Eileen and I travel west from Chipiona, 30 miles back to Mazagon and then 30 miles back to Ayamonte - which looks like a lovely place to spend some time - the river Guardiana starts here and you can go up the river and find a number of places to stop. The entrance can be tricky and I contrive to enter and leave near high water - I had 5 metres of water and I guess in a heavy swell the entrance should be avoided. We have no swell and are able to pick up Ken successfully. We leave around lunchtime after a walk around the town - pleasant place. We head for Faro and encounter an interesting thunderstorm en route, I take the mainsail down before it hits (we had been motor sailing) For 10 minutes we endure horizontal rain and peak at 47 knots, the engine has us going forward at 2.6 knots into the 47 knots. The rain drives through the louvres on the aft cabin hatch! We get into the Faro estuary just after dark after dodging many many lobster pots and some fishing boats. There are massive "fish" farms to avoid too - probably mussel but with without rafts - just a sea of buoys delimited by some lit yellow marks. Be careful here!
After a good nights sleep in Faro we have a leisurely breakfast and leave at lunchtime. The gribfiles show light winds for a couple of days and then thicker weather on the Tuesday night and Wednesday with 20-25 knots. Thursday will have some patches of 25-30 although (a) we expect to be in by then and (b) the patches are to the West of our track. The Navtex from the Spanish Met office shows nothing evil in the 3 day forecast. (I got the gribs from passageweather.com on this occasion). Both are wrong... Pressure chart shows nothing out of the ordinary either...
We depart into a very rolly swell of at least 2 metres and winds of 20 knots instead of the 10-15 we were expecting. We put two reefs in the main to give us some comfort - a bit over-reefed but no bad thing at night The (electric) autopilot copes well but after three days the batteries are low - I try juggling charge from domestic to engine as I realise the autopilot is on the engine start battery - note to self, change this. We hand steer the fourth and fifth days. We had been fairly rigorously keeping to 2 hours on watch and 4 hours off watch and the three of us are well rested. I had managed hot meals every evening and reasonable lunches (Eileen on Salad and Ken and I on Ham and Cheese sandwiches!) We rigged the twin headsails and sailed really well with little rolling.
In the middle of my watch at 2 am I see another yacht on AIS about 3 miles away - we are 150 miles from Casablanca at this point - you remember Casablanca and Ricks Bar? Well, the boat turns out to be Iroquois with Debi and Jack on board, I had met them in Oban on the way back from Norway to Belfast and subsequently met them for dinner in London.
"Of all the bits of ocean in all the world" Amazing coincidence, although I knew they had been in Lagos for the few weeks previous. I radio Debi and have a chat, they are going slow to rest themselves and had not enjoyed the rolly swells nearer Portugal. I hope to see them for a beer soon.
However I discover a loose nut (again) on the autopilot coupling and take the sails in to lock the tiller so I can remove the nut. The bolt is screwed in to tapped brass and locktited so I expect it to stay fixed. This may explain the battery drain as the Neco autopilot has a massive 30 Amp stall current and the nut had been catching on a bracket. Whilst the sails are in and the boat is lying to bare poles the wind suddenly comes up. Ken assesses the sky and smells the wind and says - keep the sails off for a bit.
The wisdom of age, a full gale arrives very quickly - sustained winds of 34 knots plus, peaking at 44 knots, each of us on watch saw periods above 40 knots and we have a day of gales. The boat runs downwind at 2.5 to 3 knots (up to 5 knots in the 40+ winds) and steers easily with one hand. We are heading in roughly the correct direction - the west of Lanzarote, we had thought of heading to the East but the west will do - there is a marina on the South coast in the shelter of the Island.
The boat does roll and occasionally gets a massive splash from a breaking wave - the rear cabin windows all leak which is a new thing - note to self, apply mastic. On a 2 hour watch you get wet about three times, at least it is warm water! I wrap the rubberised rug around me and rig an igloo out of the yellow PVC cushions and try and keep dry-ish. We are able to sail at 30 degrees to the wind so a 60 degree spread is pretty good - the boat is magnificent and does not slew left or right much. Cooking and peeing is difficult but possible, sleeping and lying in a bunk reading is easy - we have lee cloths up and this works rather well. The cooker gimbals are not right and the cooker swings and locks with a jerk - dangerous - I am cooking pasta in a shallow saucepan when I get boiling water over my right hand, I am holding the pot on the cooker with my left but I am able to put running coldish fresh water over my hand continuously and then keep it submerged in the basin.
God bless Mrs McCrum and her first aid kit, an antiseptic wipe and dry bandages for a couple of days get it well on the way to mended - surprisingly not much pain - just hassle.
The wind declines on the fifth day and we motor into Marina Rubicon, just up the coast from Playa de Blanca on the south coast of Lanzarote.
