Las Palmas to Puerto Mogan

 We have had some relaxed days in Las Palmas.  Frequented Sailors Bay for cold beers and snacks. Bought deck paint and a few Christmas presents. But as mixing with too much people is risky business, we try to keep to ourselves as much as possible. 

Las Palmas to Puerto Mogan

 

We departed LP in the morning on the 30th November to sail south to Amfi Del Mar, where we plan to anchor for one night. We had great wind from the NE that veered to East as we got further south and at times we did 8+ knots SOG. Then as we passed Maspalomas the wind dropped as at a flick of a switch.

From fresh breeze to no wind in less than a minute.

 

We motored the last we miles to the anchorage right in front of the Radisson Hotel in Alfas Del Pi. The anchorage had very good holding and there were very little swell or waves. We will definitely come back to this place later on. 

 

 

Breakfast at anchor in Amfi Del mar

 Our main sail is becoming more of a problem. Looks like it’s pretty worn out and has lost it’s shape. We have done many repairs and we just discovered another tear in one of the seems.  We will have to decide what to do during our 3 months stay in Puerto Mogán.

December 1st we motored the remaining 5 nm up to Puerto Mogán where we will spend 3 months at the marina. 

 

Marina at Puerto Mogan

The place is mainly a tourist town built around the small beach and the next door marina. The marina is quite small, but well sheltered from wind, waves and swell. 

Puerto Mogan is a very cozy and scienic village.

 There are many small restaurants and shops all along the marina. But even so it gets quiet by 10 or 11PM.  There are boats with live-aboard s from many nations.

 

Our closest neighbour has XMAS decorations in place.

We will be wintering here in Puerto Mogan untill 1st of March. We then plan to visit other islands here in the Canaries and continue north to Madeira, then the Azores islands in April.

Fuerteventura to Las Palmas

Geir managed to get a bad cold while in Gran Tarajal. 

Our sail to Las Palmas therefore got postponed a few days. 

The past week things was pretty dramatic at times here. Just accross from our berth the local coastguard has their station. They have been out 3 times this week resquing migrants coming over on overloaded boats from Morocco. The weather has been nice with calm winds and thats when the migrants come. 

 

Migrants at the Red Cross station

When they arrive they are met by Red Cross on the quay for registration and heslth checks.  They get bussed off to camps where their requests for assylum will be processed.

Most of them are sent to Spanish mainland or returned to their homeland.

We finally got underway to Las Palmas. We departed from Gran Tarajal late friday (19.11) and sailed over night the 78 NM to Las Palmas. We arrived saturday at sunrise. 

We anchored just north of the marina. We were promissed a berth in the marina from monday - as by then the fleet of 150+ sailboats taking part of the ARC race had departed.  At one point wind picked up and we and a few other boats dragged the anchor. We did a couple of new anchoring attempts in a less  exposed part of the anchorage and found good holding. We slept peacefully the next two nights. 

 

Alcaravaneras - anchorage, Las Palmas

No - that’s not Santa

 

Monday morning Geir went into the marina office where a long queue already had developed.

After 45 minutes we had received a berth and paid to stay for the next 8 days.

Back out to the boat, dinghy & motor up on deck and we sailed into our berth.

We will stay here the next days and sail straight from here to our "winter-berth" in Puerto Mogan.

Our berth is located right by Sailors bar, toiletts/showers and a coin laundrette.

So were finally couldhave all our clothes washed. 

 

 

We have had visits from our friend Per - LA7FAA - who is visiting Las Palmas to survey a boat 

he is interrested in buying. It looks like the deal might come through for him, but he says there is lots of "Red tape" when buying a boat with a Spanish flag.

Great meeting Per, LA7FAA, here at Sailors Bar

Have had a few radio skeds up to Norway around 0930Z on 18.141. Very variable conditions.

While we are in the marina even worse conditions.

Lanzarote to Furteventura

 After 7 days in Marina Rubicon we filled up water and diesel tanks left the the 8. November.
We motored just a short distance over to Playa Papagayo where we anchored for a few days.

