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26/10/09 Yesterday, after we left the marina, we headed up to the local fishing port, where we filled up our tanks, with the cheapest fuel we have bought in Europe 62.4 Eurocents per litre. We then headed down the coast looking for somewhere to anchor. We looked at three or four potential anchorages, but they were too exposed. We eventually settled on Punta Montana Roya (the Southern tip of Tenerife), a little rolly, but not too bad. 3/11/09 We stayed at Punta Montana Roya for five days. We didn't go ashore while we were here, but just stayed on the boat. I ended up pulling the loo apart a few times, the hoses for it were very heavily calcified and on of them got blocked. While I was clearing the calcification out of the pump, I put a screw driver through a rubber bit of it. Pooh!!! I put it back together, but didn't have a replacement for the damaged bit. It worked, but not great. We also found out that we had anchored off a nudist beach.... that's a first for us. We left one morning and found a nice little bay further west of us at a place called Las Galletas. We anchored on our own just off a resort. We put the dinghy in the water and I went to look for somewhere to go ashore so that I could check emails and do a little food shopping. I ended up rowing a mile and a half to the main harbour (couldn't have anchored here) and tied the dinghy up in the marina. It was a very touristy little town and didn't hold a lot of appeal. The row back was interesting, as the waves had built to about three or four feet with the wind against me!! That evening we found out why nobody anchored here, it gets very rolly!! We left Tenerife the next morning and headed for La Gomera. We checked out a few likely spots before we ended up anchoring in a little bay just South of San Sebastien called Playa De Languancha. The first night here wasn't too bad, but the wind picked up a little the next day. I ended up sleeping in the cockpit for the next who nights, as we ended up with 40+ knots of wind. I put out an extra anchor to make sure that we didn't get too close to the boat anchored next to us. It was very tiring and a little nerve wracking. This morning we lifted the anchor and went in search of a more protected spot. After motoring along the coast for 15 miles, we couldn't find anywhere, the swell seemed to curve around and follow us all around the island. So we turned around and headed for Marina La Gomera in San Sebastien. We didn't think we were going to get in, but after waiting around outside for half an hour, a spot was found for us between two boats. We were very surprised to find our friend John from Lotus there who was a great help in squeezing us into our spot. 9/11/09 Well, this is it. We leave tomorrow. We have shopped. We got our Yellow Fever jabs, didn't have time for the Hepatitis A shots to come, but we picked up our Typhoid tablets which we have to take every 48 hours (three of them). I couldn't find the spare part for the pump for the loo, so we'll have to wait until we get to the other side. San Sebastien has been a lovely little stop, the town is pretty, the people are friendly. We hired a car and drove up to mountains in the middle of the island (naturally we forgot to take the camera. Doh!!!). We turned down a little road in the National Park and got about 500 metres down it. It got narrower and cobbled. It looked like maybe it was a footpath instead. We decided to back up, then as I put the car into reverse, a police car came round the corner behind us. There was no where to go but ahead! It turned out to be alright, but we were waiting for the flashing lights for the first couple of minutes. The temperature was a good 10 degrees colder than the coast, it got down to about 15. The roads on the island are quite tight and twisty, and the car was left hand drive and manual, so I was quite tired and glad to hand the car back at the end of the day. Observation: If you have cruised the South Pacific or the Caribbean and are used to anchoring out, don't expect to be able to do that in most of Western Europe. We didn't find any good all weather anchorages in our quick trip down the coast, although I'm sure we must have missed some. So we ended up in Marinas way more than we would have liked or budgeted for. 3/12/09 We left with a light forecast, which gives Shelley a chance to get underway without getting seasick (it didn't work, the poor thing has been seasick most of the trip, although I think she has faked it to get me to do the cooking and cleaning). Unfortunately we now think we should have left in the stronger weather we had three or four days earlier, as the first week or so getting down to the trade winds saw quite variable and light winds most of the way, and we used about 200 litres of diesel. The tablets we took for Typhoid really knocked us around for about three or four days, we felt a slight fever with quite painful skin, which is very uncomfortable on a constantly moving boat. We have given up fishing for this trip. We were tacking (instead of Gybing, easier on the gear) and got pushed back onto our line which got caught up underneath the boat. As it was quite late afternoon, I left it till the next day when the weather was calmer and sunnier. When I went into the water I found that the wire trace was wrapped around the propellor shaft and had to be cut off, fortunately I managed to hold my breath long enough to get it cleared in one go. We have only used the mainsail for the trip, as the mizzen (back sail) makes the boat a bit squirrelly when running downwind. It would be nice if we could have used a preventer on the main (a rope tied to the front of the boat to stop the boom swinging to the other side of the boat), but unfortunately we only have about a metre of boat in front of the main mast, so a preventer doesn't work. We have seen way more flying fish on this trip than any other , quite often whole schools of them flying off at once. I have collected quite a few dead ones off the deck in the mornings, although the most memorable one hit the wheel in the dark one night while Shelley was steering and flapped around her feet in the cockpit, scaring the heck out of her, as she didn't know what it was till I came up with a torch in answer to her screams...... Well, we've made it in now 2/12/09, so the trip was 22 days with an average of 5.4 knots (would have been quicker if we had better self steering and more than one sail up for the whole trip). It is a great relief to get in and know that we can have a full nights sleep. If we had to do it again, we would stop in the Cape Verde islands so that it was a shorter trip. Also leaving a bit later would have given us more consistant trade winds. Shelleys Take on the Trip We arrived in Barbados on 2nd December after a 22 day sail from the Canaries. Departing the Canaries we saw lots of Pilot whales and dolphins. We hung over the side and were able to sweep our hands quite close to the dolphins who frolicked at our bow. They seemed curious and very playful.
It was during the 2nd week of our passage we concluded that we both seriously suck at fishing. We've had rotten luck with just the fishing line let alone catching a fish. We managed to empty one real around our propella shaft and down the anchor chain while anchored at La Gomera. Then we managed to tangle the two lines we were trawling enroute. And finally in the 2nd week of our Atlantic passage we ended up wrapping the trace around the propella. After Marno had to dive and cut away the trace, we decided to put away the fishing gear. It was only then, and I kid you not, that the flying fish started committing huri kuri on our decks. Most mornings we would find one dead and stiff on deck. I screamed like a girl when one flew into the cockpit, hit the helm and fluttered around the cockpit floor as I tried to launch myself down the companion way.
It was also during the second week that we finally hit the trade winds after using around half of our fuel. Apart from a cross swell the sailing was quite good - a few squalls but nothing above 35 knots. We averaged around 6 knots.
Then 10 miles east of Barbados we tuned into the local radio station - reggae, Christmas carols, very easy listening - yep, we felt like we'd arrived. And we have met some fabulous people and enjoyed our time here (although it is quite pricey). The trip was a total of 2881 nautical miles, only using the mainsail the whole way (it is easier for the self steering) although it would have been quicker if at times we had set the mizzen as well, but we would have needed a big powerful auto pilot for that.
I've been keeping a record of the smell of the land - and each island smells quite different. Coming into Lands End, UK the land smelt like a mixture of burnt toast and sewerage, Madeira and Canaries smell similar - like hot rocks in a sauna and Barbados smells of sugar, smoke and rum distilleries.
Tomorrow we head for Grenada where we need to pick up quite a few things - we managed to break several of our Harken batt cars (the things that slide the sail up and down the track on the mast), our depth sounder decided to die (which is not a good thing in the Caribbean), and our backup autopilot crunched to a halt (which we'll claim on warranty, we hope).
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