Atlantic Passage

Happy Yule, Winter Solstace to you all!

Went ashore on the first skiff run this morning.

The town we are anchored at is Valle Gran Rey. It is a nice town clustered at the base of the cliffs. A deep valley runs up into the center of the island. There are a lot of Germans in town. Some of the other crew mentioned they were mostly “hippies”. My kind of place

Spent the day driving around this very rugged island. The island is basically the eroded remnant of a large shield volcano. The valleys are steep and very deep. The vistas are spectacular and far off in the North we could see the peak of Tenerife showing above the haze on the sea.

There is a National Park that covers most of the plataeu at the top of the island. This is a forest called a “laurelsilva”. It is a forest that exists because of the fog that builds up over the top of the mountains. It is an evergreen forest very cool and green. A marked contrast to the arid bluffs near the shore. The forest collects wate from the fog and allows it to flow into the ground where it emerges as springs far down on the valley walls.

The trade winds also bring storms that dump large amounts of rain in very short periods of time which the islanders collect in lots of reservoirs and pools for use when it is dry. According to the locals the rain the other day was the first they’ve had in a while. Heh.

We went to a small black sand beach in a town called Alojera. I sat on a wave worn chunk of lava drinking wine and eating a chicken salad baguette. For desert I had a chocolate filled cruoissant and some coconut cookies… In sunshine to boot.

Strange to think that this is the shortest day of the year and that the Sun has begun his ages old journey north again.

May the rising Sun bring health and happiness to you all.

May the growing light guide you in the cold of winter.

May “that which is greater than the all” bring you safe through all of Winter’s trials.

Bright Blessings and…

Thanks for reading.

KJ

The pics are here.

We left La Palmas around 10:00am this morning and have been sailing all day South around the island of Gran Canaria heading for a small island called Gomera. There we will be anchored off a nice beach apparently so I hope the weather continues to improve.

For a while today we were sailing with all our sails set, save one.That is the first time since I’ve been aboard. She is a fine sight fully dressed like that I imagine. It’s interesting but as time goes on the rig takes on a very utilitarian, but still beautiful, look. That is mostly my getting used to it and understanding where all the lines go and what they do.

Also, except for the first hour or two I haven’t felt very queasy, hopefully that is a good sign.

Not sure what if any Internet access there will be on this small island so not sure when you will get to read this but hey, that’s life in the “slow lane”

Later…

Just got off our night watch. I had helm for the last hour and watched the rising Sun illuminate the rocky outline of Tenerife. The volcanoe, active but currently dormant, on Tenerife is 12,000′ high. Along the south coast are a couple of cinder cones making for a dramatic landscape.

We can see Gomera on the horizon. Mike says we shoulkd be there later today. I saw no lights from there last night so not sure what that implies for getting Internet access.

Thanks for reading.

KJ

Was on galley duty today which wasn’t too bad really. I also laid in with the rest of my watch working on getting the ship ready to sail. We are supposed to leave for another island in the canaries tomorrow morning.
I helped to undo and re-bend on the Main Lower Topsail this morning. This entails going aloft onto the yard and then cutting the old robands, thin strands of manila rope that lace the sail to the yard. Once the sail is free the lines holding it to the ends of the yard are tightened up with a block and tackle (called a “handy billy”). Once the head of the sail is tight and centered on the yard, we lace it back on by using more robands. It’s odd to think of the ship being pulled along by what amounts to twisted grass.

Hopefully there will be Internet access wherever we endup in the next couple of days but if not oh well that’s the way the cookie crumbles…

Speaking of cookies, as I typed this Bruce came back from shopping and offered me a chips ahoy cookie. Synchronicity in action

Thanks for reading.

KJ

Went with John, David and Gary for a jaunt across the island today in a little rent a car. The weather was really wet and rainy up high. We spent most of the trip in the clouds but it was better than hanging around the ship watching for chafe on the docklines

Actually while we were out one of the docklines chafed enough to part. When we got back they had rearranged a bunch of the lines to reduce the chafe.

The pictures of our jaunt are here.

The center of the island is very rugged with steep narrow valleys and very lush vegetation. There is a national park somewhere up there, we saw the sign in the mist.

When we came back down to the NW corner of the island we saw some amazing surf, it was breaking 20-30′ high!