Playa Papagayo

After a week at anchor we set sail southwards to the "capital" of the island of Fuerteventura,
Puerto Del Rosario. We had tried to book a berth in the marina by email and phone, but had no response at all. When we arrived we were welcomed by the harbour police and they offered us several vacant berths in the marina.

Approach Puert Del Rosario

Well moored in the marina

 We spent 2 days in the marina and did some shopping and filled up our water tanks.

The port was nice and resonably quiet, being in the town center. We paid 20 Euros a night
for the berth incl water and electricity. There was no WiFi and no showers.
But we are lucky to have a boat with a good shower both indoor and at the bathing platform on the stern. As we left Rosiario we passed this nice sailing cruise vessel.

Sailing cruice vessel

Departing Puerto Del Rosario

From Rosario we sailed 4 hours sothwards to the town of Gran Tarajal where we anchored the first night. The anchorage turned out to be pretty rolly and we didn't get much sleep through the night.
So the next day we went into the harbour marina. Again we were offered several berths and we found one well sheltered and a place very quiet, we slept like loggs the next nights.

Gran Tarajal anchorage

Gran Tarajal marina

 

The rates here at Gran Tarajal is very low. 13 Euros a night for our 12m long boat. And thats incl.
water and electricity. There are toilets and showers here, but no WiFi. But 4G signal is good.
Our intention was to sail onwards to the next port of Morro Jable, but again we have had no response
when trying to book a berth. So we decided to remain here until monday afternoon.

The plan is then to depart for Las Palmas. It's a 15 hour sail.
We have to anchor there, as the marina will be open only for the boats participating in the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers).
We are stopping there to meet our friend Lars Hedman who is there with his boat Sandvita.

 

Maderia to Canary islands

Our first destination at the Canary islands was ment to be the Island of Graciosa. The island is located to the north of Lazarote and has a very nice anchorage on the south side. Again Richardo "came to our rescue" telling us we need to have a permisson to anchor there and that you needed minimum 10 days of handling time. So Graciosa was "out" for our part this time. We might try to go back up there later.

 

We then tried to book berths in alternative marinas, but they were all full. We phoned Marina Rubicon located in south Lanzarote. Initiately they were full. We said that was too bad, as we had been there before and would love to come back. Well, a few hours later we had an email saying we were welcome to come and stay for a week. 

We left QuitaDoLorde just before noon 22nd October for 280nm sail to Lanzarote. We had a good berth from ENE mostly 15-20 knots. Waveheight from 1.5 to 3 meters into our port side. We motorsailed with reefed sails and the electronic autopilot during the night in order toa get some sleep and using more sails and the Hydrovane during daytime. 

Being one day early we anchored at Playa Mujeres in the afternoon the 24th, just east of Marina Rubicon. It was a very nice anchorage that we want to return to after a week at the marina. 

We had a great welcome in Rubicon and were directed to a good berth at the L-Pontoon. We might have to switch to another one in a few days as this one is mainly used for catamarans. 

Marina Rubicon, Lanzarote

Another picture from Marina Rubicon

 

Happy boaters  😉

Leaving Porto Santo for Madeira - complications

After a month in Porto Santo we got ready to leave. Visited the marina office and paid 122 Euro, which is a very cheap rate. We wanted to spend the last day at anchor at the beach outside the port. 

When trying to lift the anchor we discovered it had got tangled up in a nearby mooring and we had no luck trying to untangle it. 

We had two neighbouring yachts, with Gio on catamaran Buzio One and Richardo on Catxito a Benetau 58. Both rushed to assistance. Richardo an experienced free diver and he managed to uncouple the mooring from the bottom slab. We then lifted the whole mooring and our anchor chain into our dinghy and got it all untangled. After we lowered the mooring again and Richardo went down 7m and connected the mooring back onbthe concrete slab. 

 We thanked them both our fullest, but they both said they saw it as a fun challenge and a welcome break for a quiet de at anchor. So we finally could lift our anchor and go outside to anchor at the beach. We both had a good swim and a good dinner before going to bed. 

