We are going to have to move from Lanzarote. We had a French Camembert that got a little “lively” in the sunshine and was placed in the pontoon bin, well actually it more or less walked there itself, and now there’s space where the other boats were.

Bob departs at 5am tomorrow, and we will be very sad to see him go. He has fitted in brilliantly. A really nice guy, incredibly willing, and a good sailor. He’ll be very welcome back at any time.

So Larry and I will take the opportunity of having to get up early to depart for Las Palmas in Gran Canaria. Its just over 100 nautical miles, so should take about 16 -18 hours. I’ve booked a berth in the marina there, which is where the ARC departs from in November.

There will be a fair bit of boat maintenance to do, but apart from 2 jobs they are all pretty easy. The first important job is the jib furling – that’s the sail at the front which rolls around a metal tube when you don’t want it. Its been getting more and more difficult to roll, and yesterday we got “Jean Michel” to have a look at it. Despite his outrageous French accent his English is very good, and he certainly knows his stuff. I feared it was the bearings (vastly expensive, especially as that would involve cutting and replacing the almost new wire that holds up the mast), but he has determined that its simply some bits that are missing up top, and can be replaced easily. I’m hoping the cost will only be about one “unit” (I resorted to units like many others because talking in pounds sterling is too painful – a unit is £500). We won’t be able to use the sail till I get it fixed in Las Palmas, but if the forecast for tomorrow is correct we will have the naughty sail up for a screamingly good time.

That reminds me, I’ve had a couple of requests for explanations of the technical jargon on the blog, like the “naughty sail”. Salila has 5 sails. The Mainsail is the big one behind the mast which is attached to the boom. The jib (or genoa) is in front of that and goes down to the front of the boat. Both of these are permanently rigged, that is they stay attached all the time.

Then I have two downwind sails. These are big lightweight sails that reside in a locker and are put up when needed. One is a “gennaker” (a cross between a spinnaker and a genoa), and the other a “screecher”. Both roll up like a long sausage and can be taken down when not needed. Or that’s the idea. When we were testing the brand new screecher we let the wind rise a little too much and it wouldn’t roll up properly, in fact one of us ended up wrestling it down. It was behaving naughtily, and was put into the locker until it learned how to conduct itself properly – hence the name.

The fifth sail is safely in same locker I hope to never see it again – it’s a “Gale Sail”.

Finally, a little more shameless advertising on behalf of friends. Pete Bernfeld has just had his first book published, called “A Man out of Time” and I can thoroughly recommend it, especially as I’ve been telling him to write for years. Its available on Kindle from  Amazon or direct from the publisher. In a couple of months it will even be printed and available to buy as a hard copy. I will try and put the links below, but if that doesn’t work just search on Amazon. For those of you who don’t know him he is in Fiji, having had a little close encounter with a reef on his boat, and he’s in need of funds to get it repaired.

http://www.vamptasypublishing.co.uk/#/a-man-out-of-time/4554079772

http://www.vamptasypublishing.co.uk