Matt & Karen's Soggy Adventure 2008-11-22T14:54:05Z http://blog.whereii.com/atom.aspx Quick Blogcast There Goes the Neighbourhood tag:blog.whereii.com,2008-10-25:eaefb2d2-c2a3-4668-9346-31c56ca1f1b2 Where2 2008-10-27T21:08:48Z 2008-10-25T18:33:00Z Well it has finally happened…. The quiet neighbourhood of Marina Rubicon has been disrupted by some new neighbours that really bring the tone of the marina down to a point where Karen and I are not sure we want to hang around much longer.

Yes that´s right our first mega-yacht neighbour “Lohengrin” docked on Thursday on the pontoon next to us and we sat nervously for Posh and Becs to come on board and all those children’s noises starting.


( Where II is the one on the left, Lohengren is on the right)
Just in case you were wondering Lohengrin is a 161ft yacht built in 2006 and is currently for sale at US$37,500,000 or if you want to try before you buy it will only set you back US$250,000 per week plus expenses. For more information go to http://www.moranyachts.net/Catalog/Yacht/?ID=504

Well as it turns out, no super celebrities were on the way, they were just stopping to do an oil change (2x44gallon drums) and refuel (55,000l), but our mind was made up – it was time to leave this wonderful island.
We have made arrangements for some work to be done on our boat back in France and whilst this is being carried out Karen and I are taking the opportunity to visit the UK and Ireland and learn a bit about our ancestry and answer some of those unanswered questions such as:
1. If Irish pubs are so good why did the family move over to Australia before Molly Blooms opened in South Melbourne?
2. Which is better – Irish or Scotch whisky?
3. After 6 months on the Canary Islands – can Karen and I tie our shoelaces anymore?
4. How long will Karen´s tan last in the cold of North West Scotland?


For answers to these and other mysteries of life – keep tuned to the blog.
So that´s right we are taking a well deserved holiday from our new jobs as cruisers and spend some time on land. We handed over our boat to a French crew (Germain and Stefan) and briefed them on the boat and then, after packing up what we needed to live on land in both the Canaries and Western Europe in Autumn, we headed to Las Breñas to stay at our new friend Frank´s friends´ apartment for 3 days.
Germain took 24 hours to familiarise himself with the boat before heading off back to France where he will deliver the boat back to Les Sables d’Olonne for completion of the work. We will meet our boat again towards the end of November to again cross the Bay of Biscay at the wrong time of the year. The difference will be that this time, I will be at the helm with my trusty first mate Gilligan possibly with a 3rd crew member.
Before we leave Lanzarote, there were a few unfinished pieces of business:
1. Lunch at Famara Beach. We took the time to visit Famara beach, the surfing centre of Lanzarote island.


The beach is nice, and being the romantic I am I even found a heart shaped puddle in the rock with which to impress Karen.


If I was going to buy a holiday house on Lanzarote this is the place I would look to buy. The weather was not so great but we did have a look at a few of the restaurants along the beach, pausing at Restaurant Sol that we later found out was Frank´s favourite restaurant before heading back to the main street and eating at Restaurante Casa Ramon in La Caleta de Famara. We settled on some tapas (queso de cabra frito y calamares de romana) some garlic bread and some sangria. All were fabulous.
Now you could be forgiven for thinking that you are on a Greek Island by some of the architecture here on Lanzarote – the colour schemes are not that far off – White with blues and greens and decaying doorways…


You even have the traditional nonna – the costume may be a bit different, but the behaviour was familiar, she wandered backwards and forwards across the street and then came over to the other diners’ table and closely checked what they were eating…

2. Visit César Manrique’s House: César is the favourite son of Lanzarote – he is a prolific artist, with paintings, sculptures and mosaics and is seen as the father of Lanzarote’s identity. Educated in Madrid and having lived and exhibited in Paris and New York he returned to the fledgling tourist industry of Lanzarote, his home. He proposed a sustainable model for the island that would protect the island´s natural and cultural history. The success of this model was one of the key factors in Lanzarote’s declaration as a World Biosphere Reserve in 1993. His influence is everywhere having played a major place in the design of most public spaces on Lanzarote such as Mirador del Rio so it was with great anticipation that Karen and I visited his home, now the home of the Fundación César Manrique since his death in 1992 at age 73.

When visiting the house you realise both his vision and ingenuity – whilst walking in the lava fields outside Arrecife in 1966, César stumbled across 5 very large lava bubbles upon which he decided to build his home. The bubbles which have been joined together with tunnelled walkways form the basement level of the home providing sitting areas, gardens, bathrooms, pool (complete with dancefloor).



 
One of the aspects of César’s architectural work was his desire and ability to integrate the natural and manmade environment, which his house is a stunning example of.

 
The final aspect of the house was the gardens, all combining the lava dust mulching with his work.

 
In this last photo you can see the semi-circular walls that are used to protect plants – often grapevines from the wind and assist in water capture on this dry island. This is typical of the unique farming techniques used broadly across the island, making for a stunning and entrancing landscape on the island.
3. Sunset at El Golfo: neither Karen nor I are big fish eaters, however we don’t mind trying some fish so long as it is accompanied by a good wine, good company and nice surroundings. Well we got all this on Monday evening when we joined Frank and his parents Eddie and Anja for dinner. Eddie and Anja had just arrived from Germany in the great escape from the Western European winter which occurs every year. Frank and his parents are big fans of Australia, having visited our homeland numerous times. They were easily able to shame us by their knowledge and experiences back home. There is obviously a lot we have to see when we get back home.
The food was divine at Restaurant Mar Azul on Terrazo Junto al Mar, El Golfo (ma-azul@aetur.es, www.mar-azul.info, tlf 928 173132). Karen and I had passed this restaurant in February and when we asked if there was a menu we could look at they did not have one so Karen and I moved on – not wanting to get ripped off or, not being able to understand the Spanish, ending up with something we did not want. But Frank and his family had been coming to this restaurant for over 14 years so we were able to sample the cuisine under Frank´s guidance.We had again traditional Canarian tapas for entrée (garlic prawns, canarian potatoes, bread, pulpo (octopus) and pimento pardon (fried peppers on salt), red and green mojo and garlic mayonnaise) and then when we thought we were done, Frank ordered the daily special fish steaks which we shared.
This was accompanied by the best Lanzarotean wine we have tasted in our 4 months on the island. To tell you the truth we avoided the local wines after our first experience as they were more expensive that the Rioja´s and nowhere near as good. Perhaps we made a mistake as the wine was superb (and made us a bit homesick dreaming of a nice Australian or NZ Sauvignon Blanc). It was Bermejo dry white, that unfortunately can only be bought at the Bodega (outside Tias), and since the boat had sailed and we only have our backpacks, we could not store any wine. If you come to the Canaries, look for it.
Son on to the scenery. Both Frank and Eddie told us of times that the waves of up to 5m crashed onto the rocks in front of the restaurant. Fortunately, given that Where II had just sailed north, there were no waves to be seen, however we were treated to one of the best sunsets we had seen on the island.

