22/12/2019


 Wish you all a very MERRY Christmas 

We'll be back on the blog in January
Grete & Geir

10/12/2019

Gran Tarajal to Marina Rubicon

We are "still alive"..

We left Gran Tarajal and sailed up to the small marina in Caleta del Fuste,
also named Puerto Castillo.

Our sailing route



We had a great mooring, longside at the end of the pontoon.


Moored in Puerto Castillo

Nice warm clean seawater and we could have a swim from the aft end the boat.
It is a very touristic area with mostly people from the UK. And at least 2 norwegians.
We really enjoyed the local restaurants which had great food.

Great restaurant in Puerto Castillo

We continued after a few days to Marina Rubicon at Playa Blanca at the Island of Lanzarote.

Marina Rubicon

We are having a longer stay in here preparing for our next voyage which will be
from the Canary islands to Cape Verde and accross the Atlantic to NE Brazil.
Our plan is to depart 2nd half of January after the boat has been out of the water to be cleaned and
given new antifouling. Travel/health insurance and insurance for the boat became an issue, but we managed to get that sorted out for an acceptable price.

Charts and satellite comms are on order. Provisions, water, cooking gas and fuel will be
purchased when calling at Las Palmas prior to the depature.
After Las Palmas we are visiting Puerto Rico - to meet friends for dinner. Next day we cross fingers for fair winds and great conditions for our departure.


27/11/2019

Puerto de Mogan to Fuerteventura

After 8 days in Puerto de Mogan it was time to leave. We filled up with diesel and left at 09:30 AM.

Leaving Puerto de Mogan
As we feel December is coming closer it's time to make our way towards Playa Blanca on Island of Lanzarote. We have decided to go around the south and up the east coast of the Island of Fuerteventura.

The first strech from P.Mogan was to an anchorage on the south side of Fuerteventura.
The trip took us along the south/southwest coast of Gran Canaria where we passed all
the most popular holiday resorts on the island. Puerto Rico, Anfi del Mar, Argineguin, Maspalomas, Palaya Ingles, San Augustin...
Maspalomas
 We anchored at Giniginamar at sunrise saturday morning - in a nice cove sheltered to W-N-E after 22 hrs on half speed sailing/motoring.  Giniginamar is a small hamlet with a few residents and a couple of small hotels and holiday flats.
Giniginamar

Grete's delicious pizza ! Saturday night snack.
We never made it ashore as the beach looked rocky and we didn't want to mess up the hull of our RIB. (GRP) But we had a relaxing 2 days there. Second night became a bit rolly as the wind increased from the north coming down the valley and out to the anchorage and turned the boat sideways to incoming waves.

So we lifted anchor at 9PM monday morning and motored to the town of Gran Tarajal, where there is a good marina. Long fingerpontoons and not much drag from the ocean outside. The services were OK as we had both shore power and fresh water. But the toilets and showers were out of order.
At least when we arrived.
Mooring at Gran Tarajal
Nice in a calm marina
Ran out of coold beer !
Sea side of Gran Tarajal
 The weather is excellent. 20-25 at daytime and 15-20 during the night.
Wind calms down in the evening and increases around noon.
There are a number of foreign boats here. French, German, UK, Belgian, Swedish and our selves ;)
The town center is nearby. 10 minutes walk and it's very quiet here at night time.
There are a couple of good supermarkets here and many small restaurants along the seaside.

As we are leaving at first light on Friday I went to do the checkout today.
Pleasantly surprised. 4 days stay for just 51 Euro.

Our plan is to leave from here for Puerto Castillo - about 15nm up the coast - on Friday.
Then to Puerto del Rosario and finally to Playa Blanca, Lanzarote.
Our planned trips (Red, green and yellow)


16/11/2019

Santa Cruz, Tenerife to Puerto de Mogan, Gran Canaria

We arrived in Santa Cruz, Tenerife Sunday the 3rd Nov.

The wind was blowing at near gale force and without a working bow thruster the approach and entering a narrow berth was difficult. In such cicumstances using speed is the best way to keep you on track. We got in OK and got the thumbs up from the Marinero who was there to meet us.