I also have tomorrow off so I hope the weather is good so I can just sit and drink cappuccinos and surf the net

Thanks for reading.
KJ

P.S. It appears that we will be leaving Las Palmas on Thursday to go to another island in the Canaries. We will be leaving for Senegal some time after Dec 21 when our new pro crew member and mate Veronica will be joining us.

P.P.S It’s Wednesday morning and I’ve had a great 3 hours doing emailing, chatting and hanging around in a little Cafe on the waterfront. The sun is shining although the sky has a misty watery look to it. The electronic sign on the promenade says 21C so not too bad for December 16
Going to do some shopping at the big 7 floor department store they have here. Probably won’t buy anything but hey It may be the last Big Store(tm) I’ll see for a while.
KJ

P.P.P.S
Check out this late afternoon shot!
Finally a chance to enjoy some sunshine on the beach on a far away island.
Not a snow shovel in sight

Yesterday John, Gary and David and I went ashore for a laundry run and to do some Internet stuff and generally have a look around.

Las Palmas is a very European place very much like Mallorca but newer. Not really too much to see. It would be really nice if it was sunny and hot but it is actually fairly windy and cool. The German tourists, hardy sorts them, don’t seem to mind though.

Had a nice dinner in a restaurant called the Happy Cockerel and hit the bunk around 10:00pm.

Went for a wander hunting a Geocache with John this morning.
Found it part way up a cinder cone on the North side of the beach.
So I have done the second thing on my “bucket list” which wa to walk on a volcanoe. Number one was to sail on a square rigger which is currently underway

After finding the cache we walked North down to the little town of Las Colorados. The surf there was incredible. There was a blow hole that would stream water and spray for a good 10-15 seconds after the wave passed.

We then walked back along the coast and had coffee and a croissant in a little cafe on the promenade.

An interesting phenomenon here is the use of Santa Claus in decorations. They are all little stuffed Santas climbing ladders into the apartments. In one narrow street we saw 5 of them! There are also the three Magi doing the same. They look kinda like looters after a power outage or something.

After picking up my laundry I headed back to the ship and then went over to the Danmark to take a look around. The Danmark is a bigger ship than the Picton Castle so there is a lot of room aboard as the available space goes up as the cube of the dimensions. The typical crew is 100, 80 trainees and 20 pro crew including a chef and a full time baker!

Their decks are holystoned and all brass is highly polished. Being “ship rigged” she has a lot more rigging and lines around the mizzen mast. She also has 3 wheels, two before the chart house and one on the poop. There is also a big electrically operated windlass for raising the anchor. Nice.

I’m going to try and head over to the technical museum this afternoon which has a display on ships and maritime transport.

Looks like we will be here until later next week due to visa issues going to Senegal so I might tag along with the gang who are planning on renting a car to see more of the island.

Thanks for reading
KJ

Pictures of my rambles in Las Palmas are here.

We sailed int the harbour of La Palmas this morning.
There are two other square riggers  here. The  full rigged ship Danmark, she has square sails on all three masts, from Denmark and the Tenacious which is a  which is a barque like us, from England. The Captain served as Bosun on the Danmark and still calls her the “Finest Sailing Ship Ever”.

According to abook listing all the Tall Ships the Tenacious is designed for handicapped sailors as well as able bodied ones from ages 17-70.  The tops have guard rails!  I will try and get some pictures of her.

My watch is still on duty today but I have the next two days off so hopefully there will be some good stuff to share with you all.

Thanks for reading
KJ

Since I had galley duty yesterday I didn’t have to stand the normal watch so I took the opportunity to do what I seem to always do when free here…sleep.

Had my normal 4:00am watch though, which was rough for me this time.  The weather was actually pretty good. We had fairly warm temperatures with a steady NW Force 5 wind with gusts to force 6.  Steering was hard as she tends to bounce around in the waves and gusts. I lost track of how to bring her back steady on her course at one point and the Mate had Ben take over till she was stabilized.  For some reason I had alot of trouble stying alert for the rest of the watch. Must be the motion which is making me a bit queasy again.

We will be getting to the Canaries on Thursday afternoon  at this rate.

I saw the North Eastern most island on the horizon this morning.

