| Update: Feijao (with Lenny, Simon & Brook aboard) arrived in Barbados at 01:00 Saturday 29 December. Safely at anchor. --o0o-- Arrived in the Caribbean! Well, at least one of us has arrived. It's a long story, but basically I opted out of the Atlantic crossing and flew out of Gibraltar after being winded-in for nearly five weeks. Our intended stay was two days. Simon flew in to sail with Lenny down the African coast to the Canary Islands and, while Lenny downplayed the drama in his usual laid-back style, Simon told me that they had to abort their first attempt to sail around the top end of Africa because of massive storms. They turned back and gave the seas a few days to settle down before heading out again. Let me tell you that attempt number two wasn't much better, although they did manage to make it to the Canaries. At one stage they lost both autopilots and had to take one hour watches because hand steering in the 5 metre swells was too exhausting. Lenny fixed the main autopilot on the go and they made Las Palmas around midnight on the fifth night when they had to sail in circles to furl in the headsail because the furler gave up after four days and nights of 25-30 knot winds. At least they were astern and not on the nose (typical in the Med). Simon said they were flying - clocked 13.1 knots at one stage. Amazing considering we usually cruise at 5 knots. So they took some well earned R&R. Lenny found that the autopilots were simple enough to fix once he was in calm seas. New brushes and a good service was all they needed. They picked up Brook, our third crew member, and headed out across the Atlantic last Friday. I haven't heard from them so I think that's a good sign. If they had to stop over in the Verdies I would have had a call... I think. Actually I missed a Skype call yesterday. Hmmm... It's a three week sail so he won't make it by Christmas. Adrienne has landed in Barbados and I'll be there tomorrow. Some serious hanging around the beaches sipping on cocktails coming up while we wait for Feijao to sail in. It's so strange being in a place where everyone speaks English. I constantly have to remind myself that I can ask for help and understand the answer; and its a real novelty to be able to read the labels on the food in the supermarket. Who am I kidding - it's a novelty just being able to recognise the food! Last but not least, Beejay has graduated. After four years uni she graduated yesterday. So, so proud. |
Just thought we'd put up our sailing track from Gibraltar to Barbados: Lenny and Simon sailed 3,500 nm in a month (not counting the aborted attempt to leave Gibraltar). They picked up Brook in Gran Canaria and he joined them for the 21 day 1 hour Atlantic crossing to Barbados. Each pin mark after the Canaries is a 24 hour way point. They didn't keep accurate records from Gibraltar to Las Palmas as they were too busy hand steering and trying to fix the auto-pilot. Barbados - St Lucia: Hello from St Lucia which is approximately 100nm NW of Barbados in the Caribbean. We arrived here yesterday morning and almost kissed the earth when we arrived. Bloody awful passage that is the last 'Atlantic Ocean' sailing. It is completely open to the East. From here on in it's the Caribbean Sea and we are hoping that means better weather. I don't do oceans as you all know and the last 24 hours reminded me why. It doesn't sound that bad to talk about it: beam reach; 3 - 5 metre sloppy seas; 25-40 knot NE winds. But... It was the pits. We had planned such a normal night passage with three hour watches and dinner was organised. Yeah right. The three men ended up in the cockpit all night fighting the seas and winds while I was below throwing up for 20 hours. Not what we had in mind at all. Lost so much weight that my shorts are literally falling off as I walk around the marina. I look like I'm trying to be one of those trendy men with the CK undies bands showing above their pants, and my $6 swimsuit I bought 4 years ago in Asia fits again. The trip matched the worst of what the chaps had encountered on the crossing from Gibraltar to the Caribbean except that we had the advantage of time - only 20 hours. It was awful. But we are here in St Lucia listening to Caribbean music, talking to world cruisers and drinking Rum Punch. Now we will cruise St Lucia and head for the French island of Martinique. Yesterday will be forgotten tomorrow. Atlantic Crossing: Lenny describes the Atlantic crossing as a fair to average experience. In his words "we left the Canaries on 7 December arrived 22 days later on 29 December. After a couple of days motor-sailing in low winds, the trades kicked in and it was downwind sailing all the way to Barbados. Winds averaged 15-20 knots with 3m swells and we averaged about 5.6 knots. It was a confused sea which made it difficult to do anything other than read a book and take your watch. We sailed most of the way with the headsail poled out, though that didn't stop the slapping. Basically, the crossing was uncomfortable and not what I'd call fun. Feijao performed magnificently as usual, though after sailing the Pacific and Indian Oceans, the Atlantic is not one I'd want to do twice."