So now we are kicking back and waiting in Puerto del Carmen waiting to leave, it seems the best way to celebrate our decision to turn back north and revisit Les Sables d’Olonne is to knock the top off the bottle of bier blonde given to me by Christophe in The Galway in Les Sable and relax and enjoy being temporary landlubbers again.

 

]]> Well it has finally happened…. The quiet neighbourhood of Marina Rubicon has been disrupted by some new neighbours that really bring the tone of the marina down to a point where Karen and I are not sure we want to hang around much longer. Back in Lanzarote tag:blog.whereii.com,2008-08-31:7d0baa2f-985a-424d-ac0a-c31794bae613 Where2 2008-08-31T19:12:26Z 2008-08-31T19:01:00Z Hi All,
Over the past couple of weeks I have been hassled by a number of people to update the blog – leave me alone will you – I am an old retiree with a full agenda – would you hassle your Nonna if she hadn’t written in a couple of weeks??

Anyway enough bitchin’ – Karen and I are back on Lanzarote in the Canaries staying at the Marina Rubicon – which I would have to say without a doubt is the nicest marina we have stayed at and despite what people have continued to tell us it is a reasonable rate for a catamaran so long as it is off season or you can get one of the few alongside berths which we were lucky enough to get and you stay for a month and get the discount. We have now been here for over a month and will be here at least 1 more month.



The trip into Lanzarote was interesting, we got a good weather window downloaded from UGRIB that said we would be sailing with the wind on a good beam reach, but alas God (and I do know he exists because he gave us ipods) does not subscribe to GRIB.US and was not aware that that was what he was supposed to provide. We got easterlies - so straight on the nose and we were chasing the wind most of the way. Then during the first night, the traveller sheet (or whatever the technical term is) seemed to break when I was tacking and there was no way I was going up on the bimini in the dark - Karen could swing the boat , knock me over and get the life insurance (if she could park the boat by herself and get off). So we tied off the boom and motored for the night. (Yep that's right no real sailors on this here boat!) In the morning I made my way onto the bimini (about 3+ meters from the water) and found that there was nothing rwrong - the rope was just loose so we set sailing again. As we were getting closer to Lanzarote the wind was still in our face so we decided to motor, but the raw water filter didn't seem to be filling as fast as it should, so we thought that the generator impellor might be failing so we switched off the motors and forced ourselves to sail! The best thing we ever did - we had never been forced to think about sailing until this point  but now we were going at about 40 -50degrees to the wind and I tacked my way up Fuertaventura and into Playa Blanca Lanzarote. The wind was strong and the boat loved it. We had two reefs in (as there is a strong acceleration zone to the south west of Lanzarote so we were prepared) but the boat would not slow to our usual 5-6 knots and I had fun. We radioed the marina and motored in to the dock like seasoned sailors!

The reason we have not written more is that we have had a number of issues to resolve, which I hope will be resolved in the near future, before we can move on and even contemplate an Atlantic crossing. These issues, I never imagined having to face when buying a new catamaran, nor trying to resolve them on a small island in the Atlantic so far from home – but if life was meant to be easy all you bastards would be filling up the marinas and it would be even more difficult to park this thing! (That's us - second cat in from the road - looks a bit squeezy don't it)



Just in case anyone is concerned, the issues are not related to the fact that Karen and I are spending just about every waking hour in each other’s company. Nor has it to do with Karen’s disgust as I attacked the Californian ribs with great carnivorous gusto from the restaurant at the end of the muelle here at Rubicon.





(Note - no sauce on the Mambo!)

Since we have been on Lanzarote before we are not doing a lot of sight-seeing, just working on the boat – servicing winches, changing the generator impellor, which we sensed may be started to fail on our way in – and it did and adding a few sailing niceties and necessities. Oh and working on our tans around the marina pool. Yes I said our tans – I have one!

On the impellor replacement - Scott (Cat Co) if you are reading this – there is an easier method than you showed me on Nick’s boat – take the whole pump off and push the impellor off the shaft from the back (minding you do not lose the key). Also I learned how to find all the little bits of the impellor blades from inside the heat exchanger and make up the jigsaw that was my impellor.

I had my 44th birthday here a couple of weeks ago (in the middle of one of my worst ever gout attacks – but that didn’t stop me staying out until 2 in the morning). Karen took me to a Mexican restaurant in Playa Blanca with views over the beach and harbour. The margaritas were great and the food enjoyable. We then crawled via a couple of bars – played pool and listened to Irish music (as you do in Spain or Greece from what I can remember of that trip) and then made it back onto the boat.

We have also started buying our scuba gear while we have been here. We are now proficient on Ebay Spain and have got our regulators and a BCD for Karen as well as inks for the printer from EBAY UK, and hopefully they will all turn up. Someone rang the other morning speaking in Spanish (go figure) and I am thinking it could have been the post office telling me I had a parcel for collection – but I will never know. Last time Mum sent a parcel here – we got it 3 months later on Tenerife!

For those of you with a 420 there are a couple of recommendations to make:

Rubicon Marina – nice resort style marina with pool and restaurants
Waterline Services – great service for general boat repairs and just about all you need – see previous blog entry
Navalectric – Jan Hayward has done some good work on my Raymarine equipment – yes I am suffering from the flashing E120 as I have heard a lot of people are. He is also becoming familiar with the 420 electrical system. His contact details are:

Jan Hayward
Navalectric Lanzarote
Raymarine, Simrad & Watermakers.
Full marine electrical & electronic service.
Tel. +34 659 822118
yottitek@yahoo.com

Filters: I struggled to get spare filters before leaving France – another boat seemed to buy out all Eric’s filters and impellors so I tried here and eventually found a Fleetguard (Cummings’ aftermarket filter manufacturer) dealer on Gran Canaria and he was able to get all fuel and oil filters for me and delivered them to Lanzarote for me for prices that were comparable or better than in France. The details of the dealer are:

Miguel Betancor
miguel@cobesa.com
COBESA
Tlf.: 902 361 319
Fax: 928 700 731

Impellors: Now here is a challenge. The raw water pump is a Sherwood pump, and after getting prices up to 95Euros for an impellor that I paid 45 Euros (A Seirra 18-3061 which is the same impellor) for in France I asked the Suzuki marine dealer in Arreciffe if he could get me a Sherwood impellor model 10615 in my best sign language when I was buying a fuel connector for the outboard. No problemo for a Sierra kit at a few more Euros (Euros 54) than France and available in only 3-4 days – unheard of in the Canaries! He is located in Puerto Naos up a street opposite Duques at:

Nauticas Alegranza SL
Hipolito Frias No 15
Puerto de Naos, Arreciffe 35500
Ph 928 824 084
Mov: 609 771 332

By the way the impellor is the same as: Chrysler 10615, Crusader 20300, Pleasurecraft RP061017, Jabsco 18948-0001 (very expensive) Volvo- Penta 835874-9 by what is on the front of the Sierra packaging
Chandelry: Fernando at the Chandelry at Rubicon Marina is very helpful with good English, and if you have enough time, he will order stock in from England as part of his normal order which is normally at a pretty good price. 