The next morning we set sail for Madeira. We had an email from QuintaDoLorde marina welcoming us the stay there a few days. We thanked them and later the same day we had an email from Funchal marina, saying they had a space for us, but we would have to raft up on the outside of other boats. We thanked them - no, first of all as rafting up is a hassle with ropes, fenders, risk of moves and difficult going ashore. In addition we have plans to visit there in april. Besides going to QuitaDoLorde was very nice as we had purchased a new propellor and a maintenance kit for our dinghy outboard. The Suzuki dealer wasn't far from there.

Quinta Do Lorde marina

 

We arrived the marina in the afternoon. Its just 6 hours sail from Porto Santo. The marina and the area around is a tourist complex looking very nice, but they had gone bankrupt and there wasn't much activity there. But Captains bar had cold beer and we had a decent burger meal there.

Your's truely at the Captains bar

 

Tomas from Suzuki came down to see us bringing the new propellor and the maintanance kit. Our old propellor was no use at the safety rubber had broken and it would only give us slow speed. 

We had also discovered the battery for our shortwave radio had broke down. One of the cells was'nt working. We visited the local chandler - and what do you know - he had just got in 4 used AGM batteries. 3 of them were in perfectly good order. The 4th had a broken cell. The owner had decided to buy Lithiums. They were axactly the same physical size as the old one but 120Ah (even better then the old 100Ah one) I tested them both, and they both charged up to 13.8 VDC. 

On our final day there we met Richardo and his family. They had come to the marina the day before.

Time to leave Porto Santo

we have been at anchor for nearly a month and it's time to leave. There are many yachts this year going south from the Iberian peninsular and most of them sail via Madeira. probably because of fear of being attacked by Orcas. So ports are very busy and finding a free space on a pontoon in marinas is difficult. We are on a waiting list in Funchal, but we have a berth reserved for us at Quinta do Lorde marina, just east of the port of Canical, both located on the eastern tip of Madeira. will be nice to do our laundry, clean the boat inside and outside. Top up batteries.

Arrived in Porto Santo (Madeira)

Finally arrived in Porto Santo. The trip was uneventfull bordering to boring ;) I guess sailing to a destination you have been to before, lowers the challenge and the exitement. The weather enroute was mediokre, wind was a little too light and speed had to be increased using motor at times. Normally we sailed best during daytime and the windvane did all the steering. Night time motorsailing. Surprisingly there was a lot of shipping traffic. And we had to give way twice. So sleeping at the helm was not recommended. Although we did sleep - but in short periods. Arriving at Porto Santo we went straight in to the anchorage inside the breakwater. Lots of boats already anchored there. At our first attempt we did'nt find a good holding and drifted to close to another vessel. We then moved to another spot further north and found good holding and good swing-room. Next contacted the marina and sent them our covid vaccine certificates. They need to be authenticated before we are allowed to come ashore. Hopefully we will do so tomorrow. We have cold beer in the fridge and Grete has prepared a nice dinner for tonight, baccalao. No one makes baccalao as good as she do. We plan to spend a month here - and will start stripping our broken down teak deck. Plan is to get that done and apply Kiwi Grip deck paint. We got hold of paint online and it was sent to us at the marina in Cascais. Grete & Geir

On our way to Porto Santo

We departed Cascais Wednesday afternoon. We had just received a parcell of tools ordered online, filled our tanks with freshwater.
Maintank and 2 jerry cans filled with diesel. Diesel is getting very expensive. 1,65 Euro per litre.

So far we have been sailing and steering by our trusted Hydrovane wind rudder.
It needs correction quite often as it will veer of course slightly. On a longer voyage 1000 nm or more you can accept
drifting of course and longer intervalls between ajdustments. But now our voyage is less than 500nm.
Adjustments at night time gives us less time to rest/sleep. Yes - we do sleep on watch.
Our AIS system is keeping us safe and decides how long sleeping periods we can allow to do.
Usually we have napps of 30minutes or max 2 hours.

