We're Off
Spindrift
David Hersey
Sun 25 Nov 2007 10:54
I’m back in Las Palmas and the repair is two hours from completion. We are
missing a new seal for the rudder shaft which was unaccountably sent via
Switzerland and yesterday unknown to us, the UPS tried to deliver it to a
hotel no longer inhabited by the men from Princess. It was sent in a jiffy
bag on November 8th and arrived at 2PM November 23.
We could have been back in the water several days earlier if it weren’t
for the nightmare of getting materials into the country.
It never rains in Las Palmas except for last night and today when it is
bucketing down.
November 24
We went back in the water this afternoon after 29 days on the hard. The
repair is a great improvement over the original and if we’re ever in
conditions to damage the Skeg it will be because of much more serious
problems, like for example being thrown on the rocks.
We rushed out of the harbour to empty our holding tanks and to test the
repair on the Spinnaker. The sail maker has got one of the strings on in
the centre section of the wing too short but we should be able to sort it
out ourselves.
All systems are back up and running except for the Raymarine Wind
Indicators. When you first power up they give a true reading of wind
speed and direction but after 20 or 30 seconds the displays freeze and
then drop out completely. Normally these electronic faults are cured by
the expedient of powering down and the restarting but his time its not
working and it’s the first time we’ve had this particular fault.
There is a Raymarine Geek here for the ARC boats and we are trying to
persuade him to visit us, which I suppose he may do after everyone else is
attended to. This puts me in the position of having to decide whether to
go without continuous wind information.
I suppose a true sailor doesn’t need such modern comforts….any way it’s
still morning and maybe he will turn up. I’m hoping it’s some sort of
software problem and that there is a factory reset to solve it…
We have been joined by a young Finn who is having a gap year and sailed to
Gran Canaria on a big Swan. His name is Niko Salomaa (picture attached)
Nik will stay until Valdavia. When he arrived in Gran Canaria he sent all
his warm clothing back to Finland as he was planning to find a ride to the
Caribbean.
His mother and father at home got up at 1 in the morning to drive two
hours to the airport to give his things to someone who happened to be
flying out at 5AM. Another Finn is flying back tomorrow and will return
the bits he really doesn’t need. I’m very impressed with the Finnish
network.
Last night the Swan 80 next to us left at a few minutes after Midnight.
The wind was very strong and they left a scrape on our Starboard Side,
which will probably polish out.
They left unshaven and NOT on a Friday as they were honouring old
seafaring traditions.
I don’t actually know why its bad luck to leave port on a Friday nor why
you shouldn’t shave on the day you leave. Just to be safe, I shaved
tonight as we’re leaving tomorrow.
I stayed on the boat all day in the hope the Raymarine Geeks would arrive
and just when I’d given up at 5:30 they did. It took them about 25
minutes to find a cable in a forward cabin locker, which was partially
crushed. This in turn affects a network terminator and can cause all
sorts of communication problems. They replaced it and several hours later
all is still fine. This could even be the source of other intermittent
glitches we have experienced more often than I care to remember.
The plan de jour is to leave on Sunday afternoon after the ARC for The
Capo Verde Islands some 866 miles to the South West.
Now that the provisioning has been completed, I find I’m now sharing my
cabin with the spare dinghy, the diving equipment and numerous other bits
of strange gear.
Steve has just cleared an airlock in the AC Generator so now we really are
all systems go.
Sotiris is cooking Kleftico wrapped in paper in the oven which will
probably take three hours. Nik having done his dark laundry on Spindrift
is off to another boat to collect his light laundry. Very well organized
young man. I’m going to have a glass of wine and hope I can last until
dinner.
Sotiris wants to put some more pictures on the Web Diary. I say sure. He
then produces a file of 154 Megabytes. The max Web Diary entry is 2
Megabytes. I say gimme me a break or words to that effect. He cuts the
video clips from the file and it goes down to 98 Megabytes. Still miles
too much. Each image has to be edited down in PhotoShop and it takes a few
minutes per image. I think Sotiris needs a full time IT assistant, not a
job I feel I will apply for. I will encourage Nik to take it on.
I want to run a few errands in the morning and send this blog before we
go. So dear reader you may have to wait a bit for the next Sotiris Photo
Show.
I have just recovered from a wallet fright in which Steve left the boat
with both of our wallets in his pocket. I spent an unhappy hour
searching and retracing my steps and was about to start canceling all my
credit cards etc when he telephoned to say “I’ve got your bloody wallet”
like it was my fault.
Sunday Morning.
We’re off at 2PM after the ARC boats leave. The forecast is for fairly
strong North Westerlies for the next few days which is perfect for us.