Marina Santa Cruz
The Marina is on the northern end of the old port and has good draft and solid finger pontoons.
But thats about all good to be said. The area is very noisy.
Immediately to the north of the marina is the ferry terminal in/out of Tenerife and also the cruise terrminal, where up to 5 large cruise ships were moored. As none of them were on shore power the rumble of diesel generators went on all night. At daytime containers and trucks were moved around with a constant beep-beep as they reversed.

Our pontoon was a bit of walk from the Marina office and facilities building. The toilet and shower facilities was poor. Only 2 toilets in the men's room was working. Showers was crampt and dirty.
There was a laundry, but only one of 3 machine was working.
The pontoon had a faulty electricity net and the main fuse for the entire pontoon tripped seval times a day. There was a wifi system, but you had to buy airtime. Problem was, it was very unreliable,
as the accesspoint kept dropping out and the lease time was very short.

The Marina is right in the town center and we went for walks and some shopping.
We also took the tram up to the old town of La Laguna. It was the old provincial capital for many years and it has many houses that dates back to the 1500's. Now, the area and many of those houses sadly had turned to be a tourist trap with high end brand stores on the groundfloor.
La Laguna

From bell tower of local church
During our stay in Santa Cruz the wind was pretty strong as it accelerates down between the islands.
After 11 days the weather finally gave us an oportunity to sail accross to GranCanary island.
We departed at 0530 Thursday the 14th November for a 9 hr crossing to Puerto de Mogan.
The sea was very rolly with waves up to 2 meters and swell 3-4 meters.
It setteled a bit as we reach deeper water an hour off the coast.
Wind was NE 10-15 kts when we left but increased to 25-30 half way accross. As we got close to GC we got in lee from the NE wind and withing one minute the wind dropped from 20 to less than 5 knots.


Puerto de Mogan a busy tourist area

Harbour inlet and port controll building

We arrived Puerto de Mogan at 1500 and was directed to berth space on the pontoon on the inside of the southern break water.

Mooring "med-style" using Lazy lines.

Great to be in a nice marina


It's a good marina. Calm and quiet. Very good to get a good night sleep again.
We will stay here for at least a week.

Mogan is a very popular tourist place and we could here Norwegian and Swedish spoken all the time in the restaurant area. Friday was market day here and lots of stands all along the piers and in town.

05/11/2019

Calheta, Madeira to Tenerife

Our sail from Funchal to Calheta took us 4 hours.
Calheta has a nice marina, but the berth we got was a bit on the lively side being hampered by swell that enters the marina.

We moored with strong ropes that was fitted with rubber shock dampers - but even so we were woken up as the boat was struggelig when the swell got too rough.
After the first night 2 of 4 absorbers had snapped in half, next day one more broke.
We got so fed up, we put on some more ropes, left the boat and found refuge at Calheta Beach hotel just 100m from the marina.
The hotel seen from the boat at the marina
 We were lucky and got a nice airconditioned room - all inclusive - for 92 Euros per night through bookings.com. Asking for a room at the reception the wanted 140 Euro a night, and they were very surprised when we showed them the price we paid via bookings.com :)
All inclusive ment 4 meals a day (large buffets) free drinks and free bar. To us this was a holiday away from our holiday.
And the bar WAS FREE !
Grete testing the pool
The morning we checked into the hotell we went on a tour that took us on a 6km walk on one of the islands famous levadas.  The levadas are watering canals that leads rain water from the northern/rainy side of the island down to the south side.
They are built and maintained by the local government and users must pay for the time water is used.
Waiting for the "Levada bus"
It was a great - and easy walk - and a guide with a lot of history to tell.
Nice cool quiet stops

Walks took us behind peoples garden walls.


Nov. 1st we returned to the boat, got all ship-shape for our 265 nautical miles sail to Tenerife.
We filled up with fresh water and diesel and departed at 11:30 AM.
Leaving Madeira for Tenerife.
 Just a light wind and we motored the first 24 hrs. We got a bit of wind the next day and was able to turn of the engine and get som peace and quiet. Had a few radio contacts with Hams in Norway. Contacts is best when out to sea. When in Marinas we get too much local noise to hear weak stations.

We arrived Santa Cruz, Tenerife in the afternoon the 3rd November after 46 hrs sailing.
We are in a large marina - but its calm here (no swell) but in the afternoon the wind picks up.