So the Hydrovane is used at daytime and the electric autopilot at night time. The autopilot draws from 4-6 Amps,
so in order to maintain the battery capacity we run the engine at just above idle speed. It also helps with a half/one knot extra. Charging is also pretty good from our wind generator and at daytime solar panels.

The weather is perfect. We have winds constantly from the north at 10 to 15 knots, meaning 130 degrees into our starboard side.
Speed is averaging 5.7 knots. Looks like we will arrive Porto Santo early morning on Sunday the 19th.

We are both feeling well and the boat is performing excellent. We have a Danish neightbour 10 miles off our port side.
S/Y Hennessy also bound for Porto Santo.

Grete & Geir

Spennende "innspurt"

Vi er på de siste 25 nautiske milene inn til Cascais. En kjenning ligger i havnen der og

vi pratet på WhatsApp om hvor god ankrings plass det er. Før vi slutter av forteller han at 3 båter ble angrepet igår av spekkhoggere, utenfor byen Sines, like sør for Lisboa. Nå blir vi sittende å bite negler og finkjemme djøen rundt oss - til vi er kommet oss inn og er oppankret. Da har faenskapet flyttet seg nordover fra farvannet utenfor Gibraltar stredet. 

Adrift in Baiona

Monday we did our first trip ashore.

We have been safely anchored for 3 nights and had periods of 15 to 20 knots in the aftetnoons. We went in with our dinghy just before 12AM and went shopping. When we returned almost 2 hours later our boat was adrift. The wind was 10 to 15 knots and was pushing our boat and two others into the bay.

A young guy on a Belgian sailboat that was in the drift path, had just managed to get our boat alongside as we arrived. We soon got control, recovered our anchor and motored back to the anchorage. We sooner learned that a large AMEL sailboat had started to drift as their anchor had been caught on a fishing-pot when they anchored the day before.

Checking the AIS history, it looked like the boat had drifted over our chain and most probably disturbed chain/anchor enough to set our boat adrift. But all in all, no damage. The AMEL and a french catamaran drifted almost accross the bay before they were recovered.  So even if you own boat initially is safe, you are totally dependent that other boats have been properly anchored. 

Baiona

 Baiona is a sheltered small town located WSW of Vigo. It has 2 marinas and a large anchorage. 

We departed Vigo 2nd September and did the 10 miles to Baiona arriving at high water at 2PM.

View af Baiona marinas (Geir & dinghy)

We anchored in 5m water and with a number of other sailing yachts around us.   Even a few more Norwegian boats. We had decided to have few days at anchor here, just relaxing and do some excursions ashore. So far we have been too lazy, but the dinghy is ready ;)

Grete has made some great dinners which we have enjoyed fully. We really need to get some excercise done.

Beef Stroganoff - captain very pleased with the chef  ;)

Have been on the ham radio most evenings, but it’s hard on the batteries, so radio skeds has been reduced to Mondays & Fridays at 1730z on 14045 CW and on 14328 USB at 1800z. 

Sunset at Baiona anchorage.

Back in Vigo

 We have been to Vigo on our last voyage in 2019. We arrived Vigo PM the 30th August. Marina Davila located in the suburb of Bouzas. We had a very foggy trip and therefore chose to sail in the traffic separation zone to avoid meeting vessels. The direct track would have been shorter, but also buisier with local fishing boats.

Sailing on th NW coast of Spain requires in our opinion a good radar and understanding
of how to use it - to plot a target and see witch way it is moving and how fast.

As we got closer to the marine we were called by Vigo pilot informing us of a large cargo vessel which was about to cast of from the RO-RO terminal. We reduced speed and waited for the vessel to pass. Visibility was down to 50 to 100 meters. 

As fog lifted, vessel was 200m from us.

 

RO-RO terminal to the right, marina a bit further in.                

When we passed them and looked out to our port side the fog lifted and we saw a large wall of steel rising op from the sea, 200m away. We motored the last 5 minutes into the marina and were welcomed by the marina straff who gave us a hand with tie-up and power connection.

