A new marina was being built on Isla de Graciosa – the harbour master was very apologetic about the lack of facilities – and provided free berthing. This was great as it gave us the chance to clean off the grime from Morocco. News gets around quickly in the cruising community and free berths brought several long-term cruisers to this barren island – this must have benefited the small town of La Sociedad. Keith took the opportunity of the clear blue water to dive and check the hull – we had been concerned that our questionable neighbours in El Jadida might have attached some illegal cargo to Poco Andante.
The week before Christmas we sailed across to Las Palmas, still in the vain hope that Keith’s children might take advantage of low-cost flights from the UK and come to visit. Keith was feeling really homesick – it became apparent that his three children weren’t going to join us. I phoned my sister in New Zealand and was upset to be told that Carol had been diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s Disease. Keith and I both ended up feeling very down – this didn’t usually happen to both of us at the same time.
We hadn’t seen any signs of the cruising community making overtures for Christmas – we were thinking it would end up being a quiet, boring and unhappy Christmas and New Year. On Christmas Eve we saw a Norwegian yacht called Breeze in the marina which we thought was the same boat we’d met in La Coruña several months ago. No one was on board, so we left a note inviting them to join us for Christmas dinner – and, lo and behold, when they responded on the VHF as requested, it turned out to be a different couple with a similar yacht – still Norwegian and still called Breeze. They introduced themselves over VHF and accepted our invitation! In the end, our first Christmas away proved to be enjoyable with a complete Christmas dinner, UK-style. In the evening, at Christmas pudding time, courtesy of a UK friend who had given it to us as a farewell gift, our boat neighbours, a lovely French couple, joined us to sample the delights of this Christmas fare – and brought with them a bottle of French champagne!
It’s great how a group of strangers can come together and become instant friends – in the ‘real’ world this takes time. One downside of the cruising lifestyle is that you are away from your own family and friends, however the cruising friends that you make along the way are all in the same boat – they’ve all been through similar experiences to arrive at that point and, in a way, become your new ‘quasi’ family. In years to come, impromptu Christmas feasts became the norm.
Christmas turned out to be just the start of the party season. The following week was a blur of boat preparation – and impromptu visitors and drinks aboard. By New Year’s Eve, also Keith’s birthday, we were in full swing. Celebrations started at 3pm with champagne – a birthday gift from the Norwegian couple – and continued via telephone calls to family and friends, to a buffet dinner at a Chinese restaurant and a pub crawl around Las Palmas, fireworks at midnight and finished with a yacht crawl until 4.30 in the morning. Not much was done on New Year’s Day! The cruising community really do know how to party…
After this, preparations were well under way for our trip across the Atlantic. We were shopping daily until January 5th – when Las Palmas closed to celebrate the arrival of The Three Kings. This culminated in a grand parade through the streets with floats, bands, etc., all throwing sweets into the crowds and the grand finale being the Three Kings in full Oriental costume arriving on camels. For us this was the start of 2004’s adventure.
With Poco fully provisioned our plan was to sail to La Gomera, another of the Canary Islands; this was Columbus’ departure point. After a last-minute check Keith discovered the deck light wasn’t working – three hours later and four trips up the mast, it was finally repaired. By now we were both so exhausted, that departure was postponed another day…
We had prepared for an estimated 24-day crossing; Poco Andante had been cleaned from top-to-bottom, including polishing the hull above the waterline. Keith dived and checked the anodes, rudder, propeller, etc. All the winches were stripped and serviced, the engine had an oil change and service, and we checked all the ropes and every moving part on the boat. We bought supplies to last approximately four months – we heard that the Caribbean was very expensive and hoped our supplies were sufficient. Provisions included 12 dozen cans of beer, 80 litres wine, lots of bottled water, 80 litres of milk, an entire Serrano ham, 120 main meals (in either dried or canned form), a freezer full of meat, 4 dozen eggs, 10 kilos potatoes, assorted other vegetables and fruit including green bananas, and lots of biscuits and snacks. Just to mention the main items…
Finally on 8th January, six months after leaving the UK, we left Las Palmas to cross the Atlantic – 2,300 nautical miles! This would be the longest passage by far that we had ever undertaken – a daunting prospect. We had been warned about ‘wind acceleration zones’ around the northern tip of Las Palmas – just a few miles from the marina – but we were still unprepared for the wind to go from about 10 knots to 30 knots within less than a minute! Before we could do anything, there was a terrible popping noise – a quick inspection showed that the mast slides on our mainsail had popped out of the track. We hastily put two reefs in the mainsail and sorted the boat out. Once past the tip of the island, the wind abated and sea conditions became benign. We decided to continue a further 100nm to La Gomera for repairs – so much for our first attempt to cross the Atlantic!
Our forced stay in La Gomera, to repair a couple of mast slides and to change our mainsail for the old one, was so pleasant. The island is very relaxed, picturesque and sunny – Las Palmas always seemed to have a cloud over it. It was also lovely to catch up with Anna again – we had been following her all the way from Lisbon, often just one or two days behind! But now our paths were to divide again; Anna was staying in Europe.