Marina Rubicon is a manufactured "town" but very twee - think "The Prisoner" but no mini-mokes. As soon as we arrive Eileen spies a dive centre and manages 4 dives in the next 2 days, I take one in and dive on the Museo Atlantico - a set of scupltures in 45 feet of water. I try out the £59 clone of the gopro and take 25 short videos - all uploaded onto youtube without editing so there are the odd bad bits. If you search youtube for "Voyages of Shadowmere" you should find them - here is a link to the one https://youtu.be/mBJKy-i7IpM
Meanwhile Ken fixes the gimballing cooker problem and we head to Fuertoventura - we just anchor overnight off the main town and the next day head for Tenerife so that Eileenn and Ken can fly home.
After a good nights sleep in Faro we have a leisurely breakfast and leave at lunchtime. The gribfiles show light winds for a couple of days and then thicker weather on the Tuesday night and Wednesday with 20-25 knots. Thursday will have some patches of 25-30 although (a) we expect to be in by then and (b) the patches are to the West of our track. The Navtex from the Spanish Met office shows nothing evil in the 3 day forecast. (I got the gribs from passageweather.com on this occasion). Both are wrong... Pressure chart shows nothing out of the ordinary either...
We depart into a very rolly swell of at least 2 metres and winds of 20 knots instead of the 10-15 we were expecting. We put two reefs in the main to give us some comfort - a bit over-reefed but no bad thing at night The (electric) autopilot copes well but after three days the batteries are low - I try juggling charge from domestic to engine as I realise the autopilot is on the engine start battery - note to self, change this. We hand steer the fourth and fifth days. We had been fairly rigorously keeping to 2 hours on watch and 4 hours off watch and the three of us are well rested. I had managed hot meals every evening and reasonable lunches (Eileen on Salad and Ken and I on Ham and Cheese sandwiches!) We rigged the twin headsails and sailed really well with little rolling.
In the middle of my watch at 2 am I see another yacht on AIS about 3 miles away - we are 150 miles from Casablanca at this point - you remember Casablanca and Ricks Bar? Well, the boat turns out to be Iroquois with Debi and Jack on board, I had met them in Oban on the way back from Norway to Belfast and subsequently met them for dinner in London.
"Of all the bits of ocean in all the world" Amazing coincidence, although I knew they had been in Lagos for the few weeks previous. I radio Debi and have a chat, they are going slow to rest themselves and had not enjoyed the rolly swells nearer Portugal. I hope to see them for a beer soon.
However I discover a loose nut (again) on the autopilot coupling and take the sails in to lock the tiller so I can remove the nut. The bolt is screwed in to tapped brass and locktited so I expect it to stay fixed. This may explain the battery drain as the Neco autopilot has a massive 30 Amp stall current and the nut had been catching on a bracket. Whilst the sails are in and the boat is lying to bare poles the wind suddenly comes up. Ken assesses the sky and smells the wind and says - keep the sails off for a bit.
The wisdom of age, a full gale arrives very quickly - sustained winds of 34 knots plus, peaking at 44 knots, each of us on watch saw periods above 40 knots and we have a day of gales. The boat runs downwind at 2.5 to 3 knots (up to 5 knots in the 40+ winds) and steers easily with one hand. We are heading in roughly the correct direction - the west of Lanzarote, we had thought of heading to the East but the west will do - there is a marina on the South coast in the shelter of the Island.
The boat does roll and occasionally gets a massive splash from a breaking wave - the rear cabin windows all leak which is a new thing - note to self, apply mastic. On a 2 hour watch you get wet about three times, at least it is warm water! I wrap the rubberised rug around me and rig an igloo out of the yellow PVC cushions and try and keep dry-ish. We are able to sail at 30 degrees to the wind so a 60 degree spread is pretty good - the boat is magnificent and does not slew left or right much. Cooking and peeing is difficult but possible, sleeping and lying in a bunk reading is easy - we have lee cloths up and this works rather well. The cooker gimbals are not right and the cooker swings and locks with a jerk - dangerous - I am cooking pasta in a shallow saucepan when I get boiling water over my right hand, I am holding the pot on the cooker with my left but I am able to put running coldish fresh water over my hand continuously and then keep it submerged in the basin.
God bless Mrs McCrum and her first aid kit, an antiseptic wipe and dry bandages for a couple of days get it well on the way to mended - surprisingly not much pain - just hassle.
Marina Rubicon is a manufactured "town" but very twee - think "The Prisoner" but no mini-mokes. As soon as we arrive Eileen spies a dive centre and manages 4 dives in the next 2 days, I take one in and dive on the Museo Atlantico - a set of scupltures in 45 feet of water. I try out the £59 clone of the gopro and take 25 short videos - all uploaded onto youtube without editing so there are the odd bad bits. If you search youtube for "Voyages of Shadowmere" you should find them - here is a link to the one https://youtu.be/mBJKy-i7IpM
Meanwhile Ken fixes the gimballing cooker problem and we head to Fuertoventura - we just anchor overnight off the main town and the next day head for Tenerife so that Eileenn and Ken can fly home.
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