Iridium phone on route, but please do not worry if we miss any days, we won’t risk damage to kit or boat by that distraction if the conditions aren’t good.
Monday 5 May 2008
La Coruna
We made it! We are now sat in an internet cafe with 10 minutes until closing but thought we´d better send a quick update to let everyone know that we have arrived safely. The final day of the crossing was a little less leisurely with some large Atlantic swells and some stronger wind which was good to see what the boat was capable of. We made it into La Caruna this morning after slowing our arrival to arrive during daylight. We also had to run the gauntlet of suicidal Spanish fishing trawlers, who would do complete 180 turns to come back at us at ramming speed even at night, which certainly helped to keep us awake through the last night of watches!
The marina is fairly basic but the sun is shining and we have we have located the supermarket for refreshments! We are looking to stay for two nights before pushing off again for the Canaries, weather dependent (hence running to the internet cafe for a download).
The marina is fairly basic but the sun is shining and we have we have located the supermarket for refreshments! We are looking to stay for two nights before pushing off again for the Canaries, weather dependent (hence running to the internet cafe for a download).
Saturday 3 May 2008
Biscay Crossing 2
We are currently motoring through glassy waters with not a breath of wind,
it certainly looks like we got the right forecast for this crossing,
although a little wind would have been nice we are more than happy to have
had such a gentle crossing to this point.
The boat is running very well and we are just slowly counting down the
miles. It is looking like being the early hours of Monday when we will reach
the approaches of La Coruna, so we will be slowing down to make our approach
in daylight. Looking forward to a few cool Spanish beers before we depart
again for the Canaries.
Position @ 20:00:
Distance Run = 170nM
Position = 44 49'.204N, 004 40'.296W
Distance to La Coruna = 177nM (@21:00)
it certainly looks like we got the right forecast for this crossing,
although a little wind would have been nice we are more than happy to have
had such a gentle crossing to this point.
The boat is running very well and we are just slowly counting down the
miles. It is looking like being the early hours of Monday when we will reach
the approaches of La Coruna, so we will be slowing down to make our approach
in daylight. Looking forward to a few cool Spanish beers before we depart
again for the Canaries.
Position @ 20:00:
Distance Run = 170nM
Position = 44 49'.204N, 004 40'.296W
Distance to La Coruna = 177nM (@21:00)
Biscay Crossing 1
We departed La Rochelle at 8.30am on Friday on a heading of La Coruna. The
weather window looked perfect and it is certainly holding so far, we really
could not have asked for better conditions. Wind is light, we had 10-15kts
through the day yesterday and made some excellent progress tacking downwind
on the Spifurl, overnight the wind died down as forecast and we motored
through. Kevin had our first dolphin sighting at 05:00, right alongside the
helm in the pitch black with phosfluorescence streaming each side which
apparently took him rather by surprise. They came back for a quick hello to
me at 09:00 and a short dance round the bow.
Kevin has just started fishing, though no catches yet and we are both
really
enjoying our first big crossing. The sun is out and there is barely any
swell, you can't ask for more than than in Biscay. Position @ 08:00
Distance Run = 112nM
Position = 45 15'.183N, 003 03'.2W
Distance to La Coruna = 239nM
weather window looked perfect and it is certainly holding so far, we really
could not have asked for better conditions. Wind is light, we had 10-15kts
through the day yesterday and made some excellent progress tacking downwind
on the Spifurl, overnight the wind died down as forecast and we motored
through. Kevin had our first dolphin sighting at 05:00, right alongside the
helm in the pitch black with phosfluorescence streaming each side which
apparently took him rather by surprise. They came back for a quick hello to
me at 09:00 and a short dance round the bow.
Kevin has just started fishing, though no catches yet and we are both
really
enjoying our first big crossing. The sun is out and there is barely any
swell, you can't ask for more than than in Biscay. Position @ 08:00
Distance Run = 112nM
Position = 45 15'.183N, 003 03'.2W
Distance to La Coruna = 239nM
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