Friday, October 28, 2016

October 2016

In which we head back to the Canaries, in preparation for our Atlantic crossing.

October opened with us tied up in Alcadiesa marina, La Linea, just across the runway from Gibraltar. The main engine had a 200 hour service, we got new service batteries and performed a few other maintenance tasks, but were basically waiting for the best weather for crossing to the Canary Islands.
Gibraltar from La Linea

There were several other yachts on the pontoon with the same end, so we would have daily chats about the prospects.  Monday 3rd looked good but for us, with time to spare before our next appointment in Tenerife, four weeks later, a better plan would be to head out to Madeira first, broad reaching, rather than the slower dead run to Lanzarote.  The ideal time to leave, for tides and winds through the Gibraltar straits, was mid-morning.  If we averaged 5 knots, we would arrive PM on the7th; if 6 knots then AM 7th.  This gave us good prospects of a daylight arrival so we set off at 0900.  Leaving with us was a 38 Ft catamaran, Dana de Mer, with which we had become friendly over the past week, although they were heading straight to the Canaries.


After the first hour, when we had to motor out of Gibraltar bay, we had an easy passage of the strait with the NEly wind building to F5 at the western end and then F6 as we exited the traffic separation scheme and headed down the African coast, which we did on a goose-winged dead run. At 1700, it was time to say goodbye to Dana de Mer, alter course 30 degrees to starboard and head towards Madeira on a broad reach. The wind was forecast to be just behind the beam, F3-4 for the next 48 hours, dying a little as we approached our destination. The first night went well and we were averaging nearly 7knots.

 We hoped that we now had our electrics sorted and reckoned that we had sufficient wind and sun generation to last indefinitely at anchor.  It’s a different matter under way.  We need power for all the navigation equipment and also the autopilot.  We have wind steering but have never really used it properly.  To start with, the installation was too flimsy; we got that sorted in Rhu. Then there is the additional rudder. This has great safety benefits for emergency back-up but it makes our already sluggish manoeuvring under power much worse and we have avoided installing it on shorter passages where we might need to enter a strange harbour.  We had fitted the Hydrovane rudder before departure and, the following day, decided that it was time to give it a meaningful trial.  The conditions were ideal and immediately Hattie steered a better course than George, giving us a better speed as well as saving us power. Hurrah!  Then the noise started. At first it was just an occasional click as the rudder went hard over, then we noticed that the top bracket was working against the hull.  I tightened all the bolts, the clicking stopped, so we continued.  A few hours later, the noise started again and Elsie was alarmed to see that the lower bracket was now moving not only sideways but also away from the hull.  We immediately reverted to George, removed the windvane and re-tightened the bolts (or 3 of them, 1 rotated and it wasn’t safe to hold the outer end in the current conditions). The wind continued to co-operate and we continued to achieve 7 knots over the ground meaning that, despite our planning, we would be arriving in the dark. We half joked, with 18  hours to go, that if we altered course 100 degrees to port, we would be set for a fine broad reach to La Graciosa. We arrived at Porto Santo at 2200 on the 6th, with the moon in the first quarter giving us a little light and dropped anchor just outside the port, intending to enter in the morning.

We had a quick check of the weather in the morning.  Horror!  The Northerly wind that we were expecting to blow for most of the next 2 weeks had been replaced by calms, interspersed with strong southerlies.  This left is with a dilemma: while we had no urgent appointments, I had a flight booked from Tenerife in a little over 3 weeks and, on the current forecast, if we did not leave now, there was no clear prospect of sailing winds in that direction for at least 2 weeks.  Porto Santo is pleasant, but we had seen quite a bit of it earlier in the year; we wanted to spend more time in Funchal, but it is very busy and does not accept bookings. You just have to call on a daily basis to see if there is a vacancy.  Being at anchor through the southerly winds was not an option, as there are no suitable anchorages sheltered from that direction.

A strong cup of coffee later and a quick inventory (food, water, fuel), a decision was made.  Off came the wind steering rudder; up came the anchor; up went the sails and off we went again.  A year before, a voyage of 270 miles would have been carefully discussed and planned but we now feel comfortable with just checking essentials.  Unfortunately, the decrease in wind had now happened and although we were beam reaching, it was at 4-5 knots rather than 7+.  Even this died the following morning and we had to motor for 3 hours.  It was galling to see that we were only 100 miles away from where we had been from where we had been 48 hours earlier.  So it goes. On the 9th the wind picked up again and we arrived at our favourite anchorage at La Graciosa in time for lunch.  As it is so popular and this was peak arrival time for Atlantic crossers, we were a little concerned as to whether we would find a spot but, while it was a lot busier than it had been in March, there was plenty of room. Dana de Mer, from Gibraltar, was already there, with her skipper, Jage, organising the social scene and, after a much needed nap, we were given a lift ashore for a sundowner party to meet the rest of the gang.  This is one of the things that we love about our life style.  We are not naturally gregarious but the easy friendships made with our fellow cruisers, exchanging experiences and general chat complements our alone time nicely.
A happy Elsie records arrival at La Graciosa

