Tenerife
'Sarf & West mate, Sarf & West'
Pete Bernfeld
Wed 19 Nov 2008 19:25
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28:01.243N 16:36.678W
Marina de San Miguel
Well, it's been a couple of days since I've posted,
so what's been happening: I stayed a couple of days longer than I originally
planned at Pasito Blanco because I 'volunteered' to help Dick extricate
Moonshiner from the marina (his crew are off galivanting in Morocco at the
moment). We got Moonshiner out with help from the marina guys and their dingy,
then motored round yesterday to the anchorage near the cement works (very
salubrious...not), originally called Puerto Cementario!. Today (19th) on a
forecast of NE 4 to 5, becoming 6 in the afternoon we left for San Miguel,
Tenerife. Guess what.....once clear of the wind shadow of Gran Canaria there was
a solid F7 (3, possibly 4 at times) metre seas from the beam and it was quite
lumpy. It's a long story, but having hove-to, gone on the foredeck to un-jam the
furling gear (an important bit of kit in 30 kts of wind, as it was at the time)
I then rolled most of the working jib away and went straight for two reefs in
the main. The second reefing line managed to wrap itself around the deck-working
light on the mast and before I realised that I thought I had tension in the
reefing line so dropped the main to the appropriate level for the number two
reef. What I failed to realise was that there was a large bight ion the reefing
line at the ass-end of the boom which (wait for it) wrapped itself around
Prescott (the wind generator). Pausing only to think, stap me vittals,
Prescott's gone quiet, I motored into wind (F6) and sea (at least 3 metres) and
unwrapped the reefing line. Apart from (I think) lifting the windward hull out
of the water in a misplaced fit of enthusiasm, that was that.
The marina looks OK, I'll check in tomorrow, have a
bit of a make and mend (no, don't ask) then have a look around the island for a
few days before moving on to La Gomera.
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