Doing the paperwork

The next day we had our laundry done while we taxied up to Alcampo supermarked.
Its a large well stocked place about 10 minutes by taxi from the marina.
We also tried to get hold of special kind of deck paint - as we have plans for a major job when we get to Porto Santo, in the Madeira’s. And a new solar panel we planned to fit the foredeck. But none of this was available locally. We will just have to try elsewhere.

Shopping done

Masks neccessary and compulsary at Alcampos.

Illa de Ons

 After a couple of calm, quiet and relaxing days at anchor in Arousa we received a navigation permit to visit the nature reserve Illa de Ons. We departed Sunday 29th August and motored the short stretch of just 3 hrs and anchored our side Playa Melide. A long popular sandy beach. 

 Unfortunately the demand was all dinghies had to be carried up to the upper end of the beach - too hard work for us. We ended up watching the island from the boat.

 The final day fog rolled in and visibility was next to nothing. A bit scary as local fishing boats came pretty close. We could hear their engines and the waves slapping against our boat. We decided to leave for the city of Vigo where we would fill up with fresh water and foods/drinks. At same time do our laundry and get rid of the garbage.

Ria Muros and Arousa

 After a few days we departed Camarinas to sail south past Cape Finnistere to the town of Muros.
We visited Muros back in 2019 and it's a small friendly town.

We arrived in the afternoon the 22nd of August and stayed at the marina berthing for the first 3 days.
4th day at anchor.

We continued the 26th August towards the next Ria (fjord) south. At the same time we were joined by 3 other Norwegian yarchts
heading the same way. It was a misty and foggy trip, but with great nav.tools and good radar finding our way was easy.

We anchored in 8m water in the town of Arousa on the Illa de Arousa. Peacefull and quiet anchoreage.

Dinner was burgers grilled on the aft deck.

And for my radio friends: I am QRV on CW at 1730Z  on  14045 and SSB on 14328 at 1800Z.

If condx to east coast USA/Carribean I will QSY 14333 to avoid QRM to Haiti emergency net on 14330.

Arrived at Camarinas

 Sorry for slow updates.

We arrived safely in Camarinas in the afternoon the 19h August.
As the weather was pretty windy, we went inside for a berth in the marina.
There were two other Norwegian sailboats there. Two of the crew were sated in the marina restaurant
when we arrived and came running to assist our mooring. Very welcomed as the wind was a bit strong.

We spent just one night at the marina. Enough to get some more groceries etc. and to fill up with fresh water.
The marina is small, but pleasant, toilett and showers a bit worn down, but they worked OK.
But price was cheap - 20 Euros for one night for a 12 meter long monohull.

We went out in Ria of Camarinas and anchored for the next two nights.
We had hoped to have a swim - but the water temp was just 15C and the water pretty dirty.

Have had many radio contacts from the anchorage - it's so much better away from shore. 

Scenery from Muros anchorage.

Departed Camaret-Sur-Mer

 During our final night in Camaret, the wind picked up to near gale from the NE.

We were moored to the floating wave breaker and it got a bit lively at times. But having had mooring damages earlier on floating pontoons we brought good mooring ropes with strong shock absorbers.

This afternoon we cast off, motored accross to the Coop fuel dock and filled up our diesel tank. We have just over 200L in the maintank and 140L in jerry cans on deck.  We departed Camaret at 1430 Local time.

The weather is nice, sunny, and wind from the N about 10-15 knots. Sea state 1.5 - 2 meters. We are heading forCamarinas inthe west of Galicia/Spain. Distance is 370nm and we should be there Thursday afternoon.  The weatherforecast is for Northerly winds 10-15 knots dropping to 10 and later 5 knots as we get further south. We probably have to test out our spinnaker sail.  ;)

We are in a good spirit and look forward to getting south to warmer climate - although some say Sapin is in for a scorcher.... 

Grete & Geir

A short visit to France

Our trip from Dover has so far been uneventful. Wind in the nose and the green monster is performing very well.
We are running just 1500 RPM which gives us an average speed of 5 knots through the water.
At times the headwind strengethens and we lose a knot or two. Not to speak of the current agains and with us.
But we have been able to sleep and eat comfortably.