Marina Santa Cruz

So mooring lines must be securely fastened.

Looks like we might have to stay here a few days, as the weatherforecast predicts high winds.
We want to sail to the south part of Tenerife and anchor at Los Christianos and from there it's a short passage over to the island of La Gomera.

28/10/2019

Funchal - Madeira Grande

We left Porto Santo the 23rd for Madeira. We first intended to anchor at Machico. But there was work being done at the breakwater and Madeira airport runway ended just beside the anchorage. So we continued to Funchal. Arriving one day early they were kind and gave us a good berth.

We have been sightseeing eating and shopping. Done some work on the boat. Unblocked the sink  in the galley and replaced a diode in the solar panel/windgenerator circuit.

We had an exciting trip on the cable car up the mountain to the tropical garden.
Have a look at the video on Youtube:   https://youtu.be/7SfjbRez7oQ

And here is a few pictures too.
Grete relaxing after a hard trip up the mountain.

Tropical garden, waterfeatures

Fluids in large quantities is imperative in temps like theese...

On our way down the mountain

Tomorrow we sail 15nm to the small port of Cahleta.
We will stay there in till Friday. On Wednesday we are going for a 6hr walk on the "Levadas"
We will be arriving the Marina at Santa Cruz, Tennerife Sunday afternoon.

Will try to be on HF radio for SSB and CW on 14328 at 1900z.

21/10/2019

Still in Porto Santo

We are still in Porto Santo. We love this island for it quiet and relaxed athmosphere.

Today we rented a car and went exploring. On the higher peaks there were some nice viewpoints.
Here is one of them overlooking the port and the marina we are in.
We zoomed in to get a look on "Ocean Viking" resting at the pontoon.
The north side of the island was clearly marked by earlier volcanic terrain.
There were more birds there, a few trees (almost a forest) and a thin layer of vegetation.
Grete spotted a few hawks (not shure what kind) that hung in the air looking for preys...
Even got close to one sitting on a fensepost at the airport, that didn't mind being photographed
View from one of the Pico's showing the airport and out towards the west.
You should be able to see the main island, Madeira Grande in the horizon.
Our plan is to depart from Porto Santo on Wednesday towards Madeira Grande.
There are a couple of anchorages/marinas we might try - before we arrive in the main town of Funchal. Will write more later.  Cheers to you all !

PS. Have had regular contacts on 14.328 (shortwave radio) at 1700Z with Leif/LA3ZH and Alf/LA1ZM) But as there is lots of local noise in Porto Santo Marina I havn't heard anyone else
calling.

08/10/2019

Radio sked times

The past week condx to Norway on 20m HAM radio has been from fantastic to poor. I will be on 14328 (14333 if QRM) at 1700UTC. However we are at anchor in Porto Santo with hills shielding to N.Europe. Try listen via SDR receivers online. Many of them to be found at SDR.HU

06/10/2019

Cascais to Porto Santo

We are approaching the Island of Porto Santo in the Madeira Archipelago.
We should be in Porto Santo Marina in a couple of hours.
Porto Santo - land ahoi !
 We left Cascais near Lisboa at 1100 the 2nd of October to sail 480 nm to PS.
This has so far been our longest crossing. Weather has been very nice, a bit too nice as we have had to motorsail much of the time. We have been supplied by weatherforecast by Geir's radio friend Leif/LA3ZH via Winlink/Pactor on the HF radio.

Beeing a low traffic area it has been possible to risk longer sleeping periods between lookouts. 
Radar and AIS makes it possible to spot other vessels. The water is too deep for fisheries.

But we were paid a visit by these guys:


We were a bit concerned that no officials asked our next port of call or dep/arr times.
We tried to call Portugese radio stations or coastguard on VHF while we were withing range, but got no reply.
We ended up phoneing MRCC Lisboa who gladly registred our sail plan and we agreed we'd call them back then arriving at Porto Santo.
When we were within cellphone range from PS - Sunday morning they had already tried to phone us Twice.
Phoned them back and thanked them for their vigilancy and concern.

