25th November
Persephone... Cruiser/Racer
Nigel & Karen Goodhew...
Fri 25 Nov 2016 13:43
This year, our slow cruise south and west, finds Karen and I languishing in Marina Lanzarote on this day, my birthday.
Last week though, we were all together as a family. Oli came out to visit for 10 days, and overlapping with him for the best part of a week, was Tim, who managed to get a well earned break from his increasingly demanding job in London. Oli is, strictly speaking, between jobs as he sets out to start his 3rd season in the French Alps in a few days.
While they were here we hired a car to explore the island further, rented bikes of various descriptions and specifications to get some exercise, develop our understanding of the east coast of the island, and in Tims case, extend his cycling "heat map" ( see Strava for road cyclists) and climb some of the more demanding volcanoes on Lanzarote. It was a lovely few days, and I will confess here to a little tear in my eye when each of them left to return to the real world. Is my emotional response to parting getting deeper as I get older?
Since arriving in Lanzarote, Persephone has enjoyed a really good deep clean. I maintain that a ship is called a "vessel" because you can put things in them. But once in, they rarely get out...and the detritus of day to day life and use of the boat accumulates. This time, cleaning the aft section of the bilge, I came across two or three small lumps of rubber, and fairly swiftly identified them as teeth from the alternator belt. Not surprising, as we have an uprated alternator, and occasionally the belt slips, especially at start up when recharging a deeply discharged battery....the alternator wants to shove 70 plus amps into the battery, and that takes some power, all of which has to be generated through the belt.
So I swopped the belt over using a spare I had on board. Simple! But its never a great idea to go far without a spare, as we rely on the alternator to keep our systems all going. So I contacted the VolvoPenta guys on Lanzarote. Being Spanish, they are a little laid back, to the point that they dont bother to respond! So I called up ASAP Supplies in the UK and ordered 2 new belts. They would be here in 5 to 7 days, I was assured. 11 days later, the package had still not arrived and I discovered that the Spanish postal service has a delivery timescale of 13 working days! I don't think they know what a working day is in Spain, but we will have to wait here until the end of the month before they are due to arrive!
Perhaps the whole Brexit thing is an opportunity, after all?
Similarly with Raymarine. Our autohelm was a tad noisy, and I suspected the rod end joint, at the end of the ram. This has some slop in it. The local Raymarine agent came and had a look, and concurred. He was unclear how long a new one would take to source and arrive, couldn't give me a cost, and seemed only interested in dismantling and stripping down the ram to see if there were any other repairs he could find needed doing. He also severely criticised the installation of our rudder reference sensor, but offered no insight as to how it should be. Fortunately, this encounter took place a few days before Tim was due to arrive, and he was able to buy one on line in the UK, have it delivered (24 hours or less) and bring it with him! Now all fitted (5 minutes) and ready to go.
Europe sometimes seems to be working in the middle ages, and all this reinforces the idea that you really do have to have your resources and spares around you, when away cruising.
We have enjoyed some varied food on Lanzarote. Rather depressingly, unless you really love the globalising trend, Persephone is on a pontoon less than 20 yards from one of the most popular resturants in Arrecife, a branch of Burger King! We have succumbed, once. Other meals have included the strangely textured (too smooth, almost paste like) ox burgers in another marina restaurant, some wholesome paella in a charming restaurant overlooking the old harbour in Arrecife, and some enormous steaks in a Lanzarotean "A" list place in Puerto Carmen, a few miles down the coast. We also took advantage of the volcano cooked food in the Timanfaya national park. So we aren't going hungry. But most of the time we are preparing food on board. This years favourite is nasi goreng. Karen has made this with prawns, which has encouraged me to be a little more adventurous....I have not really found the need to engage with prawns until now. But her version of the spicy rice dish has been wonderful. We have also roasted several chickens, to make salads, or simply roast dinners. And the pressure cooker has been pressed into service to deliver a series of fine curries.
Little peppers called padrons, eaten as tapas, have been a great success. Gin and tonics slip down very well with a few roasted padrons.
The RORC Transatlantic race starts tomorrow. I went up and found Nick Elliott and the team in the race office the other day and was promptly invited to join a pre race rum party at the Yacht Club in town. So we had to go, naturally. Great fun and some interesting people were there, including a canadian guy called Keith, sailing as mate on a Challenger 60 called Spartan. If the weather plays ball, we might escape the clutches of the marina and go and watch the start. There are two very fast trimarans entered...Maserati and Phaedo, as well as a dozen or so monohulls.
We have started to talk about maybe doing the Caribbean 600, not in '17, but perhaps 2018! Theres a 40 foot eligibility criterion, but the RORC will waive that for us....We just need to get round the course in 5 days.....which ought to be do-able! Let's see what happens.
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