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Date: 26 Sep 2011 20:46:00
Title: Rubicon Marina, Playa Blanca - 21 - 27 Sep 11
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Rubicon Marina.  Mike had set out from here for his first transatlantic crossing on Emily Morgan seven years ago so we knew we would be basing ourselves in a good place for the final preparations.  One task was to test rigging the parachute anchor. 

 

Another piece of equipment we hope never to use but are glad we have it is designed to slow the boat in a severe storm so that as much energy as possible is taken out of the boat allowing it to sit fairly quietly while all around is thrashing about.

 

 

 

Hopefully it will mainly be remembered as a place for grandchildren to hide.

 

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Not satisfied with the phenomenal engineering installation of Barratt the Hydrovane, Meryon set to work on some fibreglass and gelcoat repairs, teaching Carol the dark art of epoxy mixing in the process.  The repairs he has done are fantastic, near impossible to see, so it will be quite a challenge to do anything quite so good but Carol is looking forward to having a go. So much easier to be shown what to do.

 

Not all chores though so we hired a car.  First stop a vineyard; no surprises there.  The vines are grown on the lava rock protected from the wind by little walls.  Quite a feat to grow anything on this hostile terrain.

 

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Really there is not a lot to this island, especially if you have visited Tenerife which has much more variety, but some of the volcanic landscape was stunning and we visited the original capital in the hills that had been there since the fifteenth century.  It was very pretty and well kept and still seemed to be properly lived in rather than just a museum piece.  Best of all we happened upon a fantastic restaurant for a Tapas lunch.

 

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We drove to the northern point where they had barricaded off the main viewpoint so that they could charge you £4 to look.  Outrageous we thought to charge for a view so we walked round the side and were pretty happy with what we could see from there.  This is the island of Graciosa where we had anchored a few days ago.  Our anchorage is the second bay in from the left and you can just see the village and harbour on the right.

 

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Kit and Moyra left on Saturday and Meryon on Sunday.  They have been great company and fantastic crew.  We have learnt a lot from them that will set us in good stead for our voyage and we will benefit for quite some time from all the work they did on Tashi Delek.  Kit and Moyra will join us again for the Cape Verde to Antigua leg and we are hoping that Meryon and Susie will come for a relaxed week or two in the Caribbean.

 

We leave Tashi Delek here for October and will then spend another couple of weeks on final preparations before setting off late November/early December when the winds are right.

 

We have travelled 4022 nautical miles since we left Turkey in April and have had our best season yet on Tashi Delek who has taken great care of us.  We have learnt a lot; especially on our longer passages since Ibiza but what we have learnt most of all is that we are ready now for the big adventure crossing our first ocean.

 

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