Las Palmas
ALICE'S ADVENTURES
ANDREW AND CELIA SHARPE
Sun 7 Nov 2010 17:26
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We are now safely tied up in Las Palmas, Gran
Canaria. We left Lagos on Tuesday at 10am and arrived here on Saturday at
13.00. We left in bright sunshine and had a lovely send
off with horns blasting and people waving. We were only just out of the
harbour when we saw a Portuguese Navy gun boat coming towards
us. A rib then came from the gun boat towards us and two navy officers got
on board Alice. They went through all our papers, passports and safety
equipment then let us go on our way. So at 11 we were on route to the
Canaries. By lunchtime the swell had started to build and we were sailing
along at about 8 knots. The night was very starry with nothing much to
report, very few boats. Paul and I thought there was a ship on the horizon
at about 4am but it turned out to be a bright red sickle moon.
Unfortunately the swell has caused some sea sickness but that seems to be over
now with the help of stugeron and getting our sea legs. We have lots of
food on board but nobody wanted dinner that night and we ate rolls,
biscuits and barley sugar sweets!
On Wednesday the wind settled down a bit but was right
behind us so we sailed slightly off the wind and made good
progress. We then motor sailed to charge up the batteries.
Unfortunately the generator broke the first time we put it on. Andrew
thinks its is the impellor, there was a nasty smell of burning rubber.
All crew felt a lot better today and we decided to
have last night's dinner for lunch today instead of dinner as we were all up at
the same time! It is pitch dark at 6.00pm for about 12 and half hours so a
long night.
Thursday came after a much calmer night and the wind dropped to 10 knots from
behind. So the engine went on in the middle of the night and we
motor sailed again. The forecast before we left was for the wind to drop
and as we went along. Its got a lot warmer too. At night we were in
fully oilies to keep warm.
Sailing again with a gentle north east wind.
Another lovely school of dolphins, looking them up in my new book they were
Atlantic Spotted Dolphins. We were also visited by a
couple of really small lone birds who landed on the dinghy and a turtle
swam past.
Thursday night was very starry and a couple of
cruise ships passed us - one was Independence of the Seas and people were on the
balconies taking photos of Alice.
Friday was much warmer and we were all getting into the
swing of things. It was surprising how few other ships and boats we saw
along the way. Not even any fishing boats and lobster pots -
hurrah!
We put on our crew polo shirts to come into Las Palmas
in style. The marina is filling up with ARC boats and the activities
start tomorrow. Jerry the Rigger checked all our rigging this
morning and went up the mast. A few little things to do. Sue and I
cycled in to the town earlier but being Sunday and Spain the shops were all shut
- will have to go again tomorrow!! Andrew and Paul are finding even more problems with the
generator and they are stuck inside trying to fix it.
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