Playa Francesca, Graciosa
'Sarf & West mate, Sarf & West'
Pete Bernfeld
Fri 12 Sep 2008 11:39
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29:13.057N 013:31.690W
Finally successfully anchored (second attempt) at
1030 UTC. Moonshiner couldn't get the anchor to set so have gone into the marina
at Sociadad (the only town on Graciosa). Dick is making enquireys on my behalf,
but unless it's 'super-cheap' I think I'll stay where I am for a day or
so.
The trip down proved tedious in the end, I'm
afraid. There was always a nasty cross swell (cross?? At times it was almost
incandescent!) which resulted in much 'crash, bang wallop'. Last night, the wind
got up to a fairly consistent F7 (with attendant swell) so I had fun and games
dropping the main to reduce speed. Would my Atlantic crew remind me , if I
witterr on about dropping the main downwind, that 8 times out of 10
attempting to drop the main downwind does not work!!! I would have saved myself
a lot of effort, not to say a ripped mainsail bag, if I'd just powered
into wind/swell in the first bloody place. Hey Ho!!!
It was raining and miserable when we made landfall
off Graciosa this morning (although still warm-sorry about that). It's now
brightened up quite a bit, although I still have about 20-odd knots of wind
through the anchorage. I'll keep you advised on developements, in the meantime
all well (apart from the mainsail stack bag).
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