Grete has served very nice dinners on the way. Twice Indian caserolle and Saturday we had this nice pasta bolognaise.
Home made Bolognaise and a small glass of red ;)

30/09/2019

Vigo to Cascais

We decided to push on from Vigo directly to Cascais near Liboa. We really want to get to warmer waters soon. After we had departed Vigo we slowly discovered that our new toilet setup wasn't working at all. Solids would not come out, fluids would - but very slow. As the weather window was limited we decided to push on.
In spite of the poor toilett conditions we had a great trip south. Wind from 5 to 15 knots and we had to use the metal genoa when speed got too slow. The 48 hour trip was eventless, but we had a couple of meetings with other vessels that made the trip a bit more fun.

Costa Mediterranea 





As we crossed the border to Portugal the Spanish courtesy flag was replaced with the Potugese.


This fishisng boat wanted to have a look at us and passed close by.


We arrived in Cascais at 0730 Portugese time on Sunday the 29. September.
The next day we got started checking the toilet problem. The hose on the exit of the toilet was packed solid with salt/stone recidues.  Banging the hose on the pontoon and flushing it with water cleaned it up and it was reainstalled. Now it all works as it should. We spent one day at the marina, but as the berthing fee is rather high we left and anchored just outside.


We are discussing where to sail next. The weather is fine to proceed for a 4 day trip to Porto Santo and Madeira.

Muros to Vigo

Long overdue on the blog updates.

We had 3 nights in Muros. Waited on weather to go south to next destinations..
We had two nights in the marina with very high winds and heavy rain showers.

Our electrical toilet is about to stop working and we need to get it fixed.
We would like to have it done by a mechanic and have found a marina in Vigo that will do the job.
We think it may be enough to replace the electric pump-out with a manual one.
We purchased a manual pump conversion kit when in Falmouth, for later installation.
The electric pump draws 20 Amps and being on a boat every Amp saved is important.



We left for Vigo at 10AM to sail the 70 miles to Vigo. We had some wind from the west and we motorsailed most of the time arriving Marina Davila Sport in Vigo just as the sun set.
The next morning Javier from the marina boatyard came onboard for a look at the job.
He said it would be an easy job which would be done the next day.

Thursday we got a taxi to a large supermarket in Vigo and bought provisions the will last us a few days. Outside the supermarked was this big fishingboat put on display several km's inland.
It's clear to see Vigo is proud of it's inheretants of being a big fishery port.


Same afternoon the mechanic appeared and got to work. He was very efficient and the toilet was in place with a manual pump. We left Vigo the next morning (Friday, after having filled up 100L of diesel. Our destination would now be Cascais near Lisboa in Portugal.
Distance 240 nautical miles and 48 hrs of sailing.


21/09/2019

La Coruna to Camarinas, Finnisterre & Muros

We left La Coruna to go south along the Atlantic coast on Wenesday morning.
Ocean Viking in Marina Coruna (center)
Weather was fine but even if the wind was from the NE it was too light to be of any help.
Once again our green metal genoa had to be put to work.
As we motored on our way towards the anchorage for the night in the little town of Camarinas, we sailed into dense fog. We have a good radar and it was started. Most ships/boats today are equiped with an AIS (Automitic Identification System) which makes boat visible on chartplotters.
But there are exceptions and we met a few of them. One of them was this fisherman.
We saw him on the radar - but he wasn't paying attention to his radar and kept coming at us.
As you will see he spotted us just 5/10 seconds before we would have crashed.



We arrived Camarinas and anchored just before darknes.
There were a few other boats anchored there aswell. German, Dutch, Danish, French.
At anchor in Camarinas
 When we woke up the next morning visibility was ZERO. We waited untill midday when the fog lifted slightly and we were on our way this time to sail past Cape Finnisterre and to Muros, our next anchorage. Also this time motoring as there was no wind. We passed Finnisterre and the sea was dead calm.
Cape Finnisterre capped by fog.
 We arrived Muros at sunset and anchored just outside the marina in 9m.
First Mate relaxing after anchoring
As the weatherforecast predicted strong wind and lots of rain, we decided to go into the marina the next day and wait it out.
Saturday morning the wind got up to 35-40 knots and the boats in the marina realy moved from the wind coming down the mountainside.
Muros is a small town, but nice and quiet. There are many yachts here, 3 of them Norwegian.
Muros seen from the anchorage
Looks like we will be stuck here untill Tuesday.