Anyway havin' fun and looking forward to your visits! 

]]> Hi All, Over the past couple of weeks I have been hassled by a number of people to update the blog – leave me alone will you – I am an old retiree with a full agenda – would you hassle your Nonna if she hadn’t written in a couple of weeks?? Where we have been - a map of it all tag:blog.whereii.com,2008-07-02:37b3761e-8bbd-41a3-bda0-0e19434b99d9 Where2 2008-07-02T20:01:58Z 2008-07-02T13:12:00Z
View Larger Map]]> A Google Map of where we have been so far San Pedro Festival tag:blog.whereii.com,2008-06-22:00b8f2ae-3f1a-44a4-99e0-2939f793c8bf Where2 2008-08-15T21:48:42Z 2008-06-22T21:20:00Z
Yesterday the Senorita bonita at Tourist Information (best information centre in the Canaries) told us of a festival that was on to be held in San Pedro this afternoon so we got up early, got ourselves organised to catch the bus to the festival at 11:15. That was all pretty easy with Euro0.85 each from our Euro 12 multi-trip ticket until we had to try and figure out where to get off. It did not help that nowhere along the bus route looked like it was having a festival except a few flags in one little town which we later figured out was San Pedro. We ended up in Los Llanos de Aridane – the second city on the island.

Feeling a bit sheepish that we had gone further on the bus than we had paid for (by about 200%) we slid down the back steps of the bus and decided to take advantage of this mistake and check out the town. Once we turned into the main pedestrian mall we were greeted by the sounds of an orchestra tuning up. We waited for a short while and were entertained by the La Palma school of music which was thoroughly enjoyable.


We then strolled the streets of the town looking for somewhere to lunch. Like Santa Cruz de La Palma, Los Llanos is a very pretty town with an old town feel.


We stumbled across a small restaurant called La Luna in Calle Fernandez Tan~o, 26 (LaLuna-LaPalma@gmx.net Tlf 922401913) and decided to stop for some tapas for lunch and uno cervesa y uno vino blanco. Karen ordered a tortilla with lentils and queso blanco (local goat cheese) and I ordered a pork dish with bread. Well I have to say that it was the best lentils that Karen has ever had – she wanted to order a second serve but I try to discourage that sort of vegetarian behaviour – she will only bring it into the home. (Unfortunately this did not stop her as she has emailed the chef for the recipe and received a detailed reply that tastes fantastic)


After lunch we enjoyed some more music from the school’s concert before grabbing a bus to Tarzacorte on the west of the island to fill in the time until the next bus. Tarzacorte again was picturesque and we will visit again with more time and check out the marina.

We then caught 2 buses back to San Pedro thinking that we had probably missed the festival, but when we arrived at 4:30 (although it looked dead) we were determined to get off where we had paid for. It was then we found out the festival started at 6:00 so we sat and had cervesa and waited. By 6:00pm we were getting a bit concerned, not by the fact that the town hadn’t started to liven up, but more the fact that all those people that had arrived in costume, proceeded to get on a bus and depart. After waiting a bit longer, we decided that we were indeed in the wrong place and should have got on one of the other buses and so caught another bus back home with no festivities.




Post script: These festivals / parties we have since found out involve walking, singing and drinking enroute into town and if we had been a bit more confident in our Espagnol we would have probably seen and been involved in a great party – next time!
 

]]> Yesterday the Senorita bonita at Tourist Information (best information centre in the Canaries) told us of a festival that was on to be held in San Pedro this afternoon so we got up early, got ourselves organised to catch the bus to the festival at 11:15. Arriving at Santa Cruz La Palma tag:blog.whereii.com,2008-06-19:e759b564-4d06-4a9c-9d88-a30b41a7ada7 Where2 2008-07-02T19:59:05Z 2008-06-19T18:49:00Z

Next to us is another Lagoon- a 380 which I must admit makes our boat look quite large.


We are now relaxed and enjoying a Jarra (grande cerveza) and uno copa de vino blanco de La Palma.

My Spanish is improving having finally taken delivery of an interactive course from the States. I can now say “Necessito dos cervesa – uno grande y uno pequen~a” – roughly translated to “I need 2 beers – one large and one small”. Karen has yet to grow the hairs on her chest to handle a Jarra yet and is still taking the ham off her “sandwich vegetal”??? Can’t she take a hint and understand there is no place for a truly vegetarian person in Spain?

It is interesting how you get feelings about a place. We have now lived in 4 places in Spain since we left home – each for over a month. And each of them was very different – Baiona was very laid back with a bar in every 2nd building, Playa Blanca Lanzarote – the English tourist haven, Las Palmas Gran Canaria – a bit grimey but even though we got the bike stolen we were comfortable there and then Santa Cruz de Tenerife. I don’ know what to say here – the marina was safe with new facilities, close to the CBD, we had 2 marineros help us tie up and there were more chandleries than anywhere else we had been, but somehow we did not connect with the city – which was a shame because it was nicer than any of the other capital cities on the islands we had been on. It also facilitated us getting our yellow fever shots, Spanish course from the States,  LEDs from England and the G2 upgrade to our boat – which is by the way worth waiting for.

We spent days wandering the city, days waiting on our boat for the parts to turn up to fix a panel in the owners cabin – which we waited 6 weeks for and they didn’t turn up and I think that and the soot from the ferries that  really disaggregated Karen and me from the city.

This is unfair on the city as we did enjoy it, we were greeted by what we thought was a cheap version of the Sydney Opera House that turned out to be the Auditorium of Tenerife and a representation of a Conquistador’s helmet and what seemed to continual concerts and music. The city itself is very clean and interesting and had all the retail we required.


But as soon as we arrived here in La Palma, we feel at home. It is a pretty town (Santa Cruz), much smaller than the other island capitals we have been in but maintains much of the charm of it’s history.



The Yacht Club is a friendly establishment, with no real assistance to tie up except the other yachties. The facilities are more than adequate with a pool, this bar and restaurant. We are currently deciding whether we will stay a couple of days or a month – and despite the adverse comments we have heard about the swell in the marina I think it is comfortable enough to stay for the month.
]]> Tonight Karen and I are sitting on the balcony of Real Club Nautico de Santa Cruz de La Palma having tied up in their small marina Street Art and Where II's Tag tag:blog.whereii.com,2008-06-15:a0dccd3e-d4ca-434e-90d1-c04d5d599962 Where2 2008-08-15T21:23:21Z 2008-06-15T20:26:00Z Since leaving Australia I have developed a bit of a thing about Street Art in particular stencil art – keeping an eye out for new, imaginative images in different cities. Now some may say this is no more than graffiti and in a lot of cases I would tend to agree. But I have found that the more interesting the city – the more interesting the art (in my opinion at least). So here are some of the better ones I have seen:

Most Prolific Artist:
Cascais / Lisbon Portugal Dalaiama – this guy was across Cascais and Lisbon everywhere I turned, from 5” tall motifs to 5ft tall paintings


Most Used Theme:
Believe it or not “Bugs” it seemed to be a northern Spain thing but will monitor this closely
Baiona

A Coruna


Most Berated Corporation:
No prizes for guessing here – not sure if it is warranted – but McD’s seemed to be the target after the government


Best Town Coverage:
This would have to go to Lisbon – not a winner of tidy towns as far as I’m concerned, but interesting none the less. Once you moved off the main thoroughfares the stencil work was everywhere – here are just a few examples:


Best Small Town Coverage:
Baiona Spain – as well as the bugs (see below) there were a number of active stencillers in Baiona, from the harbour wall to the back streets. They included both the rude and politically motivated images but were always clear and well done.