The weather is going to change to a very faverouble direction for crossing the Bay of Biscay.
But not until Monday. So we will have a couple of days stop in Camaret-Sur-Mer.
We hope to arrive there late Friday or early Saturday.

A bit of traffic and we are trying to shift position between the separation zones
in order to be in a better position to head due south into Brest area.

Will write more and post some pictures when in Camaret.

Grete & Geir

 PS few hours left beforre arriving Camaret. This is how track looks like. We have burned close to 150L diesel. Constant wind from the W-SW ment no sailing, as gybing in the English channel Time Saparation System is very difficult. In addition strong currents and it's always the current against that are the strongest one ;)

 

Time to continue

 Lazy and slow days in Dover. Did some shopping. Improved the solar panel installation. Made a tally, re-supplied our food-stores, some of what we bought on our previous Atlantic voyage 2 ears ago.

Our plan is to leave Dover Tuesday at noon and sail in the direction of LeHavre, then do another change to sail W/NW and finally past Brest. The weather for the coming week looks fine for a good crossing of the bay of Biscay. We will probably sail to Camarinas, west of A Coruna. 

Grete is doing her magic in the galley- very good sniff of Norwegian meatballs in brown gravy, potatoes and stewed cabbage

Grete & Geir

Relaxing while waiting on weather

We will be waiting on weather here in Dover. It’s a fine marina located in an old dock basin. They have built a completely new dock that will soon be opened. 

 

Sorry France, Boris opened up…

 We had originally wanted our first port of call to be Dover. But we were told they did not accept non UK boats and to contact them again for possible changes. As we sailed into the English Channel yesterday we sent another request by email. The reply was very good. Coming from an EU/Shengen country and being fully vaccinated we were very welcome. We arrived at 2200 and were given a good pontoon in Granville dock. Geir had made a previous visit here as crew of another boat and almost remembered the way into the marina. The view at low and high tide can be very deceptive. 

The weather forecast does not look very promising for the coming days. We might have to stay here for the weekend. 

Enroute from Farsund to Boulogne-sur-mer

We had a real jump start. Our departure had to be put forward 4 days as the only weather window was now.
Getting supplies etc loaded on the boat. We departed from Farsund just before midnight Friday 30th.

We had originally wanted to go to Dover, but they were closed to foreign arrivals. UK is experiencing
massive spreading of the Delta variant of Covid and we guess they are in a limbo on what to do
when it comes to visiting yachts.

We got a very polite and friendly reply from Boulogne Marina, who wished us very welcome.
We hope to arrive there late Tuesday or early Wednesday.

The weather has so far been great for sailing - NW 15-25 knots and we are averaging 6 knots.
The weather "after Boulogne" might be more difficult, as strong westerly winds are forecasted.
However, we hope to be able to advance to Cherbourgh and then Brest after a few days there.

Grete & Geir

We are sailing again !

 After more than a year at home, we have decided to start another trip towards the sunshine. We have too many places yet to visit - many of which we had to skip as Covid-19 made us sail back home to Norway in May-July in 2020.

 The departure will be in the first week of August. By then we have both had our 2 Covid-19  vaxinations.

Our sail plan is departing Farsund for the English channel, possibly have short stops at Boulogne-Sur-Mer, Cherbourgh and finally to Brest, where we will wait for a decent weather window to cross the Bay of Biscay.  We hope to make it to Viana Do Castelo, Portugal in one go. 

From Portugal we will sail to Porto Santo in the Madeiras where we will spend a few weeks.

Then onwards to the Canary islands where we will visit various places we haven't been before.

In December we will, covid permitting, set course for Barbados alternatively, Grenada.

We have done lots of replacements and improvements on the boat. New solar panels, new anchor winch/chain, bow thruster, cooling box. Electrics has had good TLC. Also fitted a new MF/HF radio with DSC and purchased a small Inreach tracking device, that will enable you to keep continous track of our position. Have a look at this link  Ocean Viking - position chart

More will follow when we get under way.  Love from Grete & Geir