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Canaries to Cape Verde (a race)

Canaries to Cape Verde (a race)

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Time for the longest crossing yet, the Canaries down to Cape Verde.

In theory, an easy crossing, as you should be able to follow the trade winds that run down the coast of Africa before they head across the Atlantic ocean. These are the same winds followed by Christopher Columbus and are well known.

And it was indeed fairly straightforward.

In terms of the sailing, we set off just before noon and an hour or so just motoring to get out of the lull to the south of the Island.

Blue Note left first, with us closely following behind. Extress needed to go to the harbor to fill up with water and they left roughly 1 hour after.

Blue Note, motoring in the lull

After that, we spent most of the first day on a broad reach while trying to stay in the shelter of La Gomera to avoid swell that was still hanging around in the Atlantic.

On the first evening, we switched to a run using our twin-head sail setup (1 Genoa & 1 Ghoster). We poled the ghoster out on our large spinnaker pole, while poling out the geno using the main boom.

We remained that way until the final day (day 6), when we switched back to a broad reach.

This was the first trip that we were sailing with other boats and tried to stay in VHF contact where possible. We all radioed each other on the first evening to compare positions, but at this stage we could all still see each other on AIS.

Both Blue Note and Extress had headed a little further west than us to start.

On the second day we could no longer see Blue note on AIS or reach them over the VHF. We managed to keep up daily communication with Extress reporting positions. The race was on!

Due to the position reports, we managed to roughly track where everyone was, and although we couldn’t talk to Blue Note or see them on AIS constantly, they seemed to pop up once a day so toward the start so we could also track their course.

In the map below, we are in green, Extress in orange and blue note in Blue.

(Yes we took this race very seriously)

During the last night, Extress crossed over our track and started to overtake us. We saw this coming, but didn’t want to change our sail plan in the middle of the night, so let it happen. This lead to Extress arriving 1 hour before us even though we were gaining on them at some points of the last day.

We arrived just after dark, but anchoring was made easy by a local guy called Jay who came over to us and directed us to a nice little spot on the far side of the anchorage.

Extress, who we had only spoken to over VHF, called us up to invite us over for drinks, so after a quick dinner, we headed over and met the 4 Extress crew as well as 2 from Danae, another dutch boat we had not yet met.

We had a few nice wildlife interactions on this crossing, with a bird coming and landing on deck for a little rest overnight. It found one of the only sheltered places on the foredeck, under the anchor windlass.

We also saw a group of whales chilling at the surface, possibly sleeping. They were only 10-20 meters away from us as we passed.

Once again, cool wildlife brings out the best squeaks from all of us.

Nearly stealing an anchor

Nearly stealing an anchor

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There we were, in La Gomera, snorkeling around the anchorage looking at all the little fishies, when on the bottom we saw an anchor lying sideways that didn’t appear to be attached to a boat.

After diving down, looking for chain, and taking a picture we decided that it must have been dropped at some point? And who knows, maybe this is a free anchor for us? It’s certainly not set as it should be (in the correct orientation).

(Yes while writing this now we can see the 3 links of anchor chain just covered by sand)

We went back to the boat to prepare to try and retrieve it, bringing back the dinghy, a bouy and ropes etc.

After another dive down to ~10 meters we had a rope around the anchor, however just as we attached it we lifted the anchor revealing the chain attached to it. (sadface)

After a more thorough investigation, this anchor was indeed attached to a boat, however, the boat was much further away than we were expecting for the depth (they must have had lots of chain out), and was not in the direction you would expect it to be (the anchor was pointing the wrong way and the chain running back underneath it).

The conclusion here is that they anchored by dumping their anchor and a bunch of chain as fast as possible, never really pulled back on it to set it properly. So rather than dug in, it just lay at an odd angle on the surface.

For comparison, this is what our anchor looks like while set…

Note you can barely see it, as most of it is beneath the sand.

Anyway…

We had to dive down once again to remove the ropes! No free anchor for us, but also glad we didn’t actually pull it up at all…

Make sure you set your anchor!!!! Otherwise 1) you might drift off and 2) We might come and try to steal it

You can read more about setting an anchor on WikiHow (but I am sure there are better resources).

6. Use your engine to give the anchor a final hard set.

This is called snubbing the anchor, and jams a set anchor more firmly into the bottom. Have your helmsman reverse hard until the rode straightens out, then kill the engine.
Check your bearings again as your helmsman does this, to double check the anchor hasn’t pulled free.

How to Anchor a Boat – WikiHow
Gran Canaria, Tenerife & La Gomera

Gran Canaria, Tenerife & La Gomera

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After Lanzarote & Fuerteventura we headed on to 3 more Canary Islands.

