Preparation . . . . . and endless lists . . . . again
Stargazer of Southampton
Susie and Adam (both think they are skipper)
Sun 5 Dec 2010 13:51
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Last week we moved into the Marina at Las Palmas as
some bad weather came in with some Gales and some Terrific Thunder and
Lightening storms that woke everyone up a few nights ago.
Actually getting into the Marina itself was bedlam
- the marineros only go at one speed and weren't happy when faced on a windy day
last thursday with about 20 boats all wanting to get into berths at the same
time, there was much shouting and yelling, close scrapes, boats nearly on rocks,
boats with broken engines being towed - we were OK, saw a space on the
reception pontoon and went for it, we were there 4 hours before we got directed
to our berth, but better tied up and drinking tea than going back out to anchor
as the harbour was quite rough.
Luckily the Marina is sheltered so although we
heard the wind - the boats didn't move much, unlike our mate Jim who was in a
Marina on the south side of Tenerife - he had 50Kt winds and 2 metres of swell
inside the Marina which sounded no fun at all - it was so bad he was considering
leaving and heading into the 5metre swell outside the Marina. . . . .
.
We have decided that we will plan to go from here
over to the Caribbean and so we have found countless other things to fix/sort
out first. Provisioning has taken a fair bit of time ferrying food from
the supermarkets and planning easy meals for the crossing, we're pretty much
there now apart from fresh fruit and veg and cheese. We have managed to
find spaces to squeeze food that we didn't know existed. It is apparently
cheaper to buy stuff here than over there so some boats have stocked up 3 months
supplies - we haven't gone that far but by the end of it should have a
couple of months. I think we'll be finding cartons of orange juice and
tins of beans for the next few years as we are bound to forget where we put some
things.
Like many boats here we have a few bits to do but
are really waiting for the right weather, we're still not 100% decided as yet if
we go via the Cape Verde Islands, that would add about 200 miles to the overall
trip but would mean we can anchor and relax for a couple of days down
there before doing the main leg. The other question is whether we
plan to make landfall at Barbados rather than St Lucia as that would also cut a
couple of hundred miles off the main trip.
We have all been watching the ARC boats who left
two weeks ago - and in most opinions, like usual the left too early so for them
it is likely to be a long crossing, some of them still have 2000 miles to go and
apparently one boat only took food for 20 days so are highly likely to run
out. We're hoping we can find some better weather, there are only a few
boats that have left recently, most are waiting a little longer so will be
having xmas at sea.
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