What a pallarva! On arrival in Morocco we had officials on the boat choosing presents they would like from us. The authorities stored our drone and spear gun for four days and then when we go to check out state that they need paying for this. Only cash and only local currency. If they had told us beforehand we would have kept back some money rather than spending our last money on a haircut for me. The marina then said that because we have been delayed beyond midday, they would want additional money. We were delayed by an hour by the office! That doesn’t materialise and to be fair, the guy at the marina went to the bureau de change and changed my fifty euro note for two twenties and some morrocon currency.
So our overriding impression is wonderful place with wonderful people only tainted by the bureaucracy at the beginning and end. As we leave, there is a frantic call from the dock since we haven’t given back the pass keys for the gates. He hops into his rib while Maria pirurettes round the marina, not personally but gets Mariadz to do it – now that’s printed. Mental picture. When he arrives I am able to safely throw the cards into his boat before we set off.
Anyway, the wind looks good to push us down to the canaries, a trip of over 620 miles. Interestingly, the ARC require that you complete a 500 mile sail in the year prior to doing the ARC. We have arguably logged this when we ran from Sicily to Spain, with an overnight anchor in Sardinia but this trip definitely qualifies.
As we checked out there was a catamaran in front of us that are also going to the canaries. Let’s see if we catch them up….
The initial part of the trip has the wind and waves just forward of our beam and quite strong. I try to reassure Maria that everything will change when we start running with the wind but despite all her experience of exactly this situation, she is dubious. After a short while it is engine off and running under half a main with 25 knot winds. A further turn puts the wind almost directly behind and we decide to put out some headsail and sail good winged for up to 18 hours if we are lucky!
I have picked up a bug in Morocco somehow and feel quite washed out and grateful to have a toilet close by. Let’s hope I can get my rest and let Maria have hers. Dinner for me is two pieces of toast and some water. Try and keep the energy levels up without eating anything that is going to aggravate it. About twelve hours after my initial symptoms, Maria is also starting to feel unwell so we will be nursing each other through the night watches. To do this we decide not to have long watches but to have short one hour watches and alternate with some sleep which makes it an unusual system for us. The night seems to be very long for this reason as to some extent we are awake for most of it and cat napping when we can. This may be a sign of us being unwell but it also feels very cold and we are both changed into long trousers, long sleeve tops and our lightweight sailing jackets, whilst sleeping under a warm blanket! That won’t continue for too long i imagine.
We have been making good progress so far but the wind is almost directly behind and to maximise the sail out we are goosewinged but this only works within a very narrow band of wind direction. It effectively means that we are steering by the wind direction through the night adjusting as the wind changes. As the night develops the wind dies down even more and we are now moving at a very slow three or four knots.
The next morning the winds are a bit steadier at 10-12knots which with the wind direction is helpful as it is back on our beam. We are now running with full sail out and making really good progress again, even if we are heading slightly too far east.
We are at the end of our first day, 130 miles, it could have been a lot better if we hadn’t had the complete drop off in winds. Then the moment that we both enjoy, a pod of dolphins come over to play with mariadz which really lightens the mood. They are not with us long but are so beautiful.
It’s mid afternoon as we start our second day of sailing (i.e 24 hours after we left) which starts with a complete drop of wind to 4 Knots, we are effectively drifting at two or three knots. Our forecasts are showing that the wind is offshore and the flat spots are adjacent to the Moroocan coast. We have also noticed that our batteries are down at 40% which isn’t ideal either. We could run the generator to charge them or use the big alternator on the engine, as fixed (with help) by yours truly. We decide to run the engine and try and take the opportunity to get more off shore and try and find some wind. As evening sets in, we are back sailing and our batteries are sufficiently charged. Looking at our track, you would think we are drunk as it meanders around our planned course with us chasing the wind! You will see that at the end with the video.
