Getting ready again
ARC Crossing 2017
Fri 1 Dec 2017 10:08
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28:27.94N
016:14.5W (Marina Santa Cruz, Tenerife) 2628nm to go After the problems last Friday we stopped the blog posts. For those who don't know we got stuck in the southern half of a decent sized gale c. 550 miles out, during which Ecover got hit by two decent sized waves. Chris took a fall below and picked up a rather bad gash in the head. Arran did excellent medic work, but we headed straight back to the Canary Islands ASAP to make sure Chris got to a hospital. All is fine, and Chris is now safely back in the UK. We spent a night in Los Cristrianos harbour on the south end of Tenerife, but had to leave at dawn as it was really the fishing dock. We motored up to Santa Cruz on the NE end - pretty peaceful trip, with the added bonus of pausing by a pod of 14 pilot whales who seemed to be asleep on the surface.  Firrst we had crew/mascot rest:  We've had a pretty full 4 days on board, fixing, reprovisioning and getting ready to go again. This has included: - Taking 3 sails off the boat (the cruising chute, genoa and staysail all of which picked up some damage in the trip) and driving them to the sail makers. - Emptying 2.5 tonnes of water out the anchor locker, sorting out the contents and fixing the nav lights, bilge pump and the latch. We have also re-inforced the 'nothing degradeable in the rubbish bags' rule as it was some kitchen roll and onion skins that blocked the pump. By the looks of it 2.5 tonnes puts the bow down a foot..... - Checking and remaking the B&G autopilot system connections, some of which were loose and weren't helping autopilot/crew stress levels - Fixing down the bimini - Fixing the compass light - Reprovisioning, which was enlivened by accidentally finding the english supermarket, which was on an industrial estate right next to the sailmakers....   Sadly we've had to say goodbye to Gary & John who have business commitments back in the UK, and obviously Chris. We've been joined last night by Dave Cushing so 4 of us (Tony, Arran, Adam and Dave) will be taking Ecover over to St Lucia. So the plan as it stands is that the sails will arrive early afternoon. We are just about to fill up with diesel, hopefully a decent lunch ashore and then all hands to re-fit the sails. All being well, we'll leave before dark, with the intention of heading down towards Cape Verde and turning right when the trades fill in. We are all keen to get going, with the added incentive of 15 days until the ARC closing party on Sat 16th. That will be a stretch, but is something to aim for! The yellow brick tracker is now back on, and we plan to continue blogging as we head over. Ecover |