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Unfortunately, when we got about a half mile out of the marina we were in the thick of it yet again. Couldn’t see the marina we’d just left and sure as hell couldn’t see anything ahead of us or beside us. Also, because of all the floods in southern Spain, heaps of debris has been flushed out into the straight. While 99% was small bamboo sticks, intermingled with that were plastic bags, fork-lift pallets, logs and of course fishing pots - we couldn’t see any of it. Two days before we’d seen a couple of big logs about two metres long and half a metre thick. Every now and then we felt the thump of something hitting the hull and kept holding our breath waiting for the big one that, thankfully, didn’t come.
Lenny had found the fog horn the day before and without mentioning it to me decided this was a good time to start using it. I don’t think my heart has raced so fast in my lifetime as he blasted the bloody thing without notice. I swear to God, if I hadn’t needed him to sail the boat I’d have knocked his bloody lights out! As luck would have it, the fog cleared within the hour and we were off at 7 knots. We had a fall-back marina only a few miles away, but decided we could make Gibraltar before nightfall. Small problem though, it turned out that Gibraltar had it’s own little fog problem! Who’d have thunk? Not really funny now. We must have been good in a previous life because it cleared just as we were entering the Ship anchoring area and we were able to round the Rock with clear vision. We headed for the nearest marina and were tied up an hour before sunset. That was one anchoring beer we really enjoyed. They tell us that it is unusual to get fog here at this time of year, but we are still hearing the ships sounding their fog horns all night long and it doesn’t clear until lunch time each day. We are doing some provisioning here and getting a new chart for our crossing to the Caribbean so we will be here a few days. We’re in no hurry because there’s a low coming through this weekend and we want this fog to clear before we head down the Moroccan coast. Hope to go into Rabat so we can land-travel across to Fez and then to Agadir for a land-trip to Marrakech. What we will miss most: Our seven months in Cartagena Spain has been one of those experiences you never, ever want to forget.
Just to prove we finally left, below is a video of Feijao heading out of YPC on 25 May 2012. Plans - summer in the Balearics, through Gibraltar in September 'ish, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands and then with lots of our friends from Cartagena and our favourite crew from Australia, it's across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. Oh and of course there won't be any updates for a while. Choosing crystal clear waters of the Balearics over an Internet Cafe (naturally).
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Any excuse for a party and the locals just love to dress up. As luck would have it we arrived back from our road trip around southern Spain just in time for a local carnival. It started at 6pm and when we left (3 1/2 hours later) the procession was still coming up the narrow streets. The locals are obviously inducted early and participate until they're too old to make the walk. The youngest ones could barely walk without help and the old ones had the rhythm. We never stop being thankful that we are wintering in Cartagena. This town is full of surprises. Alhambra, Granada Spain Just back from a road trip visiting some of Spain's beautiful Islamic architecture (my favourite). Lenny enjoyed himself napping or making cheese and biscuit snacks while I wrestled with the right hand gear stick and a gutless hire car that dropped to 60kph whenever we climbed a slight incline on the 120klm highways. There were only a few scary moments when I had to change down gears in a hurry. Funny how the brain says 'clutch left; gear change left'. Not so! My language got more colourful as the days went by, but Lenny merrily went on snoozing and eating. I've got to admire his confidence. We visited Alhambra's Moorish Palaces in Granada, beautiful Seville and the world-heritage listed Cordoba Mosque. See photo tab for some more pics. Seville's world-largest Cathedral The world's largest Cathedral in Seville should also rate a mention, but for us it was all about the Islamic architecture. In Seville we stayed on our friends' yacht in the Guadalquivir River. We'd last seen Bill & Nancy in Turkey two years ago so it was one hell of a get together. We borrowed their bikes and cycled everywhere. The world could learn some lessons from Seville's bike paths - speed limits, pedestrian crossings and even overtaking lanes - there is simply no better way to get around. Gina has perfected a new Yoga position. We are so lucky to be in Cartagena Spain for the winter. The weather has been perfect (touch wood) with beautiful blue skies for the past three months and daytime temperatures often warm enough to wear tee-shirts. On top of that the town is beautiful and the people so friendly that the time is passing all too quickly. Our marina community is small and very social. On Christmas day ten of us celebrated with a delicious pig-on-a-spit. Here in Spain they've managed to retain some of the original meaning of the celebration. It's not all about the shopping. Christmas eve and day are family affairs and presents aren't exchanged until January 6th when 'the three kings' parade takes to the streets. Here in Cartagena thousands of people lined the streets as the most amazing procession of decorated floats worked it way through the town for hours. The floats were filled with every imaginable fairytale character and the 'kings' threw lollies and teddy-bears to the crowds. Some of the kids didn't stand a chance with all the young-at-heart (read 'Lenny') eating the spoils. |
AuthorLenny & Gina Archives
February 2015
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