We stayed for 4 nights. Of course, during this time, the wind forecast changed, so that we could have easily spent 10 days at Madeira and had a good sail down.   On the 13th, with a NNWly forecast we set off for the other end of Lanzarote.  We had made this voyage of 35 miles 4 ½ years earlier on Fumeke, Ruby’s little sister chartered locally.  It was then our longest ever trip and felt daunting; now it was like popping out for a pint of milk. A great close, then beam, reach down with 1 reef in main and Genoa in a F4 which increased F6 as we turned at Pta. Petchigura to give us up to 10 knots surfing on a broad reach over flat seas.  Anchored of Marina Rubicon in time for a late lunch and to watch those who had left before us and motored down the sheltered eastern side of the island arrive and enter the marina.  After 3 nights at anchor here, with just one dinghy trip ashore for groceries, we picked up and headed into the marina.  The wind was forecast to change to a southerly for a few hours, which would have been uncomfortable for us.  We also had been at sea for 13 days so needed water and some shore power to top up the battery bank.  We spent 2 nights in the marina achieving these essentials, together with a little maintenance and a catch-up with others from La Graciosa.  I looked again at the wind steering and discovered why one bolt was rotating: it had sheered inside the casting.  This was very worrying as, if Elsie had not spotted the movement, the whole lower end could have broken away leading us to possibly lose the steering gear and the skin of the gas locker with it.  On the 18th, we headed out again, this time to anchor off the beach at Papagayo.  The wind was forecast to be a steady F3-4 N’ly for the following 36 hours, which would give us a comfortable night and a good sail down the coast of Fuerteventura the following day. Unfortunately it died, leaving us to swing and roll uncomfortable overnight and gave us a slow start for our onward journey. The wind did pick up at mid-day on the 19th giving us a good afternoon of sailing to arrive at Gran Tarajal at 1600.  We intended to enter the port but, to our surprise, the bay to the east was flat calm so we elected to anchor off.



And there we stayed, anchored outside for 4 nights, then inside for 3 as the wind changed to southerly.  We were watching the weather for our passage to Tenerife, where I needed to be for the end of the month.  The southerly winds were forecast to decrease and back a little on the afternoon of the 26th and, according to predict wind, our latest planning tool, we should be reaching all the way and make an average of 7 knots.  We were a little sceptical of this, having sailed a bit in the Canaries and knowing something about the effects of the islands on the winds.  Nonetheless, we decided to give it a go as the next window, to actually sail rather than motor was the day before we needed to arrive and I’m not sure my nerve would hold.  So, we cast off at 1800 and headed out through the entrance, which was still pretty wild from the earlier wind.  Our scepticism proved correct.  Sure, the wind died. Unfortunately to about 5 knots and, instead of backing, it veered to head us, forcing us to motor down the coast.  After a couple of hours, it did back to right astern, 8 knots, still not good enough to sail.  This lasted until the tip of the island (just as we expected) where it swung round to the beam and increased to 15 knots, giving Elsie a cracking beam reach with one reef in main and genoa.  By 5 AM this had increased to over 20 knots and she called the watch below (me) to assist in putting in the second reef.  Having dressed, I stayed up and enjoyed the sail for the next 3 hours until we reached the lee of Gran Canaria.   No surprise that it backed and decreased, despite the forecast, and we were back to motoring for the following 3 hours.  Again, it was Elsie who got the ‘spirited’ sail, touching over 9 knots and achieving an average of 7.9 for one two hour period, our highest ever sustained speed.  I’m not sure that she appreciated my generosity in allowing her the ‘fun’ but she did get a little back by watching, as we approached Santa Cruz, a rogue wave come over and drench me standing at the wheel.  Into the marina at a civilised 15:00 and parked for our longest stay anywhere since we left Inverness over 18 months earlier.  

