Position 26:24.20N
016:39.27W
Date 1300
UTC Monday 22 November 2010
What a show! We had not
really given much thought to what getting away would be like, other than to
realise that getting everything away, cycles, the passerelle etc., would be
hard work with just two of us. The city and marina of Las Palmas however did it in style with bands
marching around the marina, Don Pedro the owner of the Texaco fuel dock giving
a running departure and farewell commentary. We even had a band marching on
our pontoon which made stowing the passerelle even more interesting. If it
makes you lot in the UK
feel better it was even raining off and on although this cleared before the
start at 1300.
Boats were leaving the
marina from 1000 onwards. We eventually slipped at 1225 by which time the
marina was looking like a ghost town. Martin played Auld Lang Syne to the
crowds on the breakwater as we passed, to acclamation and Elizabeth did a sterling job steering through
the other rally boats and sight seeing craft of all shapes and sizes.
We crossed the start
line 5 minutes after the gun in a light north easterly breeze but having been
given dire warnings of the acceleration zone around the south east of island kept
to plain sail. Being rapidly left behind we changed to the gennaker but did
not dare risk the cruising chute because of the forecast wind and being only
the two of us. The wind of course never materialised and it was well to south
of the island before we hoisted the chute at 1800.
The chute, on its
repaired furler stayed up until midnight when the soft shackle at the tack
parted company and there followed over an hour of very hard work getting the
b***** thing back on the deck and bagged and the gennaker back up. Overnight
this game will have cost us 20nm plus the 5 nm of being under canvassed during
the afternoon. However nothing ventured I managed to construct a replacement
soft shackle and at first light we reversed the procedure, reassembled the
chute and furler and exchanged gennaker for chute once more. There is
definitely a love hate relationship developing here between Elizabeth and I on
the one hand and this malevolent but very useful bit of kit.
On the very plus side, Elizabeth produced a
gourmet Bunting’s bacon and egg sandwich just after the start and a great
Tuna and Smoked Salmon pasta for dinner. Somewhere along the line she also
produced her first Remoska fruit cake. Definitely keeping up on the catering
front even if the sailing lacked performance.