I particularly enjoyed the early utilities inspired work of the electricity department prior to the creation of stencils

 
Most Intricate: Lanzarote Canary Islands Spain
Lanzarote is a constructed community, not so long ago a local architect and hero Ceasar Manrique thought white buildings on the black volcanic lava fields would look good and attract tourists – and he was right – it looks great and we will be heading back for our second visit soon but as a result there is very little street art, which local authorities probably smile about. However this guy found a small park not so far from Ceasar’s home to lay down some fine and detailed work


Best Government Sponsored Art:
Okay this is not strictly stencil art but I saw it everywhere on mountains, cliffs and hills in Morocco. I asked the Office Manager in the marina what it meant and she told me “ God, Queen and Country, no wait we don’t have a queen, it is God, King and country” – her words not mine.


Most Delicate:
Viana do Castella 12/07– the line work on this was very fine but with the message, it lacked a scoob in the picture to “expand the mind”


Something Different:
Well I am not sure if it is a publicity poster or the creators don’t want to be “graffiti artists” but I have noticed stencil work on paper posted in Spain and Portugal, both big pieces and prominent – were they scared of getting caught in the act? Here is the A Coruna and Salamanca versions

   

Special Mention:
I don’t know but I thought that this was done inside the entrance to a Tabac in A Coruna sort of drew my attention – it had been there a while and not removed – did the tabac owner just like it or if it was there meant no-one else would attack his store again?


Best Overall:
Santa Cruz de Tenerife 06/08 – the artist caught in action.


Now mum, you may be concerned that I have turned into a street artist criminal, but Karen did check in broken Spenglish that it was ok otherwise there would be no photographic evidence.
It was based on this experience that I have judged the others – I spent 3 days learning photoshop to create the design (sorry Amanda, Dean and Mark, obviously those hours I spent in the design studio on the passport helped me very little), another three days cutting the stencils and reinforcing them, 10 days convincing Karen that the expense of the paint was worth it given we were leaving our mark on the world and 1 day painting it.  Hats off to the guys that can do this quickly and get great results!


 

]]> Since leaving Australia I have developed a bit of a thing about Street Art in particular stencil art – keeping an eye out for new, imaginative images in different cities. Now some may say this is no more than graffiti and in a lot of cases I would tend to agree. But I have found that the more interesting the city – the more interesting the art (in my opinion at least). Good Chandlery - Great Service in Tenerife - Nordest Canarias tag:blog.whereii.com,2008-05-26:a6a42464-69b1-4cc2-bb14-144f4c2aa65a Where2 2008-05-26T19:32:07Z 2008-05-26T19:13:00Z
I had no sooner got the email from Dessalator when I got an email from Danilo Origgi from Nordest saying a technician would be visiting my boat the next day -and he did.  He identified the problem within half an hour, had ordered the warranty parts from the factory and left the boat - no hassles. The parts arrived (including some spares I asked Danilo to source for me) within the week and the problem was resolved.

I also stumbled across Radar Canarias - their downtown store - and whilst only a small shop front it does hold a good range of products. Danilo also arranged for me to look at a decking product installed on their boat which was a bonus

As I said good chandlery but great service (including excellent English)- if you need help in Tenerife look them up. The contact details are:

Central office: NORDEST, 15 miles from downtown.
Chandlery downtown Santa Cruz: Radar Canarias, S.L.
C/ San Francisco, 86
38001    Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Landline & Fax: +34 922 24 00 64
Landline #2: +34 922 57 73 22
Fax#2: +34 922 57 70 31
Mobiles: +34 669 84 55 52,   +34 618 961 685,    +34 669 84 55 51
Contact persons: Danilo Origgi, Roberto Origgi, Ariel Vallarelli.
Web:   www.nordest-canarias.com
 
Emails:    nordest@nordest-canarias.com
                info@nauticanordest.com


Thanks Danilo and Raul for the help  ]]> As I said good chandlery but great service (including excellent English)- if you need help in Tenerife look them up. How long can a dream like this last tag:blog.whereii.com,2008-05-25:a82dd473-e216-460a-a2ca-cb8477aca92c Where2 2008-05-25T10:41:36Z 2008-05-25T08:41:00Z Approximately 7 months 14 days by the looks of it.

That's right after going through counselling, fighting her demons, Karen could take it no longer and she has succumbed to her weaknesses and my worst fears - renovating!!!!!!

Over the past 2 weeks Karen has been visiting cocina tiendas (kitchen shops), Ikea and Leroy Merlin (France's answer to Bunnings) devising ways to "better utilise the limited cupboard space in our new home". Me I look at it and go "quality fittings, a bit of wasted space but it's got everything I need - food fridge, beer fridge, freezer and ice maker, oh and a sink and stove apparently."

But this is not good enough - noooooo - we need to renovate....... we NEEEEEED to renovate. Well in the end I refused to go to anymore shops with her as Caju was very specific about Australians all want to renovate there boats - but whatever you do don't! This was probably my first mistake - you should never leave an addict alone - they may say they are just going up the shop for some smokes - but the next thing you know they're back with a suspicious smile and marks on their arm from the plastic shopping bag handles. 

Yep she had been to Leroy Merlin and I had a job to do to safely bring her down from her high - it involved a tape measure, a drill, a fairbit of silicon and a new jigsaw (I gave mine away in Melbourne because I thought I would never need it again - foolish boy).

So yesterday morning I got up and started nervously to plan the job - are we really going to cut into our new boat? - what if we don't like it? - what if it doesn't suit the boat? What if it just doesn't work?


I have found out no cupboard on a boat is square (on purpose - not like ones I built previously) and it is not easy to take reference marks so various measurements had to be taken after you are comitted to the job.

In the end it worked out fine - Karen now has an in bench waste bin utilising space in the back corner of the cupboard what was very difficult to get to


And a lazy susan to get to the back of the cupboard and extra shelf space for her gear.


And of course the challenge to find something else to do to this perfectly good boat.

So what do I get out of it? Well I'm happy as a pig in .... - not the one I'm eating here this morning in my first breakfast of bacon and eggs I've had since we left Australia in October.

