Day 8 - looking Back and Forward

Position: 1200UTC N 020° 42' W 030° 51'  

When sailing at night, having the night watch and the sailing is going just smooth, one get a lot of spare time. Yesterday night was one of those nights, the sailing was absolutely perfect, no need for any hair drier. The last 24h we have done 139 nautical Miles towards goal and 147 nautical Miles in total, that is new Cantare record! We really needed that, the competitors are picking up on us and it would be really nice arriving in St Lucia before the finishing line is closed. During my 3h watch yesterday night I didn't need to adjust neither the course nor the sails. Everything went just fine, but after having finished the book I was reading, my neck yelled painful at me to stop me from reading. Nowadays, thanks to a kind a tacky, but very useful headlamp we can read also during nights. To rest my tired neck I leaned backwards watching the stars, started thinking. Believe it or not, despite the romantic scenery I didn't start dreaming of Prince Charming. Instead I came to think about how my life looked a year ago and how different it was compare to the sailing life we are living now. Exact one year ago I was in the middle of final exams, about to finish my semester abroad at a business school in Germany. Back then life was kind of stressful, the days booked from early morning until late night, in a good way though. I am a person who likes having a busy schedule. But in those days there where also other demands and requirements one had to fulfil. One had to do this and that and pass an exam in a certain way in order to succeed. Then there were also the financial crisis still threatening round the corner, making it harder for graduates to find a job. Now I hear from lots of friends back home who are about to graduate, that it is still very hard finding a job and companies having employment freeze. So for me, postponing my graduation and taking this "year off" couldn't be more timely.

Before I was to finish my watch and hand over to Maria, I also had little time to think about the future. What will I be doing in a year from now? The future is a big topic of interest onboard. We have lots of discussions concerning what will happen to us, what choices we will make etcetera. Life is in many respects about choices. I know I want to go back to school and finish my university studies with a master's degree, but I have to choose what kind of master I would like to do and where I would like to do it. Maria and Emelie have also choices to make. Maria intends to do some more studying, maybe try the real university life and Emelie is about to start studying as well. The period of application is first somewhere in March/April so we still got time to think. However, time is ticking faster than you would want it to, and making decisions concerning your future can be much harder than you expect.

PS. For those of you curious about how the shower was yesterday I can tell it was little cold at first but afterwards you felt like a whole new person. Then for dinner the fresh fish tasted absolutely delicious. Isn't it funny how minor things like that can make ones day? Love First Mate Sofia

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Day 7 - Advent Sunday

doradoCantareCrew
Seven days, limited space, competition nerves, three girls with strong wills and personalities, and yet no huge fight. I think that´s really impressive. Of course we have had our discussions and differnt opinions, but Maria, Sofia: I still love you! One of the reasons is of course us compromising, but I think that the main reason is that we complement each other. Even though we come from a quite similar background, we have somehow along the way achieved different experiences and knowledge, both good and bad. When we put our experience and knowledge together we have a team. A really great and strong team if you ask me. For example yesterday when Maria caught a fish, everyone knew their task. Maria is the one doing the fishing most of the time, and Sofia is  the one who puts on red plastic gloves and takes care of the fish (killing is another word) after we have managed to get it into the boat. Since I´m not very keen of fishing and don´t have the heart to kill it afterwards, my very important task yesterday was to be cameraman and cheerleader. Perhaps a silly example but it is like this. We are good at different things, we are aware of it, and we don´t try to change it.
 
Today it´s Advent Sunday and we will of course do our best and celebrate it. It´s a bit hard though when it is 25 degree C outside and the sun is shining from a clear blue sky. Perhaps playing Christmas carols will do the trick. Today is also the day when we are going to take our first shower on the Atlantic crossing. Up until yesterday I was looking forward to it a lot. Now I am not so sure anymore. Believe it or not, I´m starting to like my greasy hair and my salty skin. Taking a shower here is not like taking a shower at home. It takes a little more effort. Maria and Sofia calls this change of mind, me becoming a real sailor. I hope that is true. A big thank you and lots of kisses to all of you out there who supports and believes in us. Your cheering means a lot! /Deckhand Emelie

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Day 6 - Part II - The fish

I caught a Dorado (Guldmackrill)!!! Very yellow and not to big. Perfect for the three of us. Sofia has killed him and he is in the fridge ready for tomorrows lunch. /The Captain

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Day 6 - Dark clouds at night

