It’s been a nice few days in the Rubicón marina in Lanzarote. We have met half the crew of Seahorse, a Hanse 588, and that was lovely – can’t wait to meet her better half…
We have booked for the lift out in southern Gran Canaria so that we can service the Brompton auto prop and also get the engine serviced which has done 300 hours this season already as we have travelled 2,500 miles. Our lift out is scheduled for Friday morning and so we are keen to arrive before the end of Thursday. To that end, with a reasonable north easterly predicted, pretty much the prevailing wind, we decide to set off at 3am. We want to be quiet so as not to disturb our neighbours and Maria brings us out slowly with minimal use of the bow thruster. It is pitch black and usually we are not fans of going in or out of new marinas in the dark. I am on deck keeping a watchful eye and Maria is keeping an eye on the course she added into the plotter which she knows is safe. Safe except for the brightly coloured catamaran that has anchored across the entrance of the marina! They have their anchor light on and I can see them well but it was an unnecessary complication on our exit. We are out and clear, lines and fenders are in.
The route to Gran Canaria is pretty simple, once you have cleared the north coast of Fuerteventura, it is pretty much straight south west for 100 miles! There doesn’t seem to be much shipping after a high speed ferry goes past as we leave.
We are making good progress motor sailing under main. It is dark and we still need to get some rest so we will just keep everything simple until daylight. As it is, we are cracking along at 7.5 to 8 knots and our eta is looking good. The wind is starting to veer a little to the East so some minor course corrections keep us going in the right kind of direction whilst keeping the wind in the sail.
Maria is first to get some rest, I will need to do the same before 9am when I will start work. Not a busy day today but a few meetings I need to attend. Maria takes a little time to settle but I am hopeful she will get a few hours after a disturbed night when she couldn’t get comfortable.
We are probably going to motor sail for the day because we have 120 miles to go and are a little concerned about arriving after nightfall. The wind will steadily be building during the day but our marina is in the islands wind shadow today so we should be fine when we get there. As we follow the western coast of Fuerteventura down , we will need to cross another Traffic Separation Scheme. Overnight it has been really quiet but now there seem to be more big ships, typical! Not as busy as the Gibraltar Straights but still will require us to do a little frogged moves as we skip across the lanes. The wind has shifted slightly and we can adjust our course a little too which puts us on a starboard tack with main and staysail out. The wind is almost behind us and we think our large headsail would just get blocked. We are still surfing along at over eight knots though 🙂
I head in to the TSS and aim for the first of two cargo ships. My plan being that neither gets within a mile of us, it means we cross the path of the second faster ship but no one should be inconvenienced. Once again I try to call up the MSC ship to inform them of my intentions. The AIS system is great but it can only predict based on what you are doing and not on your intentions. My intention includes a turn to starboard to cross the TSS. Once again I get no answer from the cargo ship 😦 AIS is great though because the information it gives you really helps when doing these manoeuvres. We are safely through and the other “lane” is almost completely free apart from a ship that will go past us and miss us by two and a half miles. As we get through the TSS, it is back on course to head to the south of Gran Canaria. It is a little hazy but we can see the vague ominous outline of the island and so we are back into the hours thinking you are almost there!
The wind has started to pick up so our chances of making land in daylight have improved. We were always looking pretty good for time but since crossing the TSS the wind has picked up. We have tunes the sails and are now almost touching ten knots at times. We are still motor sailing though. We have just decided that arriving in daylight is really important. It’s now nearly 5:30 and we have 13.5 miles remaining. Last night it was still twilight at 8pm so I am confident we have done it. For the last 10-15 miles we are sailing and still cracking a long at a good speed in wind speeds in excess of 20-25 knots. Lovely! As we continue to plough on we can see some disturbed sea up ahead and is worried it could be rocks. The chart is clear that we are in deeper water. As we get into the area, the reason becomes clear, the wind is very gentle and in a completely opposite direction. Fortunately we have already put the sails away and we are on final approach with another hour of daylight remaining.
Tonight we will go on the fuel pontoon, guess we may as well as take advantage of that before Mariadz gets lifted for an important service to the prop, it has excessive movement in it so I have bought the full service kit. That is a job for tomorrow.
And now for a beer!