 

]]> Approximately 7 months 14 days by the looks of it. Caribbean Questions..... tag:blog.whereii.com,2008-05-23:a59eb931-11e7-44b0-b230-4b57234330c8 Where2 2008-05-24T10:12:01Z 2008-05-23T18:51:00Z
A couple of nights ago before I was just about to fall asleep, Karen turned to me and told me that we may have to rethink our plans of travelling to the Caribbean.

When questioned "why?" which I thought would deliver a concern about crossing the Atlantic with so little experience I was surprised by the response.....

" I am pretty sure there are you know - "undead people" in the Caribbean.... - like 28 days later...."

Well I was stunned but managed to quiz her a bit to get a better understanding of what she was talking about and where it came from - I have narrowed it down to " living dead, perhaps Voodoo related and perhaps around Haiti - but not limited to there and generally across the whole area"

So here's the help I need...

Is there anyone that can talk some sense into my wife ..... (unless you know more than me on this subject and I am wrong in my belief that 28 days later and the night of the living dead (original version) that we watched the other night - were not documentuaries)

If you think I am wasting my time trying to talk sense into her - how can I use this fear to my advantage without missing out on going to the Caribbean? Where should I take her in Haiti?

What is the best way to keep the undead of the boat - without leaving the pontoon as they did in 28 days later.

Or if you are just as bewildered as I am - leave a good cocktail recipe that may keep me sane...

Just so everyone is on the same page. Karen loved 28 days later - scared the pants off her. When we would go to the video store she would say -" let's get this again!" pick up the video box of "28 days later", start to shake uncontrollably, manage to put it down sometimes without knocking all the other videos off the shelf and then get a chick flick
]]> Hi I am looking for some assistance from anyone that has been to the Caribbean, knows anything about alternative life planes etc. Well we did it! tag:blog.whereii.com,2008-05-14:7259b1c4-06e5-4be9-8524-32a984e6c701 Where2 2008-05-15T11:14:01Z 2008-05-14T20:04:00Z
Karen put me up the mast!

Some of the technical details...

It is bloody high - close to 20m from the water at the top!
The bosun's chair I bought had a weight limit of 100kg - yes I have lost some weight and scraped in under the limit (I didn't weigh myself - it just didn't break!)

Details of the technique we employed:
1. Fat big boy goes up the mast
2. Tiny little lady mans the winch (with me so far - I didn't think she could do it)
3. Electric winch (forgot that - so she could do it!)
4. Two line system with both the main and gennaker halyards tied fast to me
5. Checked bowlines at least 3 times before I left the deck!
6. Hang onto the mast like it was your last ever lover! I had marks on my heels, soles of my feet, thighs, stomach, and inner forearms - it is amazing Karen could overcome all the friction to get me up to the top
7. Use bungee cord around both legs of my shorts in case it is scarier than I thought ( this was a request of the neighbouring yachts - who had been waiting for me to work up the courage for four days - Thanks Barb for the confidence)

Purpose:
1. Put up the flag halyard I thought I was getting with the boat
2. Check the rigging before crossing the pond
3. Figuring out whether we could actually do this

The real challenge (it is not getting up the mast):
With a $500k life insurance policy - knowing that Karen would get me back down alive and not drop me!

So how was it:

Fantastic! A view like never before. The boat did not move until I asked to come down but our second safety man Paul was half way down the pontoon taking photos of me - then the gusts came up and I moved a bit. Nick - if you are reading this - buy another hull - it was not as scarey than when you went up your mast - and I was down on deck!

And just to prove it here are some pics!

Karen - the winch wench - is she on the phone?


Winch coach Paul - my mistake was setting him the challenge to get me up the pole!

My knee - can you see it shake?



A Relax by the sea

Loving every minute!]]> Yesterday was a day I probably won't forget in a long time - Karen and I did what I thought we would never do! Karen put me up the mast! Possible Next Steps tag:blog.whereii.com,2008-05-12:1f4fa186-02e5-452b-8203-b125647cada3 Where2 2008-05-13T09:13:23Z 2008-05-12T21:38:00Z

View Larger Map]]> Well people are wonderig what we are thinking of doing - what do you think about this for a 6 month plan we can blow away? Waterline Services - Lanzarote tag:blog.whereii.com,2008-05-10:aa8364c4-1c22-4017-9f83-7878ef1c19ee Where2 2008-05-15T11:28:55Z 2008-05-10T11:15:00Z As seems to be the way when we arrived in Lanzarote we had to get some work done to the boat. Lagoon recommended Waterline Services to undertake the work - some warranty and there were a few little things I wanted done.

Henning, Katrin and Gunner were excellent, working us into their busy schedule, even completing work on weekends so we could keep our plans. Having sailed a cat for some time, Henning also offered good advice on such things as anchors etc. They also helped in finding us someone to work on our Raymarine nav equipment.

If you do need work done, contact them first to find out where best to get the work done by them. We booked and paid for a month at Rubicon, but it would have been easier for them to do the work at Puerto Callero

Contact details are:

Katrin Klement
Waterline Yachtservice
Puerto Deportivo Rubicon
Urb. Castillo del Aguila
35570 Playa Blanca
Lanzarote

Mobile: 0034-628 018 262
Fax: 0034-928 349 154

mail@waterlineyachtservice.com
www.waterlineyachtservice.com

 

]]> Henning, Katrin and Gunner were excellent, working us into their busy schedule, Anchoring in Bahia de Antequera tag:blog.whereii.com,2008-05-09:cbfb88ad-4ee9-4934-b9c4-ce81f5ac5bad Where2 2008-05-13T10:01:05Z 2008-05-09T17:53:00Z
We set sail in a rather choppy 2+ meter swell coming into Las Palmas, at 7:00am, about 1/2 hour behind our companion catamaran Queimarla out of Freementle with the motors on half throttle and full sails in about 12 knots. We had to motor up north around La Isletta before turning to a broad starboard reach for the trip. Queimarla, built by its owners Paul and Barb is a nice 45ft sailing catamaran, is designed much more for sailing than our apartment on the water. Unfortunately, given the differences in boat speeds in light winds and trimming skills most of what I saw of them was a view like this:

Well actually this is a close up - our boat takes a bit more wind to get going than their's.

The closer we got to Tenerife the further to the east the wind moved to the east and the further north we sailed.

Finally we turned into Tenerife (before we overshot the island) - I was impressed we finally caught Queimarla - only to find later that they had practiced their storm maneuvers on the way.

As we turned to the island we both dropped our sails and the 5knots Where II could muster ended up being a winner and we got some better views of Q........ check out the change in skippers

Paul

Molly -the fluffy white dog

Pretty much to plan, we arrived at Bahia de Antequera on Thursday evening to an emptying bay and we went in first - our first time dropping an anchor for an overnighter - I surveyed the area for depth and eventually anchored off the starboard bow of another yacht before Q came in - it felt good but unsure whether we had done it right (.... never anchor in front of anyone kept going through my mind).
Paul and Barb then came in and anchored and we started to relax - well we both stayed on our repective boats wondering why the other party wasn't coming over.