Friday night, movie night. Pizza, Coca Cola, popcorn and Sex and the City, what more can a girl ask for? We skipped the champagne, it didn't fit in, but Emelie said it was great anyway. For a short while we almost forgot where we were. But, then the pizza tried to leave the plate, the plate tried to leave the table and the waves did their best to support the escape. I was sitting on the door step with warm clothes on and my lifeline attached in the cockpit (I was on duty), ready to go out if anything needed to be adjusted. We had the active radar alarm on (no activity) and we took short pauses every 15 minutes to check for other boats. But the last two days we haven't seen a single boat. Monitor is very good at steering and we are not doing much with the sails, lazy sailing. What we do instead is; read, gossip, eat, sleep, run the watermaker, check where our competitors are, check the weather, try to make up the best route, sun bath and listen to music. And if we get tired of those things, we invent new things, like when we built a sun deck in the cockpit with the help of our table. I haven't been fishing yet because we have so much food aboard, but I think I'm going to start today anyway. I want to catch a big dorado before this crossing is over and with my fishing luck I better start soon. I am also waiting for the squalls. A squall is a big dark cloud with strong winds and heavy rain. The wind change is sudden, but usually the squall pass by very quick. During the day they are easy to spot, but when it's dark all clouds look like possible squalls. This morning I sat in the aft listening to music, not thinking much about the clouds starting to close in on Cantare, when there suddenly was a lightning in one of them, I became alert in an instant. I put the Ipod away, changes our course a bit, trying to avoid the cloud, and waited. Somehow I am looking forward to our first squall, or maybe I just want to know what it's like, but this night was not the night, and I am quite glad because I think I prefer them without thunder. /The Captain

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Day 5 - What really happened in Las Palmas?

Since we had too little time left for blog writing in Las Palmas, I promised you a little summary of the weeks in Las Palmas, which I will try to give you now. Maria and I arrived little earlier than Emelie and the opening of the ARC weeks in order to get as much as possible done on the boat, or that was at least our intended plan. But apparently, two girls sailing alone tend to attract attention, and a lot of people were interested in hearing our story over a drink, consequently, the first days in Las Palmas was a lot about socialization. However, we did put early alarms every day and tried to get as much work done on the boat as we could every day before socialization. It worked out pretty well even though our sleep accounts got quite overdrawn.

One of the first to welcome us in Las Palmas was HMS Gladan, the Swedish Navy ship we already met in Lisbon. HMS Gladan was moored just next to the Texaco station were we filled our fuel tanks when arriving. Two tired sailors with a broken fridge couldn't be more happy when we were invited to join them for lunch. When being abroad and meeting kind fellow people like the ones onboard HMS Gladan, you feel like home, HMS Gladan is incredible hospitable! Thanks for everything! If you would like to know more about HMS Gladan, check out their web page, www.gladanochfalken.se.

Las Palmas´ marina is huge and the best way to get around the area is to use the dinghy. Volare, our dear dinghy, was very well used in Las Palmas. Speaking of the dinghy, every year the owner of the Texaco station, Don Pedro, is organizing a dinghy race. No engine is allowed, but besides no engine, basically everything is allowed. I wouldn't say it is correct calling it a dinghy race, it is more like a dinghy war. I mean we thought we were well prepared and well armoured, having filled water balloons and everything. Apparently, we forgot the rotten eggs, tomatoes and ketchup. However, we had a great time and managed to stay in the dinghy most of the time. But I and Emelie can assure you that getting hit by an egg from close distance is not very comfortable. Both off us had bruises afterwards. After the big dinghy war Don Pedro arranged a huge barbeque for everybody to join. And now we know why the beer in his little Texaco store is ten times as expensive as the one in an ordinary grocery: in order for him to be able to finance the barbeque.

The ARC Welcome Party was a success! Lots of tapas, drinks and entertainment. The local salsa dancers made marvellous performances! Besides the huge welcome party there were cocktail parties, fancy dress party, farewell parties, dinner parties and other parties during the two weeks. Every night the, for the occasion special build ARC-bar, had happy hours and if you happened to feel like you hadn't got enough party, the Sailor's Bar was opened until late at night. Believe it or not, we weren't actually the ones who partied the most, we did put a lot focus on the upcoming Atlantic race as well!

The ARC committee didn't only give us good parties, they also provided us with interesting seminars. The seminars were inspiring and gave a lot of practical tips to our preparations. Among others we visited seminars concerning provisioning, rigging, route planning and returning to Europe.

