Day 4 Position 28:70.72N 015:25.49W docked in Las Palmas Marina
Gwenhyfar's Travels
Peter
Sat 2 Nov 2019 08:35
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Sailing downhill fast all afternoon. We we all
anticipating the landfall. We had expected to spot Fuerteventura and her spiney
back mountains but it was instead hidden in the hot hazey afternoon. A
Queens shilling was proposed to the first to spot Gran Canaria, or any land for
that matter. It seemed again to be Joe's lucky day he spotted the peak of Los
Palmas at about 12 miles off. We made a series of small gybes to keep our
approach on track.
As it became dusk we could see the port light up. It
was a hive of activity with fast ferries, massive container ships, oil
tankers and and a new offshore drilling industry, complete with her support
paraphernalia. We weaved our way through - including a negotiation with a
200 metre tanker with anchor light on - but actually under way! Slowly but
surely we picked out the leading lights, then through the the outer moles -
main harbour, engine on - then inner harbour, lower all sail. We
radioed ahead and a small dory led us into a stern-too berth on T pontoon.
At 20.00hrs we were secure. At 20.30 we had beer - wine and cheese in the
cockpit - in tee shirts!
Total trip 696 miles - total time 4 days 5 hours - 101
hours. of which 66 were engine hours. (6 hours generator) Fuel used was 407 litres.
Early morning after a recharging long sleep, we
checked in at the marina office - brimmed the fuel tanks. Then we spent the rest
of the morning cleaning and polishing Gwenhyfar. Joe went up the rig and checked
all fittings. John rigged the passarelle, whilst David crawled around the
engine space stroking pumps and filters. Grateful for her safe and secure
arrival and now 1500 miles south of Guernsey! We have had an excellent
passage - and the crew have all worked together well with great camaraderie. Joe
has completed his very first ocean passage and we all wish him many more future
ocean voyages - as we are sure he has caught the bug!
Thanks to all who are watching us.
We shall be back on our travels around 23/24 November as
we start our trans Atlantic passage.
Gwenhyfar in good Spirit!
Out
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