Sat 4^th, Sun 5^th & Mon 6^th Dec

Well, as predicted the next band of low pressure arrived over the weekend and with it came winds from the south and the inevitable big swell ravaged the marina again. This time the winds were very ordinary, but the swell in here was every bit as bad as last weekend and on Saturday night neither Sarah nor I got much sleep as we surged and rolled in the extraordinary conditions. Remarkably Robert and Joyce had a pretty good night in the forepeak which seems to be insulated against the worst of the noise and effects of the swell.

On Saturday we all were involved in preparations with Robert and I servicing and maintaining deck gear and equipment at the mast whilst Sarah and Joyce went off to investigate meat and other purchasing options. The swell made the evening pretty unpleasant and we had a fairly early night.

On Sunday Robert F Set about fitting a very smart LED lighting strip under the fronts of the galley cupboards which has been a fantastic improvement to the galley, both for normal use and during passages. In the afternoon the four of us plus Steve headed off in our hire car to the big retail park on the road to La Laguna with the express purpose of buying Steve and me wetsuits. (Seems Sarah would like me to be the one to do propeller clearance etc. when in the mid Atlantic surrounded by sharks!) This turned out to be quite a comedy show as both Steve and I rather liked to believe that we are both very much more svelte than we really are! Poor Sarah was despatched back to the rails again and again to collect ever larger wet suits as Steve and I tried to wrestle ourselves into them! Eventually we both settled on suitable suits that both fitted and were fairly easy to get on and off in a hurry, although in both cases we still seem to need an assistant. Later in the afternoon Robert F did mention that he thought I looked pretty good for my age in a  wetsuit, which as comments go, might have been nicer for me if it had come from either Sarah or Joyce.

In the evening Steve and Chris joined us on Serafina for drinks, dinner and a session of Mexican Train.

We had a better night in terms of sleeping as the swell did seem to have eased a bit, but by the morning it reappeared with a vengeance.

On Monday Robert F was put to work again using all his electrical engineering skills and he made various modifications including completing the installation of the Broadband satellite phone and internet system. The big surge continued all day and if anything had got worse again by the evening although there still was no wind at all.

We have been putting our new Lava vacuum packer to work over the past few days and hopefully this will all prove invaluable during the trip across the Atlantic. It allows us to pack all manner of foods down into much smaller units and also protects stuff from damp and damage. There have been a few debates as to what items we can vacuum pack and unlike Scott-Free we have drawn the line at tea bags!

There has been feverish activity in the main square of the city, just across the main road from us here in the marina. They have been constantly draining and cleaning the central fountains and pond area all the time we have been here and it now transpires that for the first time ever they are hoping to freeze the whole thing and create a public ice rink (yes I know that it is nearly 28 degrees here) in time for Christmas.

One other feature of Santa Cruz is the remarkable amount of cruise ships that call in here. We have had four different ones lined along the quay almost every day this week which makes for an awful lot of tourists thronging the streets. What does seem a little cruel is that the last ship to arrive each day is moored at the end of the line of ships and the passengers, who it has to be said are not always the fittest of individuals, end up walking miles before they get anywhere near the shops and city centre.

Latest weather forecasts show that we may have to delay our departure until Saturday or perhaps even Sunday. There is not a lot of wind around, but until then it is all coming from the south which is exactly the way we have to head to get to the cape verde islands and one thing is for sure neither us nor Scott-free have any intention of setting off tacking upwind with