One day our friends from Johanna and Time Out visited us. In our so called collective it is only Escape and us doing the ARC. Johanna and Time Our are also on their way over as we speak, but since they are not participating in the ARC they decided to prepare for the crossing in the little less busy and more sunny marina, Puerto de Mogan in the south of Gran Canaria As always when the collective is together we have great fun. This time Cantare hosted the welcome drink and we almost sank because of all the people onboard. Afterwards we went to a local music festival, Womad and danced salsa all night long!

Not only did Johanna and Time Out visit us, so did Maria's parents, her grandma and aunt and my parents and my sister. It felt really good having the close one supporting our departure and waving goodbye as we left. On the whole there were lots of people coming to meet us, some of our blog readers from Sweden found their way to our pontoon to say hello, that was so much fun!

For those of you planning on doing the ARC next year, I will give you a small tip. Arrive in Las Palmas a week or two earlier than the ARC-events in order to have time to finish the boat for departure and still enjoy all the fun activities around the ARC. Or maybe finish the boat before arriving in Las Palmas. We managed to get everything ready on time and still have time for parties, events and meeting new people, however, it got little stressful in the end.

Of course lots more happened during our stay in Las Palmas, but as we girls use to say: What happens at sea, stays at sea, what happens in the harbor stays in the harbor, or is being gossiped about at sea. =)

Back to life on the Atlantic Ocean, everything is going just smooth. Tonight we are going to celebrate Emelie's fictitious birthday. We have all come up with fictitious birthdays that will occur during the crossing, making the trip little funnier. Tonight I think we are going to celebrate with coca cola and some episodes of Sex and the City, we will save the champagne until later. Have a nice Advent weekend all of you! /First Mate

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Day 4 - A wet day

Today is yet another day at the sunny Atlantic. Maria is doing some navigation in the cockpit, Sofia is on watch and I'm working on my tan. We have finally gotten stronger winds and our speed is increasing again. Since last afternoon we have sailed 128 nautic Miles. That's quite good. Hopefully better than some of the other boats in the ARC at least. Unfortunately the stronger winds also means bigger waves. This morning on my watch I sat in the aft of the boat just as usual listening to some good music, looking at the stars above. All of a sudden a huge wave came and washed all over the boat, leaving me soaking wet. I guess I should be happy, since I really need a shower after four days at sea, but I wasn't expecting it like this. Since everything looked fine and we were doing great speed I just took of the wet clothes, put on my bikini and sat down again. I had just started to get dry and warm again when the next wave came. This time even bigger. So big that the water was forced down in the saloon. Not fun at all. Maria and Sofia had to spend half an hour getting the water out of the boat again. But at least the boat is clean again and so am I. We have now changed our course a bit trying to avoid the worst waves, but still some waves tend to find the way into the cockpit. I guess it's going to be dress code bikini today.

Lots of love from Deckhand Emelie

P.S Pappa jag har skrivit en översättning på svenska till dig. D.S

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Day 3 - Sunny Day in the Atlantic Ocean

Position:

Good morning everybody, it is a beautiful morning in the Atlantic Ocean. The sun is shining, the sky is blue and we have increased our speed a little! We are all starting to adopt to this kind of rolling sailing life, and yesterday we started practising our planned watch schedule. Emelie starts her watch 06.00-11.00, then I do the 11.00-16.00, Maria is on 16.00-21.00 and then the night watches start at 21.00-24.00 (Emelie) 24.00-03.00 (Sofia) and 03.00-06.00 (Maria). Deckhand Emelie is doing great, she has done the night watch all by herself now, with Maria and I taking turn about being on duty, which means sleeping fully dressed with lifejacket on, so we can get up in the cockpit as quick as possible if she would need any assistance. But so far so good, Emelie hasn't had to wake us up once, she's brilliant!

Before my watch starts I will recommend you to have a look at the ARC webpage, www.worldcruising.com, where you can find our and all of our competitors´ position, it is so exciting! Keep an eye on number 235, that is our boat number! And one more thing, before leaving Las Palmas we met Martin from the Swedish radio station, Skärgårdsradion 90,2. Martin is also sponsored by the insurance company Europeiska and on his way over the Atlantic Ocean with a boat called Thindra. He visited us in the boat and made a little radio interview and took some videos from inside Cantare and from what I have heard those clips can be found on www.hamnen.se. Now I am going on my watch with the hair drier, trying to increase our speed little. See you!