Monthly stats

logged              1063
over ground     1060

Saturday, October 1, 2016

September 2016

 In which we continue westwards, through the Balearics to Gibraltar

September started with us anchored in a bay to on the east of Isola de Sant’ Antioco, Sardinia.  Once again, we were waiting for a weather window for a passage and had time to take things easy.  We picked up anchor at 12:50 and had a pleasant, into-wind, sail round the bottom of that island and up to I. di S. Petro, again anchoring in a small bay.  On the second, we decided to go into Carloforte, the largest town on the island.  It was only 4 miles up the coast, so we didn’t bother with sails and just motored.  The pilot book suggested that we could tie up, for free, on the town wall but, as so often happens, this information was out of date.  The space was occupied by a marina which charged us 40 Euros per night, quite reasonable by Italian standards and gave us water and power.  The Town turned out to be very pleasant, with usual tourist stuff near the harbour but a picturesque old quarter on the hill behind.  We took full advantage of the water to wash all our ropes, which had become salt encrusted over the summer, together with a good wash down of Ruby.  We also went ashore for our final genuine Italian pizza of the year.

Ropes hanging out to dry, Carloforte.

The forecast was for a good wind for crossing to Menorca on the 6th but it looked as though we would get a better angle to use it if we started further north.  We believed that we could get a beam reach, on the 3rd, for the 40 miles up to Oristano bay, so did a good shop before departure and left at 12:30.  Unfortunately, the wind was 45 degrees off and, even close hauled, we couldn’t quite make it up the coast without tacking so it was a motor-sail for much of the way to arrive at sunset to a bay to the north east of Capo San Marco. Here, there were many mooring buoys laid, anchoring being prohibited to protect the Posidonia (sea grass).  The buoys are free to use, so we picked up a convenient one and settled in.  I regret to report that, even though there are extensive ruins on the shore, half a mile away, we did nothing but relax for the next two days, apart from one re-position to be further from the swell creeping round the headland.  Eat, sleep, sunbathe, repeat.  We reasoned that we need to get into practice for the Caribbean.

We had about 200 miles to go to Menorca and estimated about 36 hours so, to be on the safe side for a daylight arrival, let go our buoy at 0400 on the 6th and motored the couple of miles to the point where, as forecast, we found a nice easterly F4 to help us on our way. Unfortunately, it only lasted for about 6 hours but we managed to get sailing winds for most of the way having to motor for only about 90 minutes the next night.  The last 40 miles were done on a slow broad reach but the timing worked and we arrived at Fornells at 1600 on the 7th.  A daylight arrival was a good thing as, once again, the pilot book information was well out of date.  The area where we expected to anchor had been taken over by mooring buoys and we were resigned to sitting on one of these (had actually picked one up) when a helpful chappie in a RIB came over, confirmed that we were welcome to use it at E29 per day but were equally free to anchor further south.  We quickly went for the second option as we had shot through Menorca on the way east and wanted to spend some time exploring it now.
On Thursday, 8th, we took a bus into the capitol, Mahon.  This is only 24 Km but the bus calls at every tourist resort on the way and takes 90 minutes.  While waiting for the bus, we discovered that it was a local fiesta.  Our joy at this was damped on arrival as everything was closed but we made our way into the centre to see if anything was happening.  As we approached, there was an obvious throng and emerging from it was a, very slow, procession of horses.  We stopped in a side street, expecting a fuller parade but just horses and riders both done up to the nines.  I am certainly no equine expert but they were foaming at the bit and very skittery so we deduced that there must be more.  We found another way down to the throng and pushed our way through.  In a long plaza, there was a stand with bigwigs and a band (which only knew one tunes – memories of Up Helly Aa).  Teams of 4 riders would enter, salute, and have 32 bars of the tune to prance up and down while persuading their steeds to walk on their hind legs and paw the air.  Onlookers were encouraged to mix in with this and physically support horse and rider.  I say prance up and down but, occasionally, they ended up sideways.  I unfortunately did not have the camera ready as Elsie found herself face to hoof with a ton-and-a-half of black stallion and ended up sitting in the sand.
Dancing horses, Mahon.

We then hired a car for a couple of days to see the rest of the island.  On Friday we started along the north coast driving, after a trip toCcap de Cavaleria, to Cala Algaiarens, our first anchorage in May, to see it from the shore.  There is a free car park about half a kilometre short and a good hike but, even this late in the season, the beach was packed.  We had a short bathe and continued on to see Calas Morell, Blanes Blanco and en Bosc, with a walk round the harbour at Cuitadella on the way. We thought to finish the day with another trip to a beach at Macarella.  While the roads in the centre of the island are good, those leading to the coast are small and all dead ends.  This one proved smaller than most and it took us 30 minutes to travel the 15 Km each way and then another 15 minute walk down to the beach.


The following day, we took it a little easier and spent most of the day at Santa Tomas, on the south coast.  It is definitely a leisure resort, with hotels, tat shops etc, but has good access, a variety of beaches and some nice housing behind.  Definitely gets added to our list of ‘maybe’ places.  A good shop at Mahon supermarkets on the way back and we were done.