We had entered the bay on a 4 day Spanish long weekend and slowly on Friday , Saturday and Sunday our peace was shattered - there must have been 4000000 boat in the harbour...

Okay - it doesn't look so bad - but all the weekenders basically drove in, dropped some chain in one spot and then relaxed....
We had 30 meters of chain our and swung as a cat does - they had maybe 15 and swung on a lot less chain / warp - sometimes I could eyeball the skipper of the boat next to me and then he would be 30 meters away. All this in the acceleration zone with variable winds from just about any direction. Fortunately the skippers of the boat next to me got up from the cushions (and black bikinied blonde) on the bow and watched me watch him from my cockpit - nerve wracking but safe.

By Monday the Bay was safe from weekenders and we relaxed in between gusts. We occassionally made it to shore, took our dinghy for a burl (it was good to be with other Australians who understood what a burl was) around the bay.

So you must wonder what the hell you do in a bay with nothing on shore for 6 days - well the social calender was hot - there was drinks on respective boats, dinner parties (interrupted by a quick dash back to Where II to check whether it was dragging) and baking bread - yes I baked our first bread rolls on board Where II


And of course there is the water sports - rowing and snorkling. But before you look at the pictures - please remember we are Australians (love the water if it is warm) and rowing has always sounded hard work....



By the way see the ferry in the background - if you ever sail - watch them - apparently they only use their radar to pick their targets...... You have to wonder why we put the radar reflector on the boat????
So what was I doing all this time? Well Barb and Paul had given me the gear to make up a trawling line - the Lord only knows what we will do when we catch something.... so I put the trawling line together.

I also cleared the props, handled the officials that came upon us in a very fast looking boat

We went ashore once and climbed up the surrounding hills - spectacular scenery.

Paul was a bit more energetic and headed up further and bought back some great shots (Thanks Paul)

Of a night we settled back - only half relaxing as we had to check the position of the boat regularly (a bit of first time nerves (you know - will the earth move, is it the right hold, is the position still the same....) and watch the occassionally suspicious meeting of boats in the middle of the night - I think I have clear evidence of a drug drop here - what do you think?


So is it a good anchorage? Yes not to bad - go in at 7 m and you should be on sand with good holding - it is protected from the north to northwest but the swell comes in around the point so it is a bit rolly. Also it is just off the acceleration zone so the wind is very variable and gusts come down off the cliffs - not what is on Windguru and you move around alot. Also avoid the weekends - it is only 5 miles from Santa Cruz so a popular place with the locals - and I can understand why - so it does get crowded. One guy wanted to drop his anchor about 8m off my port bow - but understood my english gestures and moved quickly - they don't quite understand the dynamics of a 13t catamaran with 2.5m high sides, gusty winds and a 35m chain.....]]> Well we did it - went "Primitive" as Karen referred to it - anchored for 6 nights in the Bahia de Antiquera - about 5 miles north of Santa Cruz de Tenerfie. For any yachties reading this - Karen said it in jest as up until now we had enjoyed the luxuries of marinas (although our first Moroccan experience was hardly luxury - dead fish and diesel as well as a fat friendly cat greeting us as we alighted the starboard sugar scoops - but that is another story) for the first 6 months of our journey. Just in case you were worried tag:blog.whereii.com,2008-05-03:fa56bf98-c3d2-4553-9630-6c79f71cbdea Where2 2008-05-12T22:19:31Z 2008-05-03T21:58:00Z
Well I should have listened to my soul when I started missing Bunnings. In Las Palmas I found King Hogar - a poor imitation of Bunnings but good enough to buy some chandlery - a dinghy anchor and a swivel and components for renovating.

To start with I bought harmless stuff - components for the best gangplank in the marina - check it out...



Ignore the fat boy in the bad glasses - it can even been raised at night....


But then Karen snuck in with a request for an extra shelf - and no sooner had I bought shelf and shelf bracket and then ocean restraints and it was full on....


I leave the ocean restraints on in harbour because if I get hold of the cook books I make a damn fine meal - and if I keep that up I will have to go 50/50 in the cooking - not my dream retirement.. 

But wait Karen is now wanting lazy susans, changing the placement of the bin, solar hot water and no doubt we will have a new double garasge in the basement]]> Well it has started again... One of the things Caju warned us about with Australian Yachties should have sent shivers down my spine - "they all want to renovate their boats"..... why should that bother me with a wife like Karen and our track record...... We have a perfectly good boat - why change it? When Paul & I Saved a Life tag:blog.whereii.com,2008-04-28:aeaf01ec-3e49-49c8-a3f2-d967cf1ef8ea Where2 2008-05-31T21:08:19Z 2008-04-28T20:58:00Z
Karen and I visited Paul and Barb - our new Australian friends on Queimarla at anchor just outside the marina – so we fired up the dinghy (get it down, move it into the water, get the motor down, put on the motor, figure out how to start the dinghy, etc) and headed out to their boat. This was only the second time that we visited our new friends and last time their boat was hit by a wayard sailing dinghy – not an uneventful visit and we were hoping for a quiet night in. Paul had promised some good home-cooked German food!

We settled into the saloon  and started to chat when I noticed someone diving off a neighbouring boat – bit cold for my liking but thought nothing of it. What seemed like 20 minutes later we were interrupted by a knock on the hull – not something we expected at anchor at least 400m from shore.

Paul lead the way to see what was happening and found a teenage girl trying to climb aboard the port sugar scoop steps. He assisted the young girl aboard and tried to find out what was going on –we could see flashing lights on the shore.

“Maria” said she was swimming away from the police. Paul tried to ascertain why she was running away – but she was evasive and by the look in her eyes Paul thought that smoking or worse was involved.
Paul was comforting her as the flashing lights moved their way up the muelle -wall - of the marina. All of a sudden, Maria said she was leaving and dived off the boat and started swimming towards the shipping channel and all those ferries.

We stood a bit startled by the course of events but as she swam off we realised that we could not let her continue swimming into the channel as the pilots and tugs go by regularly and quickly. We pulled in the Zodiac, grabbed Paul’s oars (as of course I had left ours on the boat and was unsure of how much fuel we had on board) and headed out after Maria.

As we were getting closer, Paul guided me as to which side to approach, me being terrified of the “chop-chop” - as Karen calls it -doing more damage than Maria getting to the other side of the channel – not that this was likely as it was at least 1/2 km in cold water. Then Maria went under… and when she resurfaced she was not where planned.Then she went down a second time, to finally resurface close to the boat. We got her to the side of the dinghy and convinced her to come aboard.

We got her into the Zodiac and told her we were bringing her back to shore – expecting another jump but her protests waned and she lay down under the seat of the boat to get out of the wind. By this time there was a fair number of flashing lights on the muelle and what looked like fire trucks and ambulances. Given that the muelle is basically a rock wall we headed into the beach to the waiting flashing lights instead. By the time we reached shore, Maria was out to it…..