/First Mate

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Day 2 - The sixth sense

Position: 1330 UTC N 025° 57' W 019° 14'

This night I woke up for no reason, looked around the dimly lit interior and felt that something was wrong. I wasn't covered in pear so it had to be something else, but what? After a few minutes my head got clearer and I realized that the red led light beside the battery switches wasn't glowing. The red light indicates that the house batteries are being charged. I stumbled out of my bunk and went over to the resistors, which converts excess electricity to heat, but they weren't warm. This meant that DuoGen, our water generator, wasn't working. Later I found out that the propeller wasn't moving and I thought I could see a piece of rope around it, but I decided to leave the repairing till the morning light. I don't know why, but everything that goes wrong on a boat do so during the dark hours, Murphy's law. During my night watch from 3 am to 6 am I thought about how our bodies slowly get accustomed to life at sea. My hand is able to keep the warm tea in the cup although the boat keeps rocking from side to side and I'm barely awake. Most of the time I manage to get from the front of the boat to the back without bumping into everything, I stand still when the big waves rock us and walk when the small waves pass us. My ears and eyes are constantly watchful for something out of the ordinary, so are Sofia's. Emelie still needs to learn what's normal, but she is getting there slowly. This morning she played with the sails and learnt how to trim them for a smother sailing. I felt the boat rocking a bit more than normal but forced myself to stay in bed and let her learn by doing. It was worth it, later she proudly announced with a big smile that she now know much better how the sails work.

Today the wind has decreased a lot, the life aboard is easier but the speed is not as good. Sofia and Emelie are talking about taking the hair blower out and point it towards our sails. But I think they secretly enjoy the sunny life in the cockpit just as much as the prospect of a quick crossing. /The Captain

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Day 1 - Speed Record

Position: 1400 UTC N 026° 46' W 017° 14'

Today it is 13 days since I started calling Cantare my home, and I think I'm falling in love. N love with this way of living and all the wonderful and inspiring people around me. I must admit that it was with mixed feelings that I boarded the plane in Copenhagen; excited, focused and nervous all at once. But as soon as I saw Maria and Sofia at the Las Palmas airport all of my worries disappeared. I can't remember the last time I felt so warmly welcomed. Not only by Maria and Sofia but also by their new extended family and the Cantare blog readers. Now we have left Las Palmas, all of the festivities, our friends and family behind us and are heading towards our greatest adventure - the Atlantic Ocean. Right now I'm sitting in the sunny cockpit, Maria is sitting on here throne looking for competitors, the Monitor is steering and Sofia is down in the saloon sleeping. This is a wonderful day, except for me and Maria feeling a bit seasick this morning. It all started with Maria waking up covered in pear. We have stored all of our fruits in different nets and apparently we should have put the nets further away from each other. Since the cucumbers punctuated all of our pears and bananas in another net it caused a big fruit mess. Sitting in the saloon when the boat is rolling, it's hot and there are fruits everywhere is a very good idea if you want to get seasick. Tasting one of the smashed bananas is an even better idea, then you will definitely get seasick. I know because I tried it, but now after having fed the fishes I feel a lot better. Perhaps it's because of Sofia's excellent "how to puke from a boat guide". Time has now passed 1300 UTC and I'm proud to tell you that we have sailed 141 nautical miles during our first 24 hours. Hopefully we will continue just as good the following 24 hours. Lots of love, hugs and kisses from Deckhand Emelie.

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New pictures!

I have uploaded some new pictures, sadly the Internet connection here in Las Palmas is very bad and I wasn't able to upload all the intended pictures. I hope it's better in the Caribbean. Tomorrow is the day! /The Captain

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Goodbye Las Palmas, hello Atlantic Ocean

We are so excited, the race starts tomorrow and finally, almost everything is ready for take off! Maria and I were at Skipper’s briefing earlier today and got the last information concerning the race and the latest weather forecast. We also got the ranking list for the competition, there is a certain handicap system based on boat type, size, kind of sails etcetera etcetera. We are the third shortest boat and the very thinnest in the race so do you know what?! We are ranked the slowest boat, but we are not sad, just excited, now we can beat them all due to the handicap we are given. Every boat we are faster than is a victory to us! We are counting on crossing in 25 days and every day faster is another victory!