On the 11th, we picked up and had a pleasant sail the 14 miles down to Cala Algierens.  The anchorage was a little fuller than it had been in May but no problem in finding a space and repositioning to the prime spot once the day trippers had left.  We spent an idyllic couple of days here – swimming, sunbathing and generally being lazy, then picked up again to continue to Mallorca.  We had a good sail back to Pollensa, getting in at 1830 and staying for 3 nights. We had a much better look round the town than we had in the spring, liking it very much.  We also hired a car for a day and explored the east and south coasts.  We do like the Balearics.
Sunset at Soller.

On the 16th, we motored the 6 miles to Cap de Formentor, then sailed along the north coast to Soller, anchoring inside the harbour.  This gave us an easy get-away at 0500 the following morning to continue on to Ibiza.  We struck 5 miles offshore on the port tack and were then able to continue on the starboard tack, at first close hauled, then beam reaching most of the way, just having to motor the last 10 miles onto Cala St Vicente, our departure point in April. We stayed here 2 nights then, on the 19th, motored first to Cala Llonga for lunch and then on to Cala Talamanca.  Longa is beautiful formed but unfortunately has a hotel with loud air conditioning and generally a lot of people about.  Talamanca is a lot less scenic but is just across a narrow isthmus from Ibiza town, which we wished to see. We dinghies ashore on the 20th to do this and a bit of shopping.  The old fortress was well worth the trip though we failed to spot the supermarket 100 metres away from where we parked Rubette and carried our groceries much further than necessary.
Olt town, Ibiza.

Once again, we were waiting on a weather window for our next leg and decided to go back to the beautiful anchorage at Espalmador, between Ibiza and Formentora, pausing to take an extra 50 litres of fuel in Ibiza, in case the winds disappointed on our way to Gibraltar.  Our anchorage had been covered in mooring buoys for the summer and we were required to pick one up at a cost of E29.  We did this for one night and then, as the wind had died, motored down to the port of Sabina on Formentera, anchoring just outside.  As in May, the area between was decorated with many super yachts, including Prince AbdulAziz, once the largest yacht in the world and now owned by the prince so named.  We wondered whether he got any more joy from his yacht than we did from ours and decided probably not.  A dinghy ashore in the evening to look at the port – definitely tourist central with literally thousands being shipped over each day on high-speed ferries and, judging by the numbers available, each hiring a bicycle or scooter to tour the small island.


The wind forecast led us to leave at mid-day on the 23rd.  After an initial, excited, spell with the cruising chute, we motored for a couple of hours in variable winds until well clear of Formentera when the wind settled to its forecast easterly.  We continued under main and CC with F 2-3 changing the latter to full Genoa at 2200 as it increased to F4.  There were huge lightning storms to the north, apparently well clear of our track and we agreed that Elsie would continue with one reef in the main unless she actually heard thunder.  At about 0130 the wind suddenly died, which should have alerted me.  20 minutes later there was a northerly squall.  Fortunately she had furled the Genoa, but it was still a struggle for the 2 of us to put 3 reefs in the main. The northerly F5-6 continued through her watch then started to veer and, by 0900, I was on a broad reach with 2 reefs in the main and one in the Genoa. By mid-day it had decreased to F3 and we continued under full sail, mostly broad reaching but occasionally goose-winged.  As we approached the Spanish mainland, the forecast suggested that we would get better winds if we delayed by 24 hours, so we dropped anchor just to the west of Cabo de Gate at 0945 on the 25th.  We set off again at 0750 on the 26th and, once we were clear of the land, it looked very promising.  I had rigged the inner stay while waiting and headed off downwind with full Genoa on the port side and staysail to starboard in a NNE4, giving us a good 7 knots. This increased to 8, then 9 knots as the wind picked up more and we reefed the Genoa to the same size as the staysail.  The wind then started to decrease (full Genoa again) and then died forcing us to motor or motor-sail through the night. It was no better in the morning, by which time we had furled the Genoa and just left the main up for stability.  It was stowed at 1100 and we motored round Europa point and up to Gibraltar, pausing to get our fuel tank refilled duty-free, and then on to La Linea where we had engine maintenance booked, tying up at 1310.

We soon found ourselves in a little community of others doing much the same as us, waiting for weather to take us to the Canaries and beyond.  The main engine was serviced, at eye watering cost as a leaking sea water pump needed replacing.  We also bought new service batteries to replace ones that had been overcharged due to tour lack of understanding of our systems.  This involved a little voyage back to the fuel dock at Gib to get them duty free. Elsie did lots of laundry and washed Ruby down while I caught up on a few maintenance jobs.  At the end of the month, the forecast still looked good for a departure on the 2nd or 3rd so we relaxed a little with the promise of a fellow sailors birthday party on the evening of the 1st to look forward to.

Monthly stats.

Logged           897
Over ground   829