Leaving the Graciosa herders......
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Sun 23 Oct 2011 11:06
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Sunday 23 October 0620 UTC 0720
BST
29:17.09N 013:26.08W
Our days relaxing in Gran Canaria were very
recuperative and Trish decided that she was going home on Rhiann Marie as
opposed to Easyjet! Oh by the way some people seem to be under the impression
that I am sailing back to Southampton this year. I don't know where that idea
came from but it was never an option..... Tha plan was to single hand back at
least to the Canaries possibly Gibraltar and to leave the boat over the winter
in Gibraltar but possibly the Canaries if weather would not allow the Gibraltar
run.
There are a few things of note that I should
mention about our time Gran Canaria. My
neighbour, the Captain of a motor boat and who was a Spaniard, though
Moroccan by birth and based in Gran Canaria was very helpful and lent me a power
washer to clean down the decks and hull of Rhiann Marie.
While doing this I found the source of at
least one of the violent motions aboard Rhiann Marie on my solo sail north.
Along the starboard side at mid ship I started cleaning from the hull, what I
thought first was some mud and dirt well up the side of the hull. Then of course
it occured to me that it would be very strange to have mud and dirt up the side
of the hull having spent five or six weeks in the open ocean. On closer
examination I saw that it was in fact blood and guts..... then I got to the
large teak capping rail just above this mess and saw that it was clearly
spattered with a large amount of blood...... It would seem that I had a glancing
collision with perhaps a whale or as my neighbour captain thought a swordfish or
marlin launched an attack at night when frightened by the hull charging
through the water. Perhaps it was a Mauritanean pirate trying to make a night
boarding in these rough conditions...... I don't know, but the motion at
the time was so violent that it was impossible to tell and though sorry for the
poor creature, I am just glad we sustained no real
damage.
Another thing my neighbour mentioned to me was that
all of Mauritania now was a complete no-go zone and that particularly Nouadhibou, was now extremely dangerous. As
it happens I was probably far too close to this dangerous country's coastline
but it was certainly wise to check with home before considering
pulling in there to go up the mast just over a week ago..... I might
still have been there! Once again the spectre of another lawless failed state on
our "doorstep" is becoming a reality. Mark my words we will start to hear of
more issues emanating from West Africa. Piracy and kidnapping maybe the least of
them...... What we should do as I mentioned in my blog a very long time ago, is
not invade these countries as per the Iraqi debacle. Let them get on with
it, and put a fence round them. Physical, trade and virtual. However,
what will happen is that, where there is no resultant impact on the hypocritical
west (that's you and I too, by the way) or in fact the government is
strategically friendly to the west then these rogue states will be allowed
to get on with it. As a case in point you can look at Somalia. Nothing in
it for the west so brutalities and lawlessness can carry on unabated. Have
a look too at Saudi Arabia, one of the most despicable unjust regimes in the
world ....................... but oh yes! they host a strategic
American military base and of course there is all that black stuff. No not
black pudding, but oil. So therefor it is fine to have no democracy and brutal
treatment of their people who enjoy neither freedom nor any of the benefits of
this monstrously wealth - no not country - but family. Family and regime, who
play on religion to suppress the people while hoarding hundreds of billions of
the states' resource generated wealth while huge numbers of citizens live in
abject poverty. The silence from the west is deafening. Yet too, you can
have Iraq who had lots of oil but the country posed a threat to Israel -(
perhaps in fact another rogue state? -mentioning this by the way does not in any
way make me anti -semitic so don't even bother to try and go there), a threat to
the international oil supply and was not friendly to the west..... so "let's
"liberate" them!" Take a look at Libya and the hypocracy employed from
Tony Blair and Mandelson befriending that despicable regime and its
dictatorial ruling family. Where are Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson now
that we have decided again that these people were tyrants ( all be it dead
tyrants now)? Hypocracy never had such powerful advocates....... as not only
these two sleeze bags, but yes all of us in the west. Some consistent principles
please!
Back to the Canaries. Gran Canaria and the
Canaries in general have, I guess millions of tourists visiting each year. We
have found however that you can still find areas of almost unaffected
village life. Oh yes and talking of black pudding, they may have a version
which is also delicious and is slightly sweet, we had some for lunch in a very
picturesque mountan village, with some wine too..... In another place we
visited there was a village where people lived in cave houses! These were caves
which had been inhabited for thousands of years and their current residents had
built facia walls and fitted pretty doors and small windows
to them and we counted about 22 such residences in one village.
They were all set into the mountainside and some remote ones could be seen
at higher altitudes. The main village even had a beautiful chapel made out
of an enlarged cave cut into the rock.
Inevitably however after these relaxing
distractions and sharing in the excitement of those sailors now heading south
and west to cross the Atlantic, as we had done two years before, I needed
to make a plan to head north.
The prevailing winds between Gibraltar and the
Canaries are very much against us heading north and of course at this time
of year they can also be affected by Atlantic storms.
After stuggling to come down from the adrenalin
filled high I was still on from my Capetown - Canary trip, I felt like I
should maybe try Morocco for a week or so on the way north - for one more wee
adventure. However as the reality of the time of year and the adverse winds set
in, any plans had to focus more on a safe trip back to Gibraltar.
So on Wednesday last week I saw that there was a
forecast of weather which might just give us unseasonal following winds at
least for part of the trip north. So on Thursday we decided to head North going
first to Rubicon Marina in Lanzarote where we had a pleasant evening or two
then on Saturday to Graciosa where we anchored up over last night. This
would be our staging point to set off North which also of course shortened
the distance by another few miles.
Graciosa is a beautiful little rustic island where
it still feels very old wordly and unspoilt by tourism. There
are three bays there which make good anchorages and what we found is
typical of what you see with cruising yachts-people as you go round the
world.
The smallest bay and the least good anchorage was
empty. The middle bay which is a relatively small bay and a good anchorage had
twenty yachts anchored in it all cheek by jowl. The next bay the largest,
furthest North and nearest the village had NO boats anchored in it! It was where
we anchored two years ago always seeking the places where others don't
go... so we anchored there again on a lovely sandy bottom. It was late in the
day, however as soon as we anchored there then other boats start to join us
in the anchorage ........ why do people herd?
I understand people want to have some level of
company and to socialise but if you are going to sail round the world and of
course the majority of these boats there will not be doing that, then if
you want to truly experience the people and places on your travels you must seek
out some space............ a route less travelled. Of course you must always
remember too that a route less travelled is sometimes that way for a good reason
............. but if you want adventure it will not be found in the
herd.
All the time we are seeing a slow trickle of yachts
heading south to embark on their seasonal Atlantic crossing and I am excited for
them. For now though we have been there and in our own way done that, so
thoughts are turning to home and getting this last passage over as comfortably
and uneventfully as possible.
As Trish has decided to sail north and she has not
been at sea for a few months, since our Capetown arrival actually, it will
take here a little time to find her sealegs, so I have too consider that
too while planning.
However the best I could do was to head off from
our anchorage in Graciosa at 0630 today in a flat calm, for what I hope will be
a three day passage to Gibraltar ............... however one look at the
attached image of the GRIB file for tomorrow will show you that we are going to
have one hell of a load of wind tomorrow, though the direction is at least
forecast to be behind us... and hopefully we are just hanging onto its shirt
tails.
There are six hundred miles to run. I'll let you
know how we get on.
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