The only thing remaining now is to get this uploaded on the blog and also to try to get some photos uploaded. Unfortunately, it is harder than expected. The wifi in the marina is so bad, all sailors are facing the same problem and are very annoyed at the fact that we cannot update our blogs and do necessary internet business. At the moment I am sitting at my parent's hotel trying to upload this but the connection is soooooooo slow. Maria on the other hand is trying to upload pictures at another place. It is slow at her place too but hopefully she'll manage to get some pics uploaded, we have lots of photos we want to share with you! During the crossing we are going to update the blog with our satellite phone so you all can follow our crossing day by day. When the internet business is done we are going to have a family farewell dinner and then have an early night, tomorrow at 13.00 is the starting signal for Atlantic Rally for Cruisers 2009, it is time to hit the big ocean! Mum is standing next to me here and just asked whether we are nervous, but I think Maria, Emelie and I are all just very excited, we haven't had time to get nervous....yet=)

I would also like to thank all our readers for following our blog and giving us your support! All of you mean a lot to us! Thank you! See you on the Atlantic Ocean!

PS. Don't forget to have a look at our latest guest blogging at the insurance company Europeiska's blog, you find it by clicking here. /First Mate

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Getting ready for the Crossing


Shit, it is only three days until we leave, so exciting! Life in Las Palmas is very hectic; we have hardly time to shower. =) However, it is so much fun! We have passed the ARC Security Check and are now allowed to officially cross the Atlantic Ocean with the ARC race. We have also filled up the entire boat with provision so we will hopefully survive the passage. The entire boat is loaded with things we will need for the crossing and in the Caribbean, there is hardly any space left for us. I use to sleep in the fore peak, but now we have filled the fore peak with everything, from toilet paper to our Swedish specialty “knäckebröd”, so last night I spent between my parents at their hotel. (Since I haven’t seen them in ages, it was very cozy). Last Saturday Maria’s parents arrived and yesterday my parents, my sister, Maria’s grandma and aunt arrived. It is so nice having the close ones gathered before hitting the big ocean. We haven’t seen each other in four months so this reunion is very nice. They will be standing on the pontoon waving when we are leaving on Sunday. Before leaving we will do some last preparations and enjoy the time ashore here in Las Palmas. The ARC organization has had some great events here in Las Palmas and some good parties still remain! /First Mate

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Welcome aboard Deckhand Emelie


Finally, our dear deckhand and friend Emelie has arrived! We went to the airport with our new huge flag and the dodger cover (with Cantare written on) to pick her up and we are so glad to have her here! Welcome!!! Deckhand Emelie has been well introduced to the preparations before our take off. Today she was a helping hand when changing the engine oil and afterwards Emelie was totally covered in oil.

I want to take the opportunity to apologize to our readers for not having updated our blog for days. Since we arrived in Las Palmas we have had a very busy schedule, the “what-to-do-before-leaving-Las-Palmas-list” is very long and the ARC parties, seminars and other activities also fill up the days and nights. However, we have lots of fun and we promise to give you a good review of all the funny things that have happened and will happen during this preparation weeks in Las Palmas, when we are on our way over the Atlantic Ocean, that is when we think we will have all the time in the world! /First Mate

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ARC2009 - Checked in

Today we checked in at the ARC office. We filled out a few papers, received a lot of information and booked our safety check. It will be later this afternoon. The only thing that we need to get before that is water to the grabbag, otherwise we feel prepared. I hope we get through the check without any trouble, but you never know how strict they are. We have also taken pictures for our ARC passes, which we need to wear on all the events and seminars. The ARC weeks have started! /The Captain

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hamnen.se

Now it's possible for our readers to enjoy short stories in Swedish from our life as sailors on hamnen.se The first one was published a while ago and a new one will appear there soon. Whatch out for it! /The Captain

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Hardcore Sailing to Las Palmas

Finally, we are here, we are in Las Palmas! The fact that the next step on our adventure is the Atlantic Ocean is little scary but very exciting! It is quite cool to think about how far Maria and I actually have sailed to get here, all the way from Sweden! However, when looking at the map of the world situated on the wall next to me at the Sailor’s bar here in Las Palmas, I realize the area we have covered isn’t that huge; there are certainly more places to sail to!

We left Puerto de Mogan (and the sun) yesterday morning and arrived 16 hours later in Las Palmas, which make an average speed of about 2 knots an hour. Yeah, we had day full of tacking! We rounded Maspalomas, the southeast corner of Gran Canaria and were hit by the northerly winds. Our dear old Yanmar with 12 horse powers couldn’t fight the waves we were facing, and I mean, we are sailors, and sailors sail, not run the engine. However, despite being drowned by the waves when steering, it felt really nice getting a real hardcore sailing before the take off of the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers the 22nd of November.

