Arrival and departure from Tenerife
Gaudeo
John and Prue Quayle / John Quayle
Sat 17 Nov 2007 10:32
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12 November: John Smith, Jonathan Lane and JQ
arrived by Monarch Air from Manchester - for once a thoroughly pleasant
experience - and into a hire car within 20 minutes of touch down.The boat
was just as it had been left in the very sheltered marina two months
ago.
13 -16 November: Division of labour began with JQ
sensibly excluded from the great victualling debate but he was witness to much
bravado talk about purchase of a full size Jamon Iberico and live goat
(presumably to be tethered to the mast). A navigation warning about an
approaching plague of locusts from Mauritania prompted the food committee to
consider this as an alternative protein source and JL advised on a crystallized
preparation for pre-prandial snacks; then the gentle let down that tins of corn
beef were to be stocked, albeit for use in curries - well just how bad can it
get? Since then, the sight of JL and JS sweating under heavy loads of other
stores has restored confidence that the chefs may reach their renown
potential
An early task was to determine the state of
"Gaudeo`s" bottom as a reduction of boat speed by even 0.25 knots could
make the difference between arrival before or after carnival time in the
Caribbean, so armed with scrapers an entertaining morning in harbour was
spent in underwater labour. Skipper later informs the workers that he was more
concerned about the efficiency of the boat`s folding propeller and arranged with
a boat yard 3 miles away for lift out and readjustment (pitch
reduction) so the harbour high jinks had been unnecessary - just the
beginning of his lack of credibility!
There were numerous anxious moments when the
propeller parts were scattered on the ground especially as communication
was difficult with an ever patient mechanic who spoke as little English
as our Spanish, but after 3 hours the parts were successfully reassembled,
the boat scrubbed, some additional antifoal paint applied, and the boat
relaunched. Boat speed has increased significantly.
16 November: Richard Burbidge arrived from
Manchester having left Shrewsbury at 3 am. He was allowed a brief rest
before starting on all the unpleasant jobs reserved for late arriving crew, such
as desk scrubbing and fender cleaning. He is now sporting a personal
EPIRB (emergency position indicating radio beacon) contained within a friend`s
James Bond style watch in case his shipmates decide to throw him
overboard. Being comparatively underdressed and somewhat bewildered by such
high tech kit they wonder whether he has also arranged for a
permanent reconnaissant Nimrod aircraft to standby for mid Atlantic
board meetings.
17 November: Forecast of a stationary area of low pressure to the NW of the Canaries
and light breezes from the SW for the next 3-4 days means that our heading today
from Tenerife will have to be due S towards the Cape Verde Islands in order to
pick up the Westerly trade wind, and we are likely to need the iron
sail for the next 2-3 days, and perhaps a refuelling stop in
Cape Verde islands later.
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