october, 2004

ayamonte spain to the canary islands -- about 650 miles mostly southwest
when prevailing winds are north so it should be a snap, except for a low
pressure heading toward spain that promises strong winds from the southwest
for a day.  i intended to describe the passage, but the view from a rookie
crew member, my oldest niece, hannah is better.  below is her stream of
consciousness description of the 7 day passage from the trenches:

	"not sleeping well because the boat keeps tipping back and forth,
	throwing things around and the door keeps rattling;
	
	early morning watches listening to jarabe de palo and reading my star
	book - learning about castor and pollux, the twins, who are the stars
	of mariners because they clamed a storm in mythology, about pleiades,
	the sailing stars, a group of 7 sisters in the constellation of
	taurus, because the greeks never set sail unless they were there;
	
	placing lots of importance on food, like when backpacking, peeing in
	the pee jar in the cockpit or the stairway;
	
	pooping such a hassle being constipated and trying to bear down on the
	rocking toilet while hearing it gurgle under you and being afraid it
	will splash up poopy water on your butt, so you lean to the side and
	pump the toilet with your left hand, then continue pushing - hard to
	relax and poop;
	
	playing bridge in the cockpit in foulies, trying always not to get
	seasick;
	
	traveling 7 miles toward our destination in one whole day (only!),
	squalls arising bringing 41 knots of wind and knock down possibilities,
	going forward to the foredeck to hoist the storm sail, harness
	clipped on, careful because its slippery and a wave could come
	crashing over, hoving to in 30-35 knots wind, spitting rain,
	trying to sleep in what seems like an earthquake of noise with
	stuff falling all over the galley and salon;
	
	trying to get used to the perpetual motion of the boat as it rolls
	beneath you, trying to move about and navigate slowly, always
	keeping a good hold with one hand and bracing your body, lest you
	get thrown off balance and earn a bruise on your hip or elbow or arm;
	
	being quite present in the here and now - the conditions not
	allowing for reading or writing letters really or studying portuguese,
	which requires lots of motivation and concentration;
	
	swimming in the ocean - diving off naked in the middle of the ocean -
	floating on my back naked in the salty ocean, alongside wondy;
	
	shampooing my hair and washing with sush on the foredeck - rinsing each
	others hair;
	
	wearing the same sweats and fleece and blue tank top for a week
	straight;
	
	getting very familiar with each other living in such close quarters ...
	not having much alone time;
	
	sitting up on the foredeck in the quiet early morning, listening to
	music and watching the waves;
	
	getting punchy with each other as you do when on a long backpacking trip
	or you're really tired;
	
	moments of magical beauty, the simplicity of the elements, the full moon
	shining, the waves gently rising and falling;
	
	getting used to all the sounds of the boat, and how everything on deck
	is magnified when you're trying to sleep down below, and it seems like
	much worse weather;
	
	getting used to being alone at night on watch;
	
	the feeling of the wind rushing past your face and that you're
	going somewhere;
	
	cranking the winch handle around and around, trying to reel in the jib,
	breaking into a sweat, braids flying;
	
	going to bed at night with feet so cold and damp it seems they'll never
	get dry - just sort of water-logged;
	
	body rolling back and forth so you cant sleep - almost to the point of
	tears for frustration;

	hearing the click click on the winch and realizing that there was
	a fish on the line, pulling it in screaming repeatedly lest it get
	away, later eating fresh mahi mahi;

	being nervous about something on watch and having to weigh its
	importance: is it worth waking up the captain from her precious sleep?

	watch the last day, intently watching some lights at 130 degrees,
	is it a big cruise ship, towing something behind it? turning on the
	radar, waking up evi, finally realizing it is land! lanzerote,
	canary islands;

	muscles all sore in wierd ways from bracing yourself and trying to
	hold yourself upright."

from my viewpoint it was a good passage, one day of strong winds against
us that caused me to heave to (stop sailing and just drift with the wind)
for most of a day.  the winds were in the 30s and the seas were lumpy.  we
had made a drogue that you drag behind you to slow down, but had not quite
finished it, so we didnt get to test it. instead we had to put up a bit of
sail and sail away from the moroccan coast so we didnt get too close. not
sure i am doing the hove-to thing right because i still drift at about
2 knots.  next time i will have my drogue finished and maybe it will
slow me down.