Our first day in Las Palmas couldn’t have started better. After having done the check in, we, two tired sailors with a broken fridge, were invited to lunch onboard HMS Gladan. HMS Gladan, one of the Swedish Navy’s school ships, the one we met in Lisbon, happened to be moored next to the gas station were we filled our tanks with diesel. Thanks for a superb lunch guys! Now we have two weeks full of preparations and parties to look forward to here in Las Palmas. Maria just put up our “what-to-do-before-the-Atlantic-Ocean-list” on our bathroom door and tomorrow morning we will start by visiting a well-equipped chandlery outside Las Palmas to tick some of the things of our “what-to-buy-before-the-Atlantic-Ocean-list”. /First Mate

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Crazy Winds

We had decided to leave Las Galletas and Tenerife early Tuesday morning. The weather forecasts looked good, 4-5 beaufort from the NE. But then a guy who works on a catamaran in the harbour told us about a sirocco warning and we started to reconsider, a sirocco is a strong easterly wind which brings a haze of sand from the Sahara, it also gets very hot. In the end we took the decision to go anyway because non of the weather reports we had checked showed any sign of the sirocco. 5 am the alarm went of, one snooze later we stood up, but we were very tired. After a cup of coffee we started to look positively on life again, we’re actually very lucky not having to set the alarm most of our days and when we do it’s because we are going to sail, and we do love sailing. We waved goodbye to the guys on Johanna, they were sleepy and had decided to leave the harbour two hours later than us. There was no wind when we left and the full moon made it easy to navigate out of the harbour. As always there was a swell so it wasn’t that comfortable in the beginning, but as the day got lighter the wind started to blow from the NE and we hoisted the sails. We started with one reef in the mainsail because of the acceleration zones. It was great sailing and we couldn’t stop smiling. Then the wind continued to increase until it was steady on 7 beaufort, we furled the headsail to the second reef point and pushed forward on a close reach. The waves got bigger of course and we got some parts of them splashed into the cockpit, time to put on our foul weather gear again. When we were about midway to Puerto de Mogan, our destination on Gran Canaria, the wind changed direction and then died in a few minutes. We furled the headsail but left the mainsail up in case the wind would come back, which it did later. Now from the N and as powerful as before, this time we took to the second reef in the mainsail and still did around 6,5 knots, with a short peak on 8,20. Great sailing again! But it didn’t last that long, this time the wind changed direction to S and decreased to the predicted 4 beaufort. Ah…our arms got exercised by all the sail changes and the steering, Monitor wasn’t on duty. 5.30 pm we arrived outside Puerto de Mogan, we called the marina on the VHF, they asked if we had a booking, if not the marina was full. Escape was already at anchor outside, we joined them and five other boats, in the very nice bay. We had Johanna behind us the whole day and they arrived not long after us. Here we are again, the same Scandinavian boats. This morning we saw the small Swedish flag and the white and red hull of Inga approach the harbour, lot’s of waving and smiling, we haven’t seen them since Calais. I guess we have to stay here one more night! /The Captain

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Full Moon Party a la Halloween











Yesterday morning I woke up early finding myself having a very hard time lying still in my bed in the fore peak, I was rolling back and forth, back and forth. Not only the wind had increased during the night, the waves were hitting us from every direction making the anchoring very unpleasant. We decided to go back to the little "biscuit village" - Las Galletas (Las Galletas is the Spanish word for biscuits), to get protected from the increasing winds. Do you remember me talking about the full moon party I was tempted to go to? Guess what, the party wasn't last Friday, it was yesterday! It was a combined Full Moon/Halloween Party and the guys from Johanna had brought some Halloween makeup and after having put on some heavy makeup, I and the guys where ready to hit the full moon night. We had a crazy, but very funny Halloween celebration with all the locals with whom we have become familiar with here in Las Galletas, where everybody seems to know everybody. One of the nice things about staying little longer at a place is the opportunity to get to know new people better, and not only sailors in the marina, also local people you meet at the pub or elsewhere. So we not exactly mourning over the fact that we had to go back to Las Galletas. However, time flies and on Sunday we are suppose to be in Las Palmas, and before that we want to visit Puerto Mogan in the south of Gran Canaria. The weather forecast predicts little less wind on Tuesday so we are planning on leaving Tenerife for Gran Canaria early Tuesday morning. But I don’t need to remind you about the fact that plans tend to change…

PS. I have been doing some new guest blogging at the webpage of the insurance company Europeiska, you find the blog contribution here. DS

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