I am starting to feel a bit better but Maria is feeling really washed out so my responsibility is trying to get her as rested as possible so she can recover. We have a steady wind, are seeing surprisingly many ships considering our position is over seventy miles off the coast of Morroco. Everyone is playing very nicely though and leaving a wide berth which is helpful.. tonight we have both dressed as we did the previous evening and I’m not sure if this is a sign I’m getting better but now I feel warm whilst Maria is really wrapped up. Hopefully, if she is following my timeline, she will feel better in the morning. I will try and go back to our more normal watch system, which stresses rest for Maria, especially as she isn’t well. However, by 10pm she is fast asleep and so I let her have an extra hour.
A few hours later, the wind has picked up and we have been steadily going at 6-7 knots. I was obviously very tired since I didn’t hear my alarm and Maria also let me sleep in. That probably wasn’t the best idea since she is the unwell person now who needs her rest. I’m woken with a start because the sails are flapping a little and Maria wants it sorted. We make changes but it isn’t perfect in a rolly sea , I get her to go to sleep – hopefully that will help her to get better. In the morning we should be straight downwind to the canaries. This will give us a perfect opportunity to get the twin headsail rig going again. Most importantly remember how to do it after four years!
Maria gets a solid rest but it hasn’t been the cure we hoped although she does feel better. I am feeling a little better all the time but this is not a 24 hour and done unfortunately. My diet for two days has been two pieces of toast and water. I was hoping that would reset my body quickly but we will see.
It is daylight when Maria wakes and, having given some time to acclimatise, we set about putting up our twin headsail rig. The second headsail has been on the port bow for some time – partly to remind me which side it needs to be raised. Readers may recall that we had a great time with this rig in biscay but had some chaffing and damage. I wanted to test the great advice we got at the time.
It’s a little complicated especially as we haven’t done this often so we take our time, make our mistakes and correct them as we go. I have extra blocks to fit to run the lines better to the winches, another lesson learned from last time. Mariadz has colour coded lines which really helps us generally and lines for the pole, which recently bit me back, have black lines running through them (and some of my blood). We decide to get the pole ready first, with a preventer tied to the bow to stop it going back onto the mast. There is a line to hold it at the right height and the third line that makes it work is the sheet from the sail, which is a dedicated line in the bag with the sail. This headsail has a small fuller, which has been a bit problematic but attaches to the stainless on the bow well. It is then a question of using our red port spinnaker line to hail up the sail. This was a lesson taught in Vigo, the red line comes from forward of the mast so it isn’t blocked by anything else so we shouldn’t find it chaffing as we did with our starboard green spinnaker line. We run it all the way to the stern onto a turning block before it goes to the big sheet winches. Port side done, it is time to pole out the main headsail using the boom. I have a new block for the boom and one of the soft shackles created by the fantastic rigger in Vigo from the core from our repaired lines. This keeps the block clear of everything and hopefully resolves the secondary chafing issue we had in Biscay. This is all quite complicated as we again need a preventer to the bow to stop the boom going backwards, we have the main sheet, which will stop it going forward and of course the topping lift for height. In amongst all this is the sheet for the sail which turns from the boom, to the deck and then into the starboard winch. As you are threading all of this together you are trying your best to make sure you thread it properly – and of course you never do! But eventually we get it so that all lines are clear of each other. Getting the boom out without a sail out is much more difficult than we remember, maybe worth having the sail out to start with rather than me having to push it while Maria tightens the preventer. It takes some time, we are taking our time and checking our steps but the wind is nowhere near the twenty odd knots we had in Biscay four years ago. By the afternoon, the lack of wind is causing problems, as we roll with the sea, the wind falls out of the sails – and Maria does not like a flappy sail. Our solution is to stick with our second headsail which is in the port side getting the wind and roll away our standard headsail. We can then get the main out on the other side and hopefully catch the wind quite well. Later in the afternoon, it gets worse when the wind drops to very little and we have batteries that need charging so it is on with the big iron sail and off we go. While we wait for the batteries to get up to a healthy level, the wind has shifted slightly to the North and strengthened so once again we live in hope that once the charging is complete, we can sail as we would like.
We are now about half way having made reasonable progress but not great time of 130 miles on day one and 145 miles on day 2, fingers crossed for day 3.
