Madeira recedes in the distance.
I only started righting this on Monday morning with Las Palmas a mere 20 miles away and only got as far as "shortly after exiting...." 4 paras below before we had to start 'doing things' in preparation for our approach to Las Palmas and so the rest was typed after our arrival.
We had made good time but I had not slept well on Saturday and it was only after a reasonable 5 hours or so last night topped up by another couple of hours thgis morning that I had the energy to make a start. I still need to write up our stays in Porto Santo and Madeira, but they will have to wait until we are hopefully settled into Las Palmas.
Having at one point talkd a little over enthusiasticly about departing at 0600, we rather more realisticly set 1000 on Saturday 26th July as our departure time. We knew we were in for something of a lumpy ride with 25 k NE winds and 3-4 metre waves forecasted but it was either that or wait 3-4 days for things to calm down. A delay of just a day would actually make matters worse. The sooner we got out on Saturday the less time we would spend in lumpy conditions. We therefore agreed to get up at 0730 and prepare for sea. This included delfating and stowing the constituent parts of the dinghy; a laborious and time consuming task at the best of times. Of course, 1000 arrived and we were nowhere near ready. We had just about finished the dinghy but that left all the rest of the usual pre-departure tasks to get done. Midday arrived and it looked like we were almost ready to go, except the goodbyes to our various neighbours turned into rather protracted discussions over all manner of things. They included finally saying "hello" to Gary, a fellow OCC member on a nearby pontoon, whom we had noticed but not managed to speak to until now. He's planning on crossing to the Caribbean too so there was lots to natter about. Then there was Cornelia and Co on the Swiss boat Migaloo, who were keen to chat and swap plans. They are probably going to settle for a cruise of the Canary islands. We had said goodbye to Tony and Karen and their two crew on board Niord earlier - they had made an early start to their day!
Finally, around 1400 on what was still a very blustery day, with help from our chatty neighbours, we left the pontoon in precisely the opposite manner in which I had intended and briefed every one on. The wind shifted a little as we slid backwards out of our berth and blew the bows to port instead of starboard. Once that happens there is absolutely nothing to be done except to accept it and change tactics. So instead of leaving forwards we left backwards. Fortunately there was plenty of room and to the casual observer it probably looked like a perfectly planned and executed manouvre!
Shortly after exiting the marina we set all sail and pointed roughly south towards Gran Canaria. It was a very pleasant sunny afternoon with a fine sailing breeze but we knew it would increase over night so at dusk we tucked a couple of reefs in the main and continued on our way.
I re-heated the remains of the pork belly dish I had cooked in Porto Santo and added the remains of the broccoli and that was our dinner, eated down below in what were still reasonably civilised conditions.
However, shortly afterwards and by the time Mick started his night watch we had 20+knots of wind from the NE and were hurtling along under a full genoa and two reefs in the main at 6 + knots. As usual on my first night at sea I got very little sleep during my 6 hours off watch. I emerged at 0230 on Sunday morning already aware that we were rocking and rolling rather more than when I had retired.
The wind got up further over the next couple of hours and Bonny was slewing about a fair bit as Lolo struggled a little with the extra weather helm the gusts created and so I took in a few rolls in the genoa and eased out the main sheet to calm thnings down. The night sky had patches of stars but was mostly cloudy. Feeling very tired I cat-knapped most of the time in the cockpit tucked up under the spray hood to avoid the occasional dollops of the Atlantic that every now and then deposited themselves over the boat.
Mick took over the Watch at 0800 and I went below for a kip. Soon afterwards though Mick shouted down that Lolo's rudder had broken off once again!
And from the side.
As you can see, the new weld and repair by Lolo remained in place.
In the meantime the autohelm had somehow blown a fuse and so Mick was having to hand stear. I got up, retrieved the rudder, replaced the fuse and went back to bed. Of course sleep escaped me because of the tiz my head was in given recent events. There was really only one option open to us now and that was to replace the main Hydrovane parts (the drive unit, tube, shaft and rudder) as we had previously considered doing. It was a right pain in the bum but far better that it failed now and not half way across the Atlantic. I'll email Hydrovane as soon as we get an internet connection and start the ball rolling.
The rest of Sunday continued in much the same vein under cloudy skies with the seas gradually building and occasionally we would rise up on top of a real wopper! Still feeling tired I couldn't be bothered to do anything other than check for shipping (we saw only two ships before arrival at Las Palms) and doze. Mick was feeling out of sorts and was occasionally sick if he spent to much time below not lying down. We did though continue at a fair old lick and at this rate may well be in by Monday evening.
Sunday night was a repeat of Saturday night (although I did get a reasonable sleep) and Monday a repeat of Sunday up until about midday when the wind eased off and I unrolled the genoa to its fully size. By 1500, off the NE 'corner' of the island we had only about 10 miles to go and had to gype onto the starboard tack to head for Las Palmas. To sail in, I really needed to rig the genoa on a pole but we were rolling about so much that it didn't seem worth the agro for a couple of hours sailing and so the engine went on and we motor sailed in with two reefs still in the mainsail.
We moored up at the reception pontoon around 1630, a two hundred and ninety nautical mile passage completed in around 2 days and 2 hours, giving an average speed of 5.8 knots! Pretty good going, but of course we did have strong winds from just aft of the beam for the majority of the passage.
We sorted out the paper work and then got shown to our berth by the very helpful Marina man.
Unfortunately we could not book a long term berth because of the forthcoming arrival of the ARC fleet and so the best we can do is renew every seven days until we are required to leave. This is going to complicate arrangements for meeting up with Sharon and Co here on the 12th and managing their stay, and my planned trip home with them on the 19th and the delivery of the Hydrovane parts! As things stand I have no resolution to any of these issues other than to hope we are allowed to stay for a few weeks. The anchorage here cannot be used until the 15th of September and so if we have to move before then we would have to go elsewhere. There is an anchorage at the southern end of the island at Pasito Blanco which may be a option.
No comments:
Post a Comment