Scrubbing
Tillymint.fortescue
Wed 18 Nov 2009 00:26
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28:07:700N 15:25:500W
Arrived in Lanzarote on Wednesday and picked up
Steve and Claire on Thursday.
Quick sail (motor in fact) down from Lanzarote to
Gran Canaria. Uneventful apart from a sighting of something a bit
"whaley".
A quick consultation with the whale book revealed
that it was either a Risso's dolphin, or the not quite scary enough sounding
Pygmy Killer Whale. Despite it's name, the book says that it deserves the name
killer more than the real thing. In the absence of a perfect ID, we decided that
they were the pygmies. Skipper had up to this
point been planning a mid ocean swim to check on the bow thruster, but found a
series of excuses to put this off indefinately.
Arrived in Las Palmas on Friday night, passed the
ARC safety inspection on Saturday afternoon and since then we've had a glorious
weekend of scrubbing. The deck is gleaming, the chrome is gleaming and even the
fenders are gleaming.
Excitement this morning when two divers arrived to
change the propellor. Diving for a living must be one of the least fun jobs in
the world when it involves diving in marinas. A dead cat drifted past the stern
just as they went in, and frankly I imagine that they eat swine flu for
breakfast given the environment they dive in.
The propellor came off beautifully, but half the
rest of the day was spent dealing with local bureacracy to get the new one out
of customs. Eventually achieved, but not before the divers had left. So we were
the boat equivalent of a wheel-less car on blocks for a day.
This morning though all changed. A huge storm
rolled past, causing floods, much cleaning of pontoons and even the temporary
disappearance down the pontoon of the dead cat. This proved too much even for
the divers who declared that they couldn't see anything and that they should
come back "manana". However, by midday, they reappeared, the new prop has been
fitted and skip and crew had nothing to do but get ready for a big night out
(via a seminar on emergencies dealing with what to do if the prop falls off, the
water maker breaks, the mast falls over etc.- cheery stuff).
Very jealous of our sister ship Rhiann Marie who as
far as we can tell has almost arrived in the Cape Verdes after only two
days. Looking forward to getting going ourselves to see if we can show why
they need a head start!
Now just ready for the arrival of Alison (or as she
is now known - "the owner" - in honour of all the other boats in which
professional crew are busy preparing for the arrival of the same) and the
nippers - fresh(ish) from exams - poor things.
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