Pitufa.at

Running southwards quickly.

We left Las Palmas Tuesday evening towards the Cape Verde Islands. Instead of the expected constant northeasterly wind that predominates here, we found changing winds from different directions—that means many strenuous maneuvers (saves the fitness centre…). This morning the northeasterly wind finally returned and is hopefully come to stay!

We’ve been in the marina of Las Palmas since Thursday. We usually try to avoid marinas, but before setting off towards the Cape Verdes we wanted to go shopping for the last time, fix some things on the boat, fill up the water tanks, etc.
At first we were worried if noisy work on the boat would be frowned upon by the marina personal, but in this port many people like DIY and so we’re not the only ones who contribute with screeching angle grinders to the symphony going on around. Many yachts are preparing to cross the Atlantic and so the cashier in the supermarket isn’t the least bit surprised when you ask to have two full shopping carts delivered to the harbour…
We also wanted to use the chance to “sniff some city air” for the last time and visit the old town of Las Palmas, but somehow we don’t get round to it. There’s just too many projects that need finishing on the boat (new solar panels, security for the washboards and skylights, a translation, laundry, etc.), but tonight we want to do some sightseeing and also inspect some tapas-bars

On our way to Gran Canaria we stopped overnight in the bay next to the marina in Morro Jable, because the weather looked weird: gusts of up to 30 knots from different directions, a dark cloud ahead – we decided to have a quiet night at anchor instead of fighting such conditions in the dark.

The capital of Fuerteventura is a rather quiet, untouristy place. There are a few shops and restaurants though and the anchorage next to the port is not exactly pretty, but safe and calm.

We spend some days anchored off this little desert island with my Mom, who’s visiting at the moment. The water’s extremely clear, turquoise and very inviting – so we go swimming even though the wind is rather cool. We just have a hot tea afterwards

After relaxing for almost a week on the desert islet of La Graciosa we made it back to “civilisation” yesterday. Now we’re busy checking e-mails, searching for a laundry, supermarket, etc. Arrecife seems like a nice town, we’ll be back in the evening for some sightseeing!

We’ve made it! We’ve just dropped the anchor in a bay on La Graciosa (mini islet north of Lanzarote) and a bottle of sparkling wine is waiting in the fridge to celebrate our first passage on the Atlantic.

Crossing the Strait of Gibraltar was rather tricky: instead of the forecasted calm weather we faced headwinds of 25 to 30 knots and the “favourable current” set us back up to 4 knots. First we considered turning back to Gibraltar, then we wanted to anchor in Tarifa (Spanish town halfway through the Strait), but in the end we motored along the Spanish coast for a while and then crossed the shipping lanes towards the African side of the Strait under sails. The different currents and the strong headwind resulted sometimes in completely flattened seas and sometimes in high, confused, cross seas—kind of scary, but at 8 o’clock in the evening we were out of the witches cauldron!

From then on we sailed downwind along the African coast, keeping some distance to stay away from shipping lanes. A constant northerly wind between 15 and 25 knots allowed daily runs that amazed us after crawling through the calms of the Med (best run was 135 nm in 24 hours!!), but it also resulted in quite high, long waves. During the first 3 days we all fought with symptoms of sea sickness (headache, tired, feeling queasy), but soon adjusted to the new conditions. Everything’s a bit complicated with the boat rolls violently in the high seas: Cooking becomes an adventure, putting on clothes seems like a real challenge – and due to the cool temperatures during the night watches we had to wiggle into several layers of warm clothing. Leeloo has shown again that a lioness hides behind her usual “frightened rabbit facade”: on the first day on the Atlantic she already crawled out of her favourite place in the pilot berth (the calmest bed on board, we sleep there during passages), climbed up to the cockpit, lay down on her cushion under the sprayhood and wondered with us at the high waves.

During the next few days we’re planning to relax a bit on La Graciosa and then we’ll head on to Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.

Wind and waves are both from the north, so are ideal now. It’s sunny but rather cool. Seasickness is gone. Our daily runs for the first three days were 115, 113, and 135nm. We are approaching the Canaries faster than expected. 240nm to go!

A bit uncomfortable and seasick, but we are making good progress.