our landfall was the island of grasiosa, a small one to the north of
lanzerote.  grasiosa has a well protected harbor and nice marina that
was never quite finished. for example there are electrical outlets and
hose connections at every dock, just no water or electricity.  grasiosa
in the eastern canaries is volcanic and very dry.  the boat i parked
next to had exactly the anchor i want, a big spade, on its bow and in
chatting with them i found out they knew the designer of the spade anchors,
alain somebody and were translating a book on anchoring for him from
french into english and german.  and more important, he had sent them
a spare little spade anchor to test out.  we tried it on the bow of
wonderland and it fit fine.  i left it there for a few days while we tried
to ask alain if i could buy it and he could send them another one.  in
the end, they preferred $ to a spare anchor and i bought it from them.
its aluminum so not so heavy that i cant handle it.  the big one is
35 pounds and mine about 25.  the catalogs say its big enough for a 52
ft boat, so should be big enough for mine, even taking into manufacturer's
tendencies to exagerate.

next we sailed to lanzerote and anchored (new anchor, held fine) in the
harbor of the big town, arecife.  i had asked my friend pam who works
at west marine about the cost of the anchor and mentioned we were in
the canaries.  she told us her favorite island there was lanzerote
and gave us a long list of things to see.  she was totally right,
lanzerote was awesome, mostly due to an internationally known
local artist, cesar manrique, who managed to control the islands
growth and designed and built many of their tourist attractions.  the
tallest buildings are 4 stories and not huge so the blocks of winter
homes for english and german tourists blend with the island instead of
looking like cancerous sores on the coastline. his home is a museum of
his work - the combination of the art and architecture is awesome.  the
cactus garden tourist attraction has over 1000 species of cactus and caused
my niece susha to use up 2 rolls of film in her camera, even my digital
camera had to be treated to new batteries. another place had an
amplitheater inside a lava tube.  we rented a car for two days and saw as
many of the manrique sights as we could.  the island is also very dry and
wine is grown in little pockets of soil in the lava.  they build a protective
wall or bubble around the grape vines to collect dew as there is very
little rain.

next we sailed to gran canaria to collect my watermaker that i had been
chasing all around the atlantic.  went to las palmas and poked our nose
into the marina there, saw lots of empty slots so thought no sweat. wrong.
they are the marina that the ARC (atlantic rally for cruisers) leaves from
and they were closed (full) except for ARC boats.  even though i wanted
to stay only 2 days and the ARC doesnt leave for another 10 days, they
would not give me a slip.  so we went out to the anchorage.  it was
pretty full and the wind was blowing from the southeast, the only direction
that the anchorage is not protected from.  tried to squeeze into the most
protected section but it was too tight, moved to the more exposed section
and anchored.  new anchor is sweet.  the anchorage is deep, about 40 feet
and i only have 120 ft or chain and another 100 ft of rope.  the boats were
too close to put out the whole thing, but we had all the chain and maybe
half the rope out.  held fine although it was a rocky night with strong
wind and swell.  took a bus to a port on the other side of the island and
found the boat with my watermaker.  so finally i have it.

we didnt like gran canaria, or at least las palmas.  there were over 200 
ARC boats there and lots of parties, but a long, wet dinghy ride and a big
dirty city. met another nordic boat there, a nordic 44.  was interesting
to see the similarities and differences between that 1984 nordic 44 and my
1989 nordic 40.  sailed from there to tenerife, a long day sail.  actually
got off at 5AM, before it was light because it was 55-60 miles and the
days are getting shorter.  motor sailed north to get around the end of the
gran canaria island.  wind was strong on the nose and it seemed to take
forever to go the 5 miles north we needed to be well off the rocky shore
as we turned west.  our average speed in this north leg was about 2 knots
and i was very glad we had left so early.  about a mile outside las palmas
we went thru a batch of big ships waiting to get into the harbor to load/
unload their cargo.  one seemed to want to go across our bow, and seemed
pretty close.  we couldnt figure out whether he was moving or not, but
just to be safe we altered course to go across his stern instead of his
bow.  apparently he had been intending to turn right and go into the harbor
just as we turned left and blocked him from turning right.  he was not a
happy camper and blew his very loud horn at us 5 times.  not sure what 5
blows means but our interpretation was that he was mad.