The good news, as go into our third night at sea is, for the moment, we have a good wind. Even after charging the batteries by running the engine, we only lost a knot or two switching the engine off and we continue at 7.5-8 knots, let’s hope this spells a change in our weather luck. {probably read forward three paragraphs to get the answer to that!}.
We are reverting to our normal watch system as Maria gets some rest straight after dinner, I’ll be on watch until 10pm and will get a couple of hours rest before taking on the post midnight watch. When Maria wakes before dawn, she will take over and I will get some more rest. Friday seems to be a particularly hard work day for me as everyone tries to get things done before the weekend so it looks like I will be below deck for several hours tomorrow which of course puts more pressure on Maria for looking after the boat. So her rest is important.
Who needs to wait for any update on the weather. Thirty minutes later, and a lot less than three paragraphs, and the gusts are gone and the wind strength is down to 11-12 knot region. Going into night that is probably preferable so you are safe but our speed has cut down to 6 knots. A long night beckons. The moon is up and closing on full and bright but tonight for the first time there is a lot of cloud. We are currently 78 miles from shore so there is no chance of seeing land but on the horizon appears to be a string of white lights. I think these are caused by the reflection of the moon on the waves but happy to be corrected. We are past Casablanca so it will be interesting to see if this is a common phenomenon or some completely made up junk by my poorly mind. Some things to throw in the pot, we could only see it for about five minutes, there was no glow in the sky that you get around a big city covered in cloud, even when we went to mountainous Montenegro, we would only see land about thirty miles away and finally I don’t think we’re that far away when I saw the “famous” cruise ship – Rock of Gibraltar! Oh and the light is right under where the moon is. A little later the clouds part and we can see the moon, we can also see similar “lights” on the water closer to us – so anyone wanting to correct me will have to do a lot better than Charlie the ChatGPT, a close personal friend of Maria by the way… 🙂
I have had my two hours rest with the odd interruption and Maria has been diligently following the wind which is sending us a bit westward. This was deliberate to help me sleep but as we swap we need to change that and get back onto a course that gets us closer to Lanzarote. It takes about half an hour to unpick the main so we can get across the boat and set it up effectively on the other side. Our course is pretty much directly at Lanzarote which is great and 90% of the time we run beautifully. Then some large rogue waves hit us and the boat sways from side to side removing the wind from the sails and causing them to flap… and we all know Maria’s view on that. After another half hour of constant tuning I am able to find a line that balances the wind direction with the waves including the ones that come in from a different angle. It is then that Maria is comfortable to go to sleep.
As I have said Friday is a busy day for me and i need Maria to be rested or my calls and work will be a disaster. So she will now get four hours of sleep to hopefully set her up for the day. I let her sleep in until 4:30 but she hasn’t had a great rest and isn’t a happy bunny. I lay down to some sleep but the balancing of the sails is tricky and Maria is struggling so the sails are flapping and she is swearing. Not a combination conducive to sleep. Over the next few hours I mix trying to get some sleep with adjusting the course to match the waves – this has been tricky since there seems to be waves coming in from multiple directions. When one hits the side on we get caught in a roll taking the wind out of the sails, making them flap and Maria angry again.
The day progresses, I do some work and we make some progress towards Lanzarote. There is very little to report, what shipping there is seems to have heard we are a plague ship and are taking the long way round so we occasionally see ships on the horizon but that’s it. As we finish our third set of 24 hours, we have recorded a much more respectable 169 miles but of course some of this would have been on engine as we charged our batteries.
During the afternoon, we have run the engines again to keep the batteries topped up, worked out that the engine room fan seems to use a lot of power, somewhat undermining the charging – it ran for eight hours after the engine stopped so I will adjust the thermostat again. Towards, the end of the afternoon, I switch the engine off and we start to get some sail out. We haven’t done much when some dolphins appear right next to us. They are part of a pod of about 30 dolphins that stay with us for about 15 minutes playing and swimming around. As they go off it looks like they are feeding but it is enough to lighten the mood. As we return to the cockpit, the wind is low and variable. Maria is tired, not feeling well and just wants to get there so we put the engine on for more time until the wind hopefully arrives later in the day.