Thanks for reading.
KJ

It took until 11:00 to get clearance to leave, then we up anchored and
motored away from Essaouira, there being almost no wind. By mid
afternoon there was a light NW breeze and we started to set sail.  By
the time I went on watch at 4:00pm we had all our square sails set and
most of the fore and aft ones as well. 

A pod of dolphins came by for a romp in the bow wave around 2:00pm, they are amazing to watch up close.  They can swim much faster than we can sail.

We are now sailing along at 5 knots under a partly cloudy but moonlit
sky.  The air is warm and the ship steers beautifully. As the captain
told me when I was on helm “It’s a lovely evening”.

I noticed something interesting tonight. The sea has no smell.  There
is no “sea smell” to speak of at all.  The smell I had always
associated with the sea is actually the smell of the shore. Interesting
that I just noticed that now. Hopefully that means I’m getting more
comfortable with this sea life thing.

The trip to the Canary islands will take 3-4 days and the weather forecast is for fair winds building over the next couple of days.

I have galley duty tomorrow so I don’t have to stand our night watch tonight which is sweet. Plus we are sailing on the starboard tack so the ship heals to port. Now since my bunk is on the port side I will be held into my bunk instead of risking being thrown out as she rolls.

Thanks for reading.
KJ

P.S.  Just finished the breakfast dishes and thought I would write this down before I forget it.  Last night about 3:00am I woke up to an odd sound. It was like a long drawn out squeak but very quiet.  At first I thought it was something moving with the rolling of the ship but after a while it was obviously coming from the water.  My bunk is below the water line so sounds in the water are pretty clear.  I think perhaps it was whales.

Have to keep an eye out today and see if they can be seen.

After an excellent nights sleep in a non-rocking bed I got up and had along leisurely shower in a non-rocking shower and then an excellent continental breakfast sitting at a non-rocking table.

Did I mention that the Hotel was non-rocking

The big plan for today was to go camel riding in the afternoon.  I spent a couple of hours surfing the net and looking for hints on how to extend the battery life on my laptop then wandered off to the boat landing where everyone was meeting.

Essaouira is so friendly and clean by comparison to Marrakech that it wa almost like walking at home.

The camel riding was really cool. There were 5 of us, Ryan, John, Gunner, Gary and me.  It cost 150 DH for an hour and we headed down the beach towards the sand dunes and ruined fort to the South.  It was facinating and very hard on the thighs. A  camel is a lot wider than a horse so by the end of the hour I was really ready to get off even though that hurt too.

After that we just wandered around eating and wasting time till the 7:00pm skiff run.  Time well spent in this fascinating place.

Tomorrow we leave for the Canaries which should take 4-5 days depending on the weather.

Thanks for reading.
KJ

Here are some pictures from my adventures today!

Today dawned bright and sunny with a light breeze from the NE.
I went ashore with the first skiff run at 8:00 and headed to what is becoming the official Picton Castle hotel here,the Dar Naciria.
Once I had a hotel room, John, WT, Gary and I got a Taxi and headed to the fabled city of Marrakech.

The trip took 3 hours by taxi. The driver was very pleasant and his Mercedes cab handled the sometimes rough road without any complaints.
Driving once we got into Marrakech is a nightmare. Nearly every road is two lanes wide but has 3 or more lanes of traffic on it. I don’t think I’ve ever been in so many near miss collisions in my life!

Our driver dropped us off just outside the main market square and in we went to take a look at one of the most famous markets in the world.

The main square was busy with a lot of tourists so we went to a restaurant for a “quick” lunch that took an hour and a half then dived into the narrow crowded lanes that make up the market area of Marrakech.

Frankly I was not impressed, the vendors mostly had the same kind of stuff as at Essaouira just more of it and it was not only more expensive but the vendors themselves were much pushier and less willing to bargain.

The streets are even narrower than Essaouira and in addition to large amounts of people there are mopeds, scooters, donkey carts and even the odd delivery vehicle all charging along at relatively high and smoky speeds. Blah. The air is full of smoke from all the vehicles and the braziers cooking bits of meat etc. I’m still coughing and it’s 12 hours later!

We spent about 5 hours in that maze which was plenty.

We then called our cabbie and headed back to the now familiar and friendly Essaouira.

Tomorrow I’m going to take it easy and just wander around and relax.

The pics of my road trip to Marrakech are here.

Thanks for reading.
KJ