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Showing posts from October, 2009

San Miguel, last day for Andy, Anja, Alisa and Nina on Linocat

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Today it was the last day for them on our boat. Homeflight was booked for 17.20 and so they left at 15.00. We decided to stay in San Miguel but we were put alongside a big sailingboat. Later the Vanora with Bettina and Peter arrived and they docked right behind us against a big trawler. So we will visit them tonight for a drink. Lani was enjoying playing with Any, Anja, Nina and Alisa on the net before they left and we also did two machines of washing. We might stay here until Tuesday and then leave for Gran Canaria.

What do you do to keep calm?

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If your baby cries? Yes, you use the pacifier yourself and VOILA.... you relax! :-) Michael at the Thai Restaurant in San Miguel, Tenerife

San Sebastian

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Hi, first of all, we are NOT in the Sahara Desert, as our position report was showing it. I just mistyped "17" with "11" in the position report before transmitting it. In San Sebastian we met Vicky and Olous again from the "Atmosphere". They are cruising with 2 kids 3 and 5 year old and are now heading for Gambia in Africa. We also met Liz and John from the "Jalan-Jalan" again. After Dinner we all met for some beer and wine and we ended up sitting until midnight even though we had planned to leave early the next morning. We woke up at 8 and bought fresh bread rolls and then we left and had a nice sail to the south of Teneriffe. We even caught a gold makerel again !YESSSSS! But again we thought the fish was to small and set it free again. It got rougher at the south and the last 2 hours we had to motor against wind and waves and now we are secured along a big sailinboat in the marina. Well at least that it secure and not bumpy! Tomorrow Andi, Anja...

Evening at the anchorage

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Since the sun was putting the mountains at the anchorage in beautiful sunlight at sunset were decided to go for a swim and shoot some pictures. This was the last night at Valle Gran Rey.

Happy Bubbles

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Lani´s soap bubbles were also used by the "older kids" :-) Alisa making bubbles on the bow of Linocat. Weather today is a bit overcast and still choppy. Might head for San Sebastian tomorrow and then on Friday back to Tenerife to drop the brother-gang.

Our anchorage

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at Valle Gran rey on La Gomera, Tenerife

Rough seas

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Hi, this was taken this morning from the anchorage. the night it has been rolling and bouncing and squeeking and so on. There is no wind so the seas come from further away... Lets see how long we stay!

checking the anchor

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Andi is freediving to check the anchor after we had arrived in La Gomera. It is always good to do that if it is possible. If the anchor is digged in well in pure sand you can sleep tight.
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Nina washing her hair. We played around with the waterproof camera and tried out some funny things like snaps directly from below the water.

Fishing

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Yesterday we were at least a little bit lucky with fishing. Using an octopus lure we caught a gold makerel but decided that the fish was to young to die and since the hook was only in the lower jaw we unhooked the fish and put it back in the water. But it is good to have a proove that the equipment works since we were not so lucky for quite a while now with our fishing attempts.

Sunset

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The anchorage while we have dinner

More snaps from the anchorage

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Anja, Nina, Andi and myself went for a swim and also jumped in and washed hair etc. It was nice and refreshing. Now we are preparing Spaghetti. Lani will freak out because it is her favorite dish. Tomorrow we will proceed to La Gomera and hope to find a good spot at Valle Gran rey anchorage. Punta Abona anchorage looked like swell and so went to the red mountain. We had seen that spot when we went noth here last time.

Anchorage

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We are anchoring at the "Red Mountain, Montana Roja" in 9m depth and the visibility is good like always. I dived to check the anchor and the chain is short but if the wind is not increasing it is OK.

Anja, Andi, Alisa and Nina arrived

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They all arrived safe yesterday and we went out for a nice dinner and then had another red wine on the boat until midnight. This morning we missed the time change and then had a breakfast and gave back the rental car. After checking weather we decided to leave and so we are now sailing south with the Spinnaker doing around 6 knots. We are to late to reach la Gomera today so we have to anchor somewhere.

Dieter and the Rallye

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The "Flying Kefi" also arrived with Dieter whom i met already in July when driving to Portimao with my dad. He will participate in the Ile du Soleil Rallye. This rallye will take him to Brasil and the Amazonas. Especially the Amazonas is a great opportunity and i hope he and Claudia are having a lot of fun! Here is a link to the rallye.

Yachtspotting

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Hi, i also want to update you with pictures of other yachts. Most of the time with bigger ones :-) This "Magic Cat", a french flagged Catamaran made out of carbon fibre. It is said to be extremly fast. The hulls are very slim and the boat is almost as wide as LinoCat long (beam is 36feet) and the length is 82 feet. It has been built by Multiplast under Gilles Ollier and was launched 1996. She still looks perfect but also has been extensivly refitted. She features a rotating carbon wing mast and carbon boom and hydraulic furling. Notice that they still dry their laundry in the wind like we do :-) It is an extremly slick looking catamaran and its a pleasure to see it from a short distance when walking by. The bow that you see on the left of the first picture is the Wally 98 "Alexia" another high class sailboat currently in Santa Cruz. So is the "Brave Goose of Essex" a 35m Motoryacht. She is permanently here and from what i heard her owner is in prison due ...

