Week ending 8th November

Nightsong
Sun 8 Nov 2009 18:53
Dear blog
 
Autumn has finally come to the Canaries - the weather this last week had been distinctly cooler - but at least we have had wind (NE force 4 to 7 the whole week)! And it is still so warm that we sleep under sheets with no duvets and eat most meals on deck! So scarcely sweater weather.
 
First job this week was to put the boat aground and scrub the bottom ready for the transatlantic voyage which starts 2 weeks today. I had long chosen a lagoon on the south coast of tiny Isla de Lobos (Seal island) which is itself off the north coast of Fuerteventura. The pilot said that catamarans use it to scrub but failed to mention that, at its entrance, it has a drying reef with about 1.4m over it at HW not that depth at LW- the chartplotter also didn't chart it. But I had chosen to go in and out at HW and although we touched both going in and coming out - not the rudders but the keel - we managed to put Nightsong aground at half tide and scrub and paint the top 2 ft of the underwater (sadly the lagoon did not dry any more than this because of the reef stopping the water from emptying). Charming place too as the pictures show.
 
 
The reef is clearly visible in the 2nd photo! And beautiful Fuerteventura in the background. And I worked late as the 1st photo shows.
 
Strange island and the most backward that we have seen
 
We spent the next 3 days pottering (under sail) down the coast of Fuerteventura - firstly at a tourist resort called Puerto de Castillo, then an anchorage at Gran Tarajal and finally a quay at Moro Jable. Of the big islands this is certainly the least developed of the Canaries but also has a distinctive look like all the islands, very barren and brown and lower than the western isles tho' higher than Lanzarote- very hard to say which is my favourite but it is probably La Gomera. Least favourite definitely Gran Canaria but then we haven't seen anything other than Las Palmas so that isn't very fair.
 
The highlight for me of the week was our final sail from Moro Jable to Las Palmas a distance of about 58 miles. It was blowing NNE 5-7 so we had a beam reach and managed to do 53 miles in 6 hours (nearly 9 knots average!). Started with 2 reefs and took a 3rd - hairy doing this reef  'cos one has to go to the mast, so hairy that I have decided to change the arrangement so we can do all 3 reefs from the cockpit.
 
 
Thanks Christopher and Clare for your company and advice Chris - glad that you managed to avoid seasickness, Clare. Now a couple of days washing and cleaning, a quick trip back to Blighty and then the great event itself!
 
AJB                            8th November 2009