No 19. Preparing for the BIG one!
Catou
Paul and Sylvie Tucker
Fri 19 Nov 2010 18:41
THURSDAY 11th November.
Sylvie and I flew out to re-join 'Catou' in the Las
Palmas marina by 3.30pm. After leaving a very miserable, grey and
damp Gatwick, it was a pleasure to arrive to blue skies and 26 deg C.
temp. It was straight to work once on board. We had to officially
register with the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) for their 25th annual
rally. We were given various folders and documents to study.
There was so much to take in - with, as one would expect, a great deal of
emphasis on safety. By 6.45pm we were at our first
ARC reception (a happy hour). There was one almost every
night from now on.......
The first full day was just
getting 'Catou' opened up again. She needed a good hose down - plenty of
African Sahara dust had settled on board. When we had left her a few
weeks ago we had stowed a lot of gear down below and all that needed
heaving back up on deck etc... Out came the sun awning and other such
items as 'Catou' took shape and came to life again. Sylvie went off on her
first shopping recci and was gone for hours, while I emptied the aft cabin for
Ben's arrival on Friday evening, and tried to locate various items in various
lockers, since I couldn't remember where anything was. Ben arrived at
about 7.15pm, and it was good to get him back on board (he had left us in
northern Spain at the beginning of July, after helping with
'Catou's' the first leg from Plymouth and across Biscay). There was
another reception that evening - this time it was being thrown by the City of
Las Palmas for the ARC members - so we dragged Ben up there. Poor chap had
flown UK - Australia and back in 4 days and then, after only 1 night at
home with Lucinda and the girls, he had flown out to join us!
Saturday - it was a frantic day. Jobs, jobs and
more jobs. Ben set to on the lap-top to try and sort out the GRIB
weather forecasts, while Sylvie disappeared with Jenny (from the other Malo
yacht in the ARC) in search of ship's stores and supermarkets etc. We
beavered away all day with hardly a break, and the list of jobs just seemed
to get longer! When there are 200+ yachts moored in close proximity to one
another, and everyone is working away doing jobs - it's very
difficult to relax! You can hear banging, drilling, sanding, discussions
on the pontoon about some drama that has befallen one yacht or another - or did
you hear what happened to those people 3 years ago? ....... and so
it goes on - it doesn't make for a relaxed atmosphere, and it certainly
doesn't make you able to sit in the cockpit for a quiet 'sundowner' and
6.30pm. We were exhausted on Sat evening. Ben went for a run and
Sylvie and I went to yet another reception at the poshest of yacht
clubs that I think I have ever been to (Ben couldn't come in 'cause he hadn't
got any long trousers!!) It was an interesting evening, and we ended up
having a long conversation with the St. Lucian High Commissioner to London, who
was out in Las Palmas to promote his island (the ARC destination in a few weeks
time). Turned out that he knew various friends and colleagues of ours in
St. Lucia, including Mike Medar (who has kindly offered 'Catou' a berth on
arrival in St. Lucia. The H/Commissioner had brought along a group of St.
Lucian ladies (all of whom lived in the UK) and they were beautifully dressed in
St. Lucian traditional costumes at the party. We left after about an hour
and met up with Ben (at the slightly less posh club where shorts were
accepted!) and arrived back on board at midnight.
Sunday was a little more relaxed. The ARC
organizers had been looking for flag bearers to carry a flag for each
nationality of yacht on the trip. Both Sylvie and Ben were volunteered as
bearers, but since there were no Kiwi boats there was no Kiwi flag.
However Sylvie was selected as the Canadian flag bearer, so Ben and I
followed. There was a local brass band who led the procession and then the
St. Lucian ladies in costume, then a long procession of flag carriers and
finally some very skimpily-clad dancers taking up the rear. At the end of
the procession, all the flags were hoisted up poles and lots of speeches
made. The St. Lucian High Commissioner made the best speech and had
everyone laughing - he was certainly a good ambassador for his country.
