Good bye Madeira Hello Lanzarote
Zepher
Chris & Lyn Darch
Tue 9 Oct 2007 20:39
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28:51.39N
13:48.83W
Sept 25th to the 9th October 2007
Noah's Progress
Good bye Madeira , Hello Lanzarote
Hello folks ,
Sorry its been a long time since the last entree
but we must be laying back too much .. anyway we had a further eleven days in
Madeira , we were all touristed out by the Tuesday its a good job they needed
the car back ,we left on the Saturday for Lanzarote in the
Canaries .
The remainder of our time in Madeira was
spent chasing the elusive gas bottle filler , we adventualy got it back on the
last day of the car hire, this was quite an amusing day , we arrived in Funichal
some 40 km down the road after being told the previous Wed that it would be
ready Monday morning .. guess what it wasn't there , after much
phoning , shouting and what must have been Portuguese obscenities the
man put the phone down and with a smile said five o'clock this evening
, that decided the days site seeing Funichal , we had still got a few
places to visit there , first stop the water front cafe , novel idea for a
restaurant , pull a boat out the water convert it to a restaurant cut the bottom
off the boat and put it in a swimming pool on the water front , I guess the up
and down with the Atlantic swell was too much for the customers and the
toilets got more use than the tables , anyway the view is good a large
number of yachts were anchored outside the main harbour whilst we were gazing
over them we saw a French boat sliding towards the beach , this is not the place
to " Frenchy style anchor" ( chuck the lot of chain onto the sea bed in a
big pile and bugger off ashore for a Pasties , great sailors,shite anchorers)
along the way he picked up by chance a Dutch boat , these poor buggers held him
off the beach whilst another Dutch man put a second anchor out to stop him going
up the beach , when we left at 5 oc the poor Dutch couple were still baby siting
waiting for there return !
The harbour was full of the Transet race ,
to the uninitiated this is a French race from La Rochelle to Brazil via
Madeira in a twenty foot surf board with sails , Iv done some daft things
in my time but this defiantly takes the biscuit , we counted about 50 boats in
total all in various stages of repair they were off on the day we intended to go
, the thought occurred that it would be better to leave a little later than
these chaps as we didn't fancy a 20ft surf board stuck in the side of Zepher and
I don't think she did either , Andy a sailing friend of ours said they shift
along at speeds of 10knts plus , they don't sleep for long , they are all
single handed ," makes Formula One drivers look like pussys" they reckon that it
would take 17 days to get to Brazil I must be getting old, the thought of
no Z ds, being permanently wet, dodging large tankers, dried food,
and a porta loo with damp bog paper ..
Spent the rest of the week with a bit of boat
work , trying to connect to the internet WiFi system , finally cracked it the
day before we left and stated phoning long lost friends and relative , sorry
if I didn't phone ran out of time .
Met some fellow boaters on there way
round the world , they were from Maine in the US , had a few nights of pleasant
company much red wine and ate the last leg of Welsh lamb in the deep freeze ,
roast spuds with all the trimmings yum yum ..
We left Marina Quinta Do Lorda on the 6th of
October interesting exit all astern .. had a great sail for the first 8 hrs then
little wind for 24 hr and the rest was a good blast from the NE later than
expected , great surf into Lanzarote a good 30 knts up the bum
and big smile on my face , sick bag on Lyns but as always she was a brick
and stood her watches and much sail reefing 3rd reef and the stay sail 8 knts on
the clock , made up for our lull in the middle and did the 300 miles in two days
.
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Lyns Corner
Hi to all my girlie friend's , well this time I was
really sea sick. I couldn't take my patch as I'm allergic to them , after a
few days at sea I start hallucinating , I first noticed this when we went
across the bay of Biscay when the sea became tartan blue green and white
type I don't know what clan it was I was pretty sure I wasn't in Scotland as I
know Chris navigation isn't that bad so I looked at the leaflet that came with
the patches ( Scopadom ) which said side effects! I had nearly all of them . The
answer was don't take them , I survived the six day trip and the all of the Ria
trips , but when it comes to a quartering sea on the stern that the time I have
to use the bag .As soon as the swell died and we get into the lee of the land it
goes away, or it might have been another berthing master who looked like Anthony
Bandarris, when we arrived at the Marina Rubicon, It must be something these
Spanish marinas do to get us girlie sailors alongside mind you He couldn't
handle our lines properly they all think its a plastic lightweight boat, but
when Zepher gives them a tug Her 30 tons give them something to think about its
the biggest girl they will pull , or it might have been my blond hair
and blue eyes and dark tan and sick bag hanging round my neck !
I was a bit p** off as Chris had the company
of a different breed of dolphin visit us when off watch we have not been able to identify them yet from our books so
if theirs anybody out there with a dolphin book please look up a green upper
body with pale green lower body about 6 ft in length .
..................................................................................................................................................................
Maggie I need help , have just been picked up on my
use of the English language by an Ofstead inspector , she must have been
checking spelling on line bored with exam papers and a Bristonian to boot a
certain Julie Currie , she wasn't one of your students was she I didn't think
anybody from Bristol could spell !
Late Press : Found Corned Beef in supermarket
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Lanzy Noahs in Lanzarote
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