After several days, we have decided that we can’t keep on not eating and Maria has prepared a cottage pie and vegetables for us – let’s hope that “lands” well!
In the early evening , the wind starts to pick up so I get the main and staysail out since it is slightly astern but partially on our beam, nice if it stays and strengthens a bit. We can motor sail for a bit and get Maria happier we are closer to our destination. It seems sensible to just get in we are both ill, sleep deprived and in need of a good rest. If we can get in and have a solid sleep on Saturday night we will set ourselves up hopefully.
Originally I had planned to follow our usual watch system but this is ruined by me putting my head down for five minutes and waking up two hours later. Maria let me sleep but is herself shattered so I persuade her to take some rest and we will adapt our schedule.
Unfortunately every night through the med and on this trip, at a certain point in the evening, we are subjected to idiots playing on channel 16. This is the calling channel on VHF where you initiate contact with other ships and authorities and is key to good communication between ships. We have idiots pretending to be cats, playing music and singing. This is exacerbated for us because there are two of us and you could be required at any time, so we are sleeping in the cockpit. Turning the radio off means anyone hailing you won’t get through. It is beyond frustrating what these people are doing, I assume because of boredom. That said, most boats are on AIS and there isn’t anything within thirty miles of us. It doesn’t stop us having to keep a sharp watch though, especially for fishing boats that may have switched theirs off to preserve the privacy of their fishing grounds. Today there aren’t even any of those.
At 11pm you have it – the ARC requirement for a 500 nautical mile qualification passage in the twelve months prior to the ARC is achieved. Arguably we had already done it but there can be no questioning this now!.
Thankfully Maria has a long rest and for the rest of the night it will be two hour watches. Maria laughs that I go out like a light when I’m off watch and she takes some time to settle – which is also part of the reason I want her to have longer breaks. Anyway sailing wise, we are still motor sailing and will arrive in Lanzarote late on Saturday evening. The swell is still not good and the wind hasn’t picked up much which of course still gives us the problem we raised before of the sails flapping as we roll. My solution is to stop downwind sailing and trying to find that sweet spot of wind and waves. We will sail across more on a broad reach, gaining speed and cutting through the waves. This works well and for quite some time as we head over to a point above Lanzarote, we are really going well. While I am down on my break, there is a wind shift which means Maria needs to alter course a little more and when I return I have to adjust a little more but we are still doing well. At 6am when I finish this watch we will take in our staysail and start heading towards the Eastern coast of Lanzarote.
Before midday we see our first sight of land, one of the small islands to the north of Lanzarote. 12 miles out and Starlink and our phones kick back into life without using ocean mode on Starlink. That’s good. We are motoring now. We have about 10 knots of wind directly behind and a reasonably big swell that just causes the sails problems if we head direct. We have decided now is no time to play and we will just make our way into port.
We can now properly see land but of course everything seems to slow down when you get to the end of the trip. Lanzarote is about the same size as corfu so 30+ miles long but of course in a sailing yacht that still takes a few hours to do. We are past Arricefe quite quickly dodging ships and negotiating anchored cargo ships. As we get to the south of the island we turn sharply towards the port.
The team at Rubicón marina are very efficient and friendly and we tie up under the bar at the entrance, a perfect spectator spot to see people mess it up – not today, Maria brings Mariadz in beautifully, elegant and slow. One of our audience feels they have to get up and come over to tell us how beautiful Mariadz is, that was nice and you can see Mariadz sitting there looking gorgeous even if she is dirty after five days at sea. We check in to the marina but apparently the police don’t work weekends so we will need to pop in to their office on Monday to finalise the admin. The guys tell us we have a prime berth on the other side of the marina designed for 40m boats. As we get Mariadz in and settled she has lots of room and funnily enough our neighbours are another ARC boat who are part of the cruising association and we had been speaking to earlier in the day . Oh dear this could get messy!