We were greeted by police and a swimmer who had tried to swim out to Maria but was outswum by her. The Ambulance came around to the beach and Maria was attended to.  Apparently a bit of a troubled child that had done nothing wrong.

Paul and I headed back to the boat and after calming down we enjoyed a nice meal – wondering what would have happened if Maria had not knocked on the boat, and if we had not gone after her – whilst there was a large flashing light presence – there were no other boats in the water…….
]]> We can be heroes – if just for one day” David Bowie. Well let me tell you that it did not feel like that. 6 Months Down tag:blog.whereii.com,2008-04-06:49d533de-85a1-4596-9a3c-7939e5c6f97e Where2 2008-05-12T21:47:36Z 2008-04-06T18:30:00Z


A little over 12 months ago, after having walked into work with my boss Chris, discussing how short life is and thought of having worked so hard, to drop dead shortly after retirement as some of his friends had, I told him that I was retiring to make sure that didn't happen to me. Some have probably wondered whether this sailing thing was a challenge for me that I have always wanted to do - it is not, it justed seemed like a better way of seeing the world than in a Winnebago RV - the sailing is really just a annoying necessity - although after I stop throwing up I quite like the peacefulness of the sea and beauty of the dolphins and am still scared and in awe of the unknown power of this liquid floor upon which I stand.

So what have we acheived since leaving? Well we have:
1. Sailed across the Bay of Biscay in rough seas and near gale and gale conditions at a time of year when everyone who knew what they were talking about (and some that didn't) were saying don't do it
2. Sailed 1600 nautical miles, over 300 of those by ourselves
3. Visited 4 countries (one twice), two continents and one Atlantic archipelago.
4. Sailed off into the Atlantic by ourselves and not really been too concerned about it
5. Learnt how to use technology that I have never been exposed to before - and Karen is becoming a bit of a computer wiz
6. Got my first nautical tattoo .

Superstition suggests that the mermaid tattoo will keep you at the surface if you fall overboard - not that that is going to happen
Art work and tattoo by Rene at Maohu Tattoo, Calle Numancia 49, Guanarteme, Las Palmas Tel: 609 411 7881 www.maohitattoo.com
7. Spent nearly 4320 hours in each others company without either one of us pushing the other board - and only about 10 hours of alone time required
8. Both remembered our anniversary ahead of time for the first time in 15 years
9. Both of us being flirted with by the same woman in a police station
10. Not hit one planned milestone in the six months and realising we will probably never have a firm plan of what we are doing or where we are going to be again until the big boy comes a calling.

Are there things we haven't done that we should have - there are only two I can think of -

a) going up the mast - to date I have hired people to do this but the day is looming closer and
b) spending any time at anchor.

I also think we could meet more locals but it is still a little difficult with our limited language skills - some people can not even understand my English ,let alone my Spanish

And are we enjoying it - I think it is a resounding yes

And are we missing home?
I think the only thing we are missing is family and friends - the house, whilst being the thing that has allowed us to do this is only a distant memory and the boat is more than adequate for accomodation - indeed some of our new friends have sailed around the world (or part of it) in a lot less boat.

So who is going to be the first to join us?]]> Well, Tuesday will see out the first 6 months since we left Australia to start this adventure of a life time. So as I sit here sipping my G&T as the sun lowers over the Las Palmas sky line through a myriad of masts I thought I should put down some of my contemplations about the journey. Reporting the theft tag:blog.whereii.com,2008-04-02:b2d3998d-9e53-4891-8179-d05611fb1308 Where2 2008-04-02T12:03:51Z 2008-04-02T11:10:00Z The other day I reported my stolen bike. On any decent hourly rate in Aus (eg McDonalds junior), it cost me more than the bike was worth so lucky I am not working.

I prepared myself well with a piece of paper with all the details and what I was there for and after siesta (2-4 or 1 - 5 or 2-5 where everything shuts down - in this instance 4pm we thought) Karen and I headed across to the Port Police office to report the theft of my two month old bicycle.



The policeman spoke little english but understood my broken Spanish and poor grammar and explained that I had to report it to the Policia National in the big red building at the end of the marina. So, after he took down all of the details from my piece of paper, off we went to the big red building. By the time we arrived it was about 5pm. Here we waited in queue to speak to the officer handing out queue number tickets and found he spoke very good english. He explained that yes we had to report it to the National police and we were in the national police building but we had to go to another national police building 1 mile down the road past the big square with the big fountain. I warned Karen that if we got sent to another building that I was going to give up!

So off we go again and after a little bit of circuitous navigation and questioning of building security guards we found the next national police station with a policeman who spoke English and was very helpful. He told us in Spain we had to ring a number and report the incident via a translator and then come back and print and sign the report - sounded too easy. (And luckily we were not sent to another building...)

We found a quiet spot around the corner and rang the number and found out how to say " your call is important to us, please hold the line and the next available operator will take your call" in Spanish. The phone was briefly answered and when they heard my english I got the hold message again in English.

The operator (from Madrid) then answered, could not understand my english very well, nor my attempts to pronounce any Spanish addresses or names of the marina but after 30 mins on the phone the report was complete. So Karen and I headed back in to get the report printed and signed (or so we thought).

We were directed to a waiting room with 2 couples in it and the first couple was called almost immediately - how easy was this going to be.... 45 minutes later the first couple reappeared with their report in their hand. The second couple were called in 45mins later....

Eventually, concerned by the increasing number of people in the waiting room, a second officer was put to task and I finally made it into the interview room with a non-English speaking officer. He pulled up the report on the computer - read my Spanish notes and made some modifications to the report. He then asked me to read and check the accuracy of the Spanish report - which I did - picking out words I understood and getting the general jist and it seemed accurate for every 10th word I understood. He then printed and I signed the 200 copies and I left with the police report in my hand at 9:00pm at night!

As I was leaving, a lady who was sitting next to Karen in the waiting room smiled and winked at me - interesting I thought as Karen and I walked out together. When I told Karen, she clarified that the Lady was indeed very friendly, having tried to pick Karen up in the waiting room with the line - "Your so beautiful" - obviously some drug problems on this island.

So tips on reporting theft in Spain for non-Spanish speakers - don't bother going to the police station ring 902 102 112, know all the address details including where you are making the call from, and don't try and clarify english words with poor Spanish pronunciation. Also take a sandwich when you go to get the report printed as you will probably wait quite a while and the vending machines don't work all that well.

The bike story does end happily - On Monday morning I set off to Telde about 24 hilly kilometers from Las Palmas to buy a new bike that I had seen at a much reduced price (about what I had paid for my first bike) - fully prepared with a list of questions (can you deliver it to Las Palmas for collection? How much will that cost? When would it get there? or as a last resort What is the best route back to Las Palmas?if I had to ride it back)

Well I got the bus easily and arrived at the shop Burbijita surf shop and the bike was still there so I bought it and gave them my list of questions - no problems there - but he could not explain where I had to pick it up. Maps were being drawn when their service guy came in with a bike and he was on his way back to Las Palmas so they offered me a lift in a very cool Hawaiian floral print Yellow Landrover and was dropped back at the Marina.

