Month: November 2013

So we qualified for entry to the ARC by arriving in Las Palmas on our own keel. We have now passed the Safety Inspection so we are cleared to go. To aid inspection everything is laid out for scrutineering and the emergency steering has to be put in place. We were picked up on a couple of points mainly in relation to MOB throwing lines and extras for our lifesling. Having dealt with the observations we are good to go.

Fantastic Party with the ARC Welcome Party combined with the ARC Plus Cape Verdes Farewell Party. Great nightclub and music. And what a show from a professional troupe that do a Carnival/Mardi Gras stage show. We have waited 30 years (ok maybe more!) to meet the Pink Panther and it’s a bloke in a silver thong; not so sure we want to see any more of Inspector Clouseau.

In the old town Vegeuta. Take a taxi (about 4 euros) to Plaza de las Ranas bus stop. Walk to the bottom of the bus stops (toward the sea). Cross the road to the south and enter the street Calle Mendizabal Walk 100 meters past taxis & Santander bank. Tapas bars then start and the area is small so ARC people should be easy to find.  

A bit of a rewind but back in Lanzarote we were kindly hosted by Michael and Heike onboard their yacht Fantasea with a superb dinner; OMC – Oh My Cod. Heike produced probably the best fish dish we have ever had. And what a surprise when it turned out to be cod. Fantastic, thank you guys!

It’s great to be in Las Palmas berthed stern-to against the artwork left by so many previous ARC crews some of whom we followed via their blogs and yellow brick trackers. We are thinking about our paintjob.

The Acceleration Zone….. First let’s cover the deceleration zone; we exited Arrecife and hung a starboard to run down the coast, past the airport and Puerto Calero in a steady 18 knot north easterly running under headsail alone. The sun shone and we had a decent salad and pate lunch when we noticed our buddies on Duplicat 10 miles ahead who must have set off coincidently from Puerto Calero. Then trouble struck. Our main nav system which has been operating for 3 years and continuously for over 4 months now showed no data. No depths, names, places, rocks, lights, nothing

The rhythm of the Arrecife Marina wind for a week non-stop. A happy outdoor life type marina went quiet apart from the howling wind. Yachts stayed put, new arrivals abandoned attempts to berth, others were damaged or stuck t-boned across the end of pontoon fingers. The turn out for the following tug-of-war rope pull was impressive. Mounds of GRP built up at the sharp pontoon finger edges as new go faster stripes were etched into hulls. Then came the day when it went quiet. Within two hours the marina was almost empty. Great we thought as we were able to