Marina San Miguel ???

After our last visit in the "swell-marina" with the mooringlines we thought we give it another try. Last time we had asked them if they have a berth and they said yes and then there was only a mooring available. This time we entered and called them over the radio around 16.00 but no reply. Reception pontoon was full with the yellow submarine and a boat taking diesel. Called again on VHF channel 9, no reply. We then decided to drive all the way down to check for free berths. We saw one but again not on a finger but with moorings. A marinero used a whiste and wanted to move us to such a place and i wondered if they have no VHF radio. We decided to leave and go for an anchorage instead.

Approach to San Sebastian, La Gomera

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When approaching San Sebastian, La Gomera marina, be aware that there is a dedicated channel in the harbor for pleasure crafts to keep the ferry traffic undisturbed. Many people think the yellow markers are for the swimming area but you have to be between the two yellow markers. The outer ones, the one to the ferry are even lit at night. Check the yacht on the picture, thats how it should be. Call them on channel 9 and they might directly assign a berth to you. The marina does not have to much swell besided the reception Pontoon F, where we are currently docked :-)

Gomera - Inland

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We rented a car and drove to the Garajonay National Park. There are so many nice hiking trails it is just amazing. We picked a very short one and followed it to a small river and a chapel. The trees and colors are great and it is quite cold, around 20 Celcius.

My wild spanish lover

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I had my first spanish lover and how should i say, i was a bit overwhelmed. First i hugged him and he shrugegd away then he approached me and then i was a bit scared. I fell and gentlemen like he helped me a up. Well, he pulled me up on my neck later but that is not shown in the pictures. After a while i decided to spend the next years rather with Mami instead of a spanish lover!

San Sebastian de la Gomera

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From here Christopher Columbus started to his journey which was supposed to lead to India but ended up discovering America. In this tax house goods were locked up until tax was paid. From this well Columbus filled up his drinking water supply it is said. So for a sailor this city might be a "must visit" :-) especially since we will most likely all follow the old trade wind routes which even Columbus has used. The rule of thumb from here is: Sail south untl the butter melts then turn west. And in this church it is said that Columbus spoke a final prayer before leaving for his voyage

The anchor specialist

Yesterday we have met the species "anchor specialist". When we came back from a tour in the village a german sailing boat was anchoring very close to us. I thought maybe they are here for the daytime only on so i did not bother to say anything. At around 22:00 in the evening the wind changed direction and we were moving in their direction. I asked them how much chain they have out and the skipper replied: I dont know, we have everything out. A skipper who does not know how much chain he got? And did not bother to know how much is out? I told him that we have 35m out and that we might get to close. Usually the skipper who came last is the one to move. We suddenly even had to start engines and move away when the wind was picking up to 20 knots. I asked him if he can move and the reply was: "Thats difficult, we have also moored into an old chain on the sea bed". I was puzzled. They had all anchor change out AND moored into an unknown chain? So after observing it for 30...

Still anchoring in Valle Gran Rey, La Gomera, Canary islands

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You feel a little bit like a hippie anchoring here. There is no real urge to move forward or do anything specific. You enjoy the sun, swim, dozing in the shade, sun bathing, eating and drinking. Playing cards in the evening and go to bed early. So why move on? Anyway we started to think about either San Sebastian or go back to Tenerife to the other side of the island maybe. my parents stay almost another week so there is still plenty of time left. Today i snorkeled to the beach and where it is rocky there are some fishes. I was in the middle of some sardines and they enjoyed swimming around me. I was wondering if these were hippie sardines searching for something to smoke near the beach. There is a kind of finca like farm which once was an Osho ashram, so we almost felt like back in Pune. The solarpanels have already generated 120Ah of power and we used that to poduce around 100liter of freshwater and to recharge the batteries. Yesterday we went to a restaurant called Trasmallo and had...

sunset next to the pier

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A nice sunset next to the end of the pier which can be seen from our anchorage.

Underwater salvage attempt

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Hi, i met the boat owner of the sunken yacht and he was trying to salvage the boat yesterday. It looks like it sunk through an existing through hull on Monday night. They had one 4 ton liftbag and a few 1ton bags. The problem is to fix them low enough to provide enough lift to bring the boat to the surface so you can pump out with a fast pump. Yesterday it was not successful but today they will do another try. Here are some snaps. Check how the stuff is floating around inside the boat. Cleaning will be a lot of work. Thanks good there was not a lot of Diesel in the tank and it is a steel boat. So renewing electrics and redoing the engine should be all that is needed. The boat has around 4 tons and i guess that at least 4 4ton bags would be required fixed with heavy duty transportation belts at a very low point.