So now I have a very cool mountain bike again, locked with a very secure (and heavy) chain to my boat.
]]> <br> The other day I reported my stolen bike. On any decent hourly rate in Aus (eg McDonalds junior), it cost me more than the bike was worth so lucky I am not working.<br> <br> I prepared myself well with a piece of paper with all the details and what I was there for and after siesta (2-4 or 1 - 5 or 2-5 where everything shuts down - in this instance 4pm we thought) Karen and I headed across to the Port Police office to report the theft of my two month old bicycle.<br> <br> ... Week 1 in Las Palmas Gran Canaria tag:blog.whereii.com,2008-03-30:b0db224e-788c-42c3-a76d-7cd155fc6f18 Where2 2008-03-30T19:54:43Z 2008-03-30T15:21:00Z
That's right, Karen and I let the lines go from Rubicon Marina Lanzarote after 32 days and set sail for an overnight trip to Las Palmas Gran Canaria. The trip itself was almost uneventful passing through the reknowned acceleration zones with not much of a fuss at all. We sailed the entire voyage (with the exception of exiting and entering the harbours). This is a first for us and the entire trip would have used only the smallest amount of deisel - so cheap as well. The only event on the trip was a dance with a fast ferry as it turned across our bow to pass starboard to starboard and then shine a very strong spotlight on our boat. From my reckoning, we followed the colregs, turning to starboard to ensure we would avoid him before he turned across me so I am not quite sure what happened. Maybe he didn't see me.

On arriving in the marina with 24knot winds we were assigned a 8m berth down a narrow lane - needless to say , with these winds, I could not make such a small berth, and after a scratch from one of the neigbouring boats, we moved over to a much more appropriate sized berth on pontoon 17. The guys on the other boats on the pontoon were quick to assist in tying up and we were safe in Las Palmas. Although I was a bit shaken by the parking experience.



We were greeted by Nick Jaffe, a young Australian we met in Baiona, Spain before Christmas. He is sailing his 26ft Contessa from Holland back to Australia solo. For those of you, like us, who don't know a lot about boats and sailing this is a small boat. We were expecting him to have already left Gran Canaria, but like a lot of people he had been waiting here for parts for two months. Nick is doing this with the help of sponsors on next to nothing - check out his web site - www.bigoceans.com .



We have been making new friends and there a more cruising sailors here than anywhere else we have been so they have been helpful, offering advice, drinks, information and assistance where-ever we turn. Bill on Spangle has spent alot of time helping and even cooking us a vey nice fish dinner. I must admit being envious of Bill's wi-fi antenna that seemed to work as well as my expensive one imported from the States.



Kath and Bear, an english couple (from NZ) who have been cruising since 1982 are a wealth of knowledge and have suggested not putting a time limit on our trip.

On Wednesday - Ivan (the Terrible by his own admission) arrived on a 54ft Amel Super Maramu 2000. Bill, Maryann and I helped him tie up and when we were finished, he asked us if we spoke French - which none of us do - but when he said - "Voulez vous un apperatif" we all understood and we boarded for a glass of wine and a tour of the boat. On Thursday evening, Karen was invited over for the tour and we spent 2-3 hours conversing in a combination mainly French, a bit of English and a lot of sign language. It is amazing how much can be understood without a common language - we got tips on anchoring, use of the inverter, washing machine and dishwasher etc. The Amels are very nice 1/2 boats with a rich and warm finish inside. There is a definate difference between the feel of a single hull and a multi-hull.

Nick finally left on Friday after some final repairs to the mast light - and he was off for a 27day + sail to Barbados - alone. Ivan did explain that smaller boats handle rough seas without the crashing of waves - but somehow Nick's boat still looked very small as it left the marina.


He was followed a couple of hours later by a Kazakstani boat - carrying the country's first circum-navigation crew -complete with camera man. It left twice - the first time being filmed then they returned for the cameraman. This was necessary as the crew started off with eight in Kazakstan but by the time they were ready to leave here were down to four including the cameraman.



We have also done some sightseeing - mainly around Las Palmas -Santa Catalina and the old town.


We visited the house Christopher Columbus stayed in when in the Canaries and learnt more about his voyages of discovery. It said he went to his grave convinced he had found a quick route to China. He also had some very convincing charts of this continent. I took some photos in the museum of his boat and was promptly scolded by the attendent.

Unfortunately, I also had my bike stolen - the cheapest new bike in the world with 18 gears and Karen and I had a matching pair. Someone took bolt cutters to my 8mm wire lock and fleeced it in the middle of the night. All those blogs about security of the Las Palmas marina seem to be true as people told me of bikes even getting stolen off boats. So yesterday was spent finding a new bike. I have found the 2nd cheapest bike in the world 20km from the marina but am trying to find a route to get it home - non-mountainous and non-freeway - not easy on this island. Hopefully tomorrow I will be mobile again.]]> This has been a big week in Las Palmas Gran Canaria for us. That's right, Karen and I let the lines go from Rubicon Marina Lanzarote after 32 days and set sail for an overnight sail to Las Palmas Gran Canaria. And the Oscar for best stunt goes to Karen Donovan in Agadir to Lanzarote tag:blog.whereii.com,2008-03-22:fb33e25b-a8a0-44f0-82ca-d2648324b95c Where2 2008-03-30T15:19:30Z 2008-03-22T01:01:00Z So,

if anyone was wondering what we were doing at mid-night on our 16th wedding anniversary - please watch this video.....

We edited it for hours and only finished it for your viewing at about 1am. It gives you an idea of the comfort and tranquility of motoring in moderate and winds.

]]> So, if anyone was wondering what we were doing at mid-night on our 16th wedding anniversary - please watch this video..... Phone orders for Pizza tag:blog.whereii.com,2008-03-14:1439aaac-3e30-4246-8173-2a53b3228c3f Where2 2008-03-18T22:20:24Z 2008-03-14T22:01:00Z
last night I dialled in for take-away pizza to Lani's Snack Bar at Marina Rubicon Lanzarote. Although they speak Spanish mainly, the order was understood, a time was given and the pizzas when collected were right - so far better than most of my favorite take outs back home. But wait there is more. The pizzas were fantastic. Karen's Vegetale was enjoyed by her  on the night and and I for lunch the next day - this is the first time I have ever enjoyed a pizza with no meat - I never thought it was possible.

Now we didn't do this blind - we had had lunch here before and the toastees are great as are the hamburger and good prices to.

So the take out number is 928 51 9041 - but if you are thinking about calling from home - don't forget the country code of +34 and remember they could be cold when they get to Aus.
]]> last night I dialled in for take-away pizza to Lani's Snack Bar at Marina Rubicon Lanzarote.