after we turned west, that same strong wind that beat us down on the nose,
sped us up on a reach and we were averaging 6.5-7 knots with a max speed
coming off a wave of 9 knots.  for you non-boaty folks on the list,
i figure i am doing great if i can average 5 knots, so 6 or 7 is speedy.
arrived about 4pm in plenty of daylight and got a place in the marina at
santa cruz, tenerife.  parking was a nightmare with strong wind and my
assigned slot downwind instead of into the wind.  on about the 10th try
i managed to park us and we didnt hit anything so i guess it was ok.

explored the island in a rental car with a venezuelan the girls had met
at a dance club as a guide.  the volcano here is the tallest mountain in
spain (3700 meters) and is quite impressive. it feels like its not on
earth but some other strange planet.  tenerife is in the western
canaries and gets way more rain than on lanzerote and the other
eastern canary islands.  so its green and full of vineyards, banana
plantations, pine trees, and lush vegetation.  we visited the botanical
gardens that are very old.  they were used by spain centuries ago to try
to aclimitize tropical plants before bringing them to the mainland because
when brought to the mainland they died.  dont think this technique worked,
but it left behind an awesome botanical garden.

after a day of sightseeing, it was boat chores to get ready for the next
leg of our atlantic crossing.  hannah, my eldest niece, took on the chore
of moving the anchor chain aft to balance the boat better and rigging the
new anchor on a mostly rope anchor rode instead of my chain one.  i didnt
give any special instructions because it was pretty straight forward and
she knew what to do.  almost.  about 10 minutes into the job she came back
to the cockpit and said that the anchor fell into the water as she was 
removing the shackle.  oops.  i said ok, just pull it up.  she said, no,
you dont understand, just the anchor fell, i took the rope/chain off it.
double oops.  turned on the sailing instruments and the depth at the dock
was 55 feet.  deep.  told hannah to get a diver and have them try to get
the anchor back.  this is my brand new spade anchor that i have been wanting
all summer but had been unable to find till grasiosa.  and now it's at the
bottom of the harbor.  hannah came back from diver shopping to say that the
marina had no divers, but that one of the big boats in the harbor had a
diver and diving gear and that they would do it at 1pm.  and sure enough,
captain john of timoneer from hamilton, bermuda came with his diving gear
and a better idea - a huge magnet strong enough to grab the anchor if we
draped it nearby. only problem, my new anchor was aluminum and lead,
not steel, so not magnetic.  john donned his tank and all the paraphenalia
and hopped into the murky harbor water. as we waited his bubbles wandered all
around the front of my boat, crossing over to the other side of the dock and
going around a long pylon pole that the floating docks were attached to.
we had just about lost hope that he would find it, when he surfaced saying
he had found it, or some anchor, and tied a line on it.  we hoisted it up
and sure enough, it was my baby spade anchor back safe and sound.  whew.

john wouldnt take any money for retrieving it and would hardly take the
beer that hannah had run out to buy before he came.  he invited us over
to see his boat, that is, the boat he is captain of.  we went the next
day and it was definitely an experience.  timoneer is 147 ft. long, the
61st longest sailboat in the world, and has electric and hydralic everything.
carbon fiber masts with in boom furling, huge winches with drums a meter
in diameter, one huge diesel engine, 3 generators, 2 water makers along with
the usual dishwashers, freezers, washer/dryer sets.  the engine room is bigger
than all of wonderland. they make and use about 5 times more water in a typical
day for the boat and 6 crew than i will have for the whole month it will
take to reach brazil.  maybe i should take a side job on a boat like that
or at least find the dumpster they use when they throw out old line, sails,
etc.

later this week, we will either leave for senegal and the cape verdes
from tenerife or maybe do a quick stop at the island called la gomera
where a couple of boats we know are getting ready to leave for the cape
verdes.  one of those boats has brazil charts that we want to copy.

hugs to everyone.

-evi