We're Off

We passed
scrutineering on the second visit, and spent a frenetic couple of days sorting
out problems with the water maker and navigation instruments. The manufacturers
have technicians in Las Palmas to help with last minute problems, but they were
inundated with requests and could only give us limited time. Of particular
concern was a low voltage alarm on the instrument circuits when we installed a
‘man overboard’ system which only arrived last week. This is a new Raymarine
product, and we were worried that it still had some glitches. We finally traced
it to a general low voltage situation in the power bus, and Pete Lanoe (he who
builds Land Rovers from scrap) designed and installed a work-around which
brought everything back on line. By the eve of the start of the race the boat
and crew declared themselves 100% ready. Things
have not been helped by a major water leak in the port. Water supplies have been
restricted to certain periods of the day, and this initially caused quite some
inconvenience with the ablutions facilities. Our water maker has already proved
a sensible acquisition, albeit processing suspect quality marina sea
water. The
organised seminars and parties continued apace. We were interviewed by Yachting
Monthly but are not sure whether we will get into print. The journalist seemed
peeved by Ron’s reply to the question on how well we’ll do in the racing class.
When asked where did we think we would finish; quick as a flash Ron retorted
‘Rodney Bay, St Lucia I hope’ Poor
Tommy Cooper impersonation as Majic crew leave for the ARC fancy dress party
In between
daily visits to the hospital to change the dressings on his leg, the skipper
turned his attention to a final topping up of the provisions, particularly
liquid refreshments. After much discussion we settled on 100 litres of potable
water as back-up for our water maker, 260 cans of beer, 2 cases of vino tinto
and 10 litres of long-life milk. Once inside the supermercardo his enthusiasm to
purchase bore no relation to the agreed list; particularly when it came to
potatoes. 5kg became 30kg and 1 bottle of oil became 8. It has been suggested
that we catch a few fish on the way, and open a fish and chip shop
mid-Atlantic. Last
minute provisions caused the boat to settle 5 cms deeper in the
water The day
before the start we awoke to rain, with wind gusting to 25 knots. However the
weather blew through by early evening, and we were treated to an exceptional
firework display in the port at midnight. The weather for the start is forecast
to be light winds from the North-East, which would imply a spectacular spinnaker
run of the 233 boat fleet down the east coast of Gran Canaria, before hanging a
right for the Caribbean. Before
turning in for the last night we decided to present a bottle of malt whiskey to
our next door neighbours, Senor and Senora Hernandez, who own a motor boat, and
have had to put up with the usual noise and commotion that comes from Majic.
They promptly reciprocated by presenting us with bottles of wine and Trinidadian
rum. El Senor then hauled all of his fishing gear from below deck, poured us
glasses of rum and proceeded to demonstrate for over an hour, particularly to
our fisherman Mik, how he catches 25kg tuna with a motorised fishing rod. Such
friendly and hospitable people. We have all been impressed by the friendly
attitude of all the local people we have come in contact with; hospital staff,
bar and restaurant waiters, chandlery counter staff to name a
few. |