By 11am on 13th January we had run out of things to do, and we left – motoring past the rowing boats, with their crews loading supplies. They would be leaving a week later to ROW the Atlantic, how must they be feeling? We had a lovely send off by Anna and other boats. The wind was a light headwind, so we motored past the island in order to pick up the stronger breeze forecast. Things were going well and we were now feeling relaxed. This only lasted an hour or so – the jib slid down the forestay and landed on the deck! Upon inspection, the shackle at the top of the sail was still intact, and using binoculars, we could see the halyard at the top of the mast still had its shackle! We figured there must have been a ring between the two that had failed. Luckily the seas were smooth as Keith now needed to climb the mast to retrieve the halyard! This took an hour or so – but left us doubting whether our crossing the Atlantic was doomed to failure… We had a visit from a pod of dolphins and a pilot whale which lifted our spirits. The sail problem was soon behind us as we close-reached south to pass the last land fall, a small island called Hierro. We passed this in the early hours and then there was nothing but open ocean for the next 2400 miles.
We then sailed southwest for seven days, mostly broad reaching in light and variable winds, often raising the cruising chute by day and reefing the main and jib at night. Although the wind was around 10 knots during the day it blew up to 18+ knots at night. We found that we quickly settled into a routine. We had decided to keep a diurnal sleep pattern, and this meant two six-hour watches at night; Christine taking the 2am to 8am watch and Keith taking the 8pm to 2 am shift. This worked really well for us – mainly as we weren’t hand-steering and the weather was settled so we could nap during our watch. We set a timer going so we always had a look around every 45-60 minutes. (Our last sighting of a ship was two days out and we didn’t see any other vessel for nineteen days!). At the morning changeover we would ‘wake up’ the boat; alter the sail plan, if necessary, shake out reefs and fix anything broken. (Chafe was a constant problem and swapping sheets end-over-end and putting new tape on chafe points became a daily chore.) Our watches then started after our main meal in the evening… the highlight of the day! We found that the inactivity reduced our appetite and one meal a day was sufficient supplemented by snacks. Keith baked our own bread and cakes, and we had fresh meat, fruit and veg most of the way across.
Our first flying fish on deck was after seven days out and a 18knot wind had set in from the northeast… the trade winds! We had also reached our planned latitude of 19 degrees, so we gybed and headed west towards our destination, Antigua.
This wind stayed with us for six days, shifting from NE to E and sometimes SE during this time. Trade wind sailing was not the ‘set the sails and forget them’ experience we had heard about – although gybing more than once a day was unusual. We then had five days of very light winds (under 10knots) which was frustrating as our average speed dropped considerably.
When we were 3-4 days from Antigua the seas started to build, rain squalls and stronger winds became commonplace. The winds got up to 25-30 knots at times, which was giving us fast sailing, but the boat was rolling more, and we were starting to look forward to our arrival. We also started to see more dolphins and birds. On the 23rd day we spotted our land fall thirty miles away. Unfortunately, our timing wasn’t good and our arrival into English Harbour was going to be at night, but with a full moon. After 23 days and 15 hours the last 100 yards was the most nerve wracking! Entry into the anchorage was easy, but the bay was jammed packed with boats. We spotted a space and dropped anchor, albeit a bit close to a catamaran from the Hamble; we apologised and agreed to move in the morning. This we did and after four attempts (the holding is not brilliant in parts) we are now fixed firmly and are having two weeks holiday!
English Harbour is an 18th Century naval dockyard, famous as Nelsons first shore-based command. Very picturesque with a white palm fringed beach and warm turquoise blue water. The weather has been changeable with lots of sun interspersed with showers and a nice cooling breeze. We are slowly joining in with the cruising community here – there is lots to see and the water is warm and clear. The rum punch goes down smoothly! There are mainly US and UK boats all of which are very friendly and sundowners in company are a way of life. (Refrigeration for cold beers and wine is a constant problem!) Most people spend their time at anchor, so power and water are the main concern. Our watermaker had failed on the crossing and we are now waiting for a spare part (although we didn’t actually run out of water and had enough for regular showers). Once this is solved, we will be self-sufficient again!
Some odd jobs still need to be done – this, interspersed with social activity, is how we are spending our time. Our travel plans from here are still loose but North to the Virgin Islands is the general direction.
All-in-all, the crossing was easier than we’d expected – mainly tedious at times! We’ve had harder sails across the English Channel! We read lots of books and usually managed a game of crib with our sundowners! When the seas were large one tended to be lurched around the cabin – resulting in impressive bruising, the occasional burn (while trying to get something out of a hot oven), and Keith suffered a nasty cut to his eyebrow one day when the spinnaker pole fell on him!
SStatistics: Total journey 2548 miles; time taken 23 days 15 hours (average only 106 miles per day); engine hours 62.9 mainly for battery charging (average 2.5 hours per day); fuel used approximately 120 litres