Quite static of late, hence the blog gaps. Since the last post from Rubicon Marina in Lanzarote, just Bosun and I cruised down to Las Palmas, crew having departed. We got up at 03:00, left at 04:00 and arrived in Gran Canaria at 17:00. That was quick, due to favorable current and swell (96 miles). We didn't see any other vessels the entire 13 hours. The swell was most excellent. Two meter smooth waves rolling in broadside, with a 10 second period. Gently up, gently back down - lovely. But sadly no wind, so motored all the way :-(

Las Palmas arrival was a bit ugly. We were allocated what seemed like an afterthought isolated berth in a tiny harbor next to the Marina. I complained, and was 'not' politely told, to go somewhere else if I didn't like it! The problem was a side-on tie, to an ugly sea wall with a spring tide of 2.1m. I made an appointment to see the harbor master the next day and argue the case to move, based on Bosun not being able to climb the sea wall ladder very easily! However, prior to the appointment, I canceled the appointment, as I'd had a good walk around.

The main marine (which is a stones throw), is packed. There are spaces but they are amongst a jungle jumble of various boats, most having nothing to do with the ARC. My little Harbor however, is 50% allocated to mainly ARC Catamarans. Hmmm, bit of a 'community' developing, methinks - I like that idea. Then there is Bosun: The harbor is isolated from the road, so no cars racing through. The only piece of local grass is 150m away (and I've subsequently found a dog park and several large grassy parks nearish). Also solved the 'Bosun ladder' issue: I dropped the port lifelines and cut the side netting, to create a side gate towards the front of the boat. That part of the boat is nearly a meter higher than the back gate. Initially I rigged a pulley system to pull the boat close (long lines to cope with the tide range, so sometimes she would wander a meter or two off the wall), and then Bosun does his jet doing a low flypast impression - man that dog can jump! Several tides later, I've got the lines sorted so x86 no longer wanders off. The trick was the outer pontoon lines ashore. This area suits the big Cats, as their freeboard (deck to water), is so high, the drop for them is not so significant, in fact it's probably better than being side on to a floating pontoon. My only concern now is that they may move us for that very reason (give the slot to a big ass'd Cat!). We'll see - currently there are 6 Cats in here, but two of those will be replaced as they are on the ARC+ so will move off to Cape Verde in a week or so. That's where the 'diminutive' comes in, as they're all big buggers! We are big compared to most mono's, but not so these giant Lagoons, Catana's, and Outremer's.

Finished the tech projects, as per the last post. Motion sensor camera - done & fitted. Environmental sensor - done & fitted. The thermal printer (nmea data), threw a wobbly when used for real on the trip down from Lanzarote. When moving there is way more data on the nmea bus, than when static. I made some adjustments to the code and that's probably solved it (can't test until next move). I will sometime paste the data at the bottom of emails when I'm offshore and airmail on the ships computer (where the database is storing the records).

Updated and laminated the Crew safety brief document, now all encompassing. Everyone gets the brief when coming aboard, doesn't take long when I give it from the list. Also laminated copies of mine and the crews passports, which are now sitting in the grab bag.

Starboard toilet leak fixed (new pump), will do the port one this week (it's tired and doesn't flush well).

Water heater appears to be faulty again. I fixed it last time, but some gremlin has come back. Will need to get to that ASAP, incase I need to order parts. No problem on the crossing however, as there will be a daily engine run for an hour, to provide power for the watermaker (important to keep the 660L fresh water tank continually topped up, in case the watermaker has an issue later), microwave use (defrosting / pre cooking dinner foods), and to heat the water in the boiler. This also charges the batteries, although watermaker & Microwave aside, we appear to be keeping up fine, via the solar, wind gen and water gen.

I also need to replace the two electric bilge pumps. I've had replacements aboard for a while, but haven't bothered, as the hand pumps do the job quick and easy.

Missed the F1 qualifying last night (USA GP so all sessions are in the evening [time diff]). Normally it's the same time as the race, on the prior day. For some reason it was two hours later, so I was at the bar at 20:00 and only then saw that it wasn't on until 22:00 - darn it - didn't bother to wait.

That's it. All's well on x86.

SOG 0.0k - Bearing 061.0mag
Wind 5.1k : Dir 41.5 deg
Depth 3.1m : WaterTemp 24.00c

Live tracking (when moving): http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0cR9yNFn1ImZd6mvo5QqqNQtLmJsA3NV1

Blog: http://blog.mailasail.com/x86
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