While there, we saw a stall selling fruit and veg. They were touting for
biz from ARC participants, and kept offering us small samples of fruit to
try. We each tried some lovely paw-paw slices, and it tasted so good that
I saw a large chunk of paw paw and asked the lady to cut in three so we could
eat immediately. She did so and handed the 'fruit' over and took our
money. Ben was the first to try - and he looked at me in a strange way and
said it tasted like pumpkin - I just thought that maybe Ben hadn't
tried paw-paw before - until I tried it and realised that it was
pumpkin! The sample paw-paw had been sitting next to it - and it did look
very similar!
After a walk back to 'Catou' we were a bit drained by
the heat, but managed a few more jobs and on arrival at the boat. We had
to prepare for lifting out in the morning, so the backstays had to be removed
(they help to hold the mast up!) Supper on board and a relatively early
night.
Monday 15th November We
had to slip the mooring at 0830 and motored around to the lifting out
berth. We were soon in the slings and out 'Catou' came. Her bottom was in
quite good condition, but a nasty and very aggressive local weed had started to
get a hold on the waterline (she had been there for over 4 weeks) and we
were glad to get it removed - it was like a mini coral and seemed to be getting
a hold very quickly. As we stepped ashore Sylvie said she wanted to rush back to
our berth to check about a delivery of foodstuffs that was due at any
moment - on the nominated berth. About 10 mins later a neighbour from
our berth came to tell us the the supermarket had tried to deliver but we had
gone. Then a heavy rain shower soaked Ben and I (and, I presumed, Sylvie,
wherever she was). Another 10 mins and a wet looking Sylvie turned up to say the
s/market had gone without leaving the food, so she went to the ARC office to
phone the company and ask them to re-deliver. Then, after she had left, the
supermarket truck found us, so Ben had to rush off after Sylvie to tell her all
was OK! It was just like a Brian Rix farce! Then, since 'Catou' was
sitting on dry land (well - it was rather wet actually!) we had to hump all the
stuff up from me to Ben to Sylvie where it had to be washed and all cardboard
removed to reduce the risk of cockroaches!! (Pablo, the boatyard mechanic
told me (with a certain degree of pleasure) that they were called Inglese
cockroaches!! The yard didn't operate very fast, so Ben and I
couldn't get started until after 11am. After preparation, the actual
painting didn't start until about 12.30, and it was a drizzly sort of day so we
were trying to get two coats of paint on while little dribbles of water ran down
the hull. We managed to get two coats on by just after 5pm, so Ben went
for a run and we went off for a shower, clean-up and yet another
reception!
Tuesday 16th Ben left us
to fly home for a couple of days to see the family before the ARC starts on
Sunday (He re-joins us on Friday). Lucinda has been very kind
in 'lending' him to us while she has a 2 year old daughter and a very
young baby to look after alone for the next 3 weeks (but she will be in St.
Lucia to meet us with all the family). We re-launched at about 11am
and motored over to the fuel berth to fill up our tanks and some extra
jerry-cans. Back in our berth at lunchtime and more jobs! Sylvie
disappeared after lunch for a shopping expedition and I went off to a seminar on
downwind sailing.
We have a fancy dress party to attend tomorrow
night. The theme is 'The Sea'. We decided to go as a pair of
fenders !! (or should it be offenders?). Sounds like fun
anyway. There are prizes, but with several hundred people
attending, I'm not holding our breath to win!
Not sure if we will have time to do a final blog before
we sail. I will try. Once we get to sea on Sunday 21st
November we will not be able to send any photos until we arrive at St. Lucia due
to limitations of the sat phone. We will be posting a daily noon position,
together with distance covered and average speed, so we can revise our ETA in
St. Lucia (currently estimated as the 12th December).
So far, on the first two legs from England to Las
Palmas, we have covered 2067 nautical miles with a total of 26 stops. We
are close to the tropics now at a latitude of 28 deg N so the weather is warm
and generally very pleasant. The two legs have taken a total of 8
weeks. The third leg is approx 2800 miles and we expect to cover it in
approx 3 weeks.
Best wishes
Paul, Sylvie and Ben. |