Gran Canaria

We did a night sail across to Gran Canaria, arriving in the early morning, which lead to some lovely views around the busy port.

The anchorage here is attached to the marina, and thus you have to pay a small fee just to anchor. The small fee is only a couple of euros, and this is great in comparison to some anchorages in the UK such as Salcombe that require you to pay around £15 a night to anchor near the river mouth…

We didn’t have lots planned from Gran Canaria, but generally explored, relaxed and ate some tasty food.

On one of our trips to land, we spotted the boat Magic of Bermuda whom we had previously met in Gibraltar. We ended up spending most of the day aboard Magic chatting, drinking tea, and telling stories. On the dock, we also met a French couple looking for a lift to Tenerife, and we decided to pickup our first hitchhikers.

The ARC leaves from this marina in Gran Canaria, so the marina was extremely busy with ARC boats.

Another little tradition of the ARC is boats painting rocks on the breakwater before they leave.

We had a very peaceful night sail to Tenerife with our 2 new friends. They cooked, we sailed. One of them, unfortunately, got a little seasick, but a good sleep out on deck helped them out. They were planning on taking part in a residential art project starting the next week in Tenerife, where they sail across the Atlantic on a catamaran and create art (a project run by @circusspacepirates)

Tenerife

We stopped off in Tenerife, dropping off our 2 hitchhikers. Our next guest was also going to be arriving in while we were here. The plan was for them to join us down to Cape Verde and then across the Atlantic.

As soon as Gareth arrived we sent him straight up the mast!

On the whole, Tenerife was another short stop off, where we restocked on Gas, food and did some final maintenance before setting off on what would be our longest crossing yet in the next weeks.

La Gomera

The sail to La Gomera was once again a night sail, but this time with 3 crew, meaning we could try with just a single shift each on watch.

Here we met up with SV Blue Note who we had planned to sail from the Canaries to Cape Verde with us in a little race, and they had also joined another Dutch boat called Extress who would also leave on the same day.

The story that we have to tell for La Gomera is the afternoon we nearly stole another boat’s anchor!!!

But that’ll come in the next post!

Lanzarote & Fuerteventura

Lanzarote & Fuerteventura

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As you may be able to tell, we have fallen quite behind with our blog posts, we have just been having far too much fun and doing too many longer crossings.

We are currently in Barbados having just celebrated Christmas in an Airbnb!

But enough about what’s happening now, time to jump back and catch up!

You can already read about our adventure to the Canaries from Tarifa, exploring the first island, and hopping down to Lanzarote, and that’s where this post will start, exploring the Canaries.

Lanzarote

From the marina in Puerto Calero we hired a car to explore Lanzarote. Apparently, all hire cars here are hybrid Fiat 500s.

We headed to one of the main island tourist attractions (the volcano and park) to get our first volcano experiences of the trip.

There were hot water jets, volcanic ovens which cooked food you could eat in the restaurant, burning of wood, not gravel etc.

For some of us, this included a little flashback to our childhood, having visited the island before.

While exploring the Island we spotted a Decathalon and finally bought something we have been thinking about for some time… a SUP!

(It’s going to be getting quite some usage in the future)

Fuerteventura

On the way to Fuerteventura we saw a very nice-looking Risso dolphin or 2.

We ended up in a cheap marina recommended by our friends on SV Blue Note called Grand Tarajal.

Though generally sunny, one evening we got our first real thunderstorms here since setting off from the UK. The lightning was all in the distance and we managed to get a few nice pictures.

From the marina, we got a local bus up the coast to a town with a resort and hired another car, once again a Fiat 500, and started exploring the island some more.

We headed to the northwest coast to find some surf to try out our new SUP.

And you know what they always say, the best car for unpaved road exploration is a hire car. And that car is a Fiat 500!!! The video below doesn’t do the whole journey justice, and some parts felt like true offroading.

After a 30-minute bumpy ride which nearly caused us to turn around twice, we found ourselves at a lovely beach (and also saw that the northerly route might have been a little easier drive).

The SUP was a “Medium” Itiwit Inflatable Stand Up Paddle SUP (Length: 9′ (274.5 cm) Width: 33.1″ (84 cm) Thickness: 4.9″ (12.5 cm)), one of the surfiest looking SUP they had in Decathlon when we bought it. Also with 232 liters of buoyancy, it should be floaty enough for both of us to use to paddle to shore in the future.

It was quite a bit of fun…

This beach also had a great set of rocks which included a little pool of warm water that got the occasional wave into it.

And horses!

Thanks, Fuerteventura, you were great!

Hop down to Puerto Calero, Lanzarote

Hop down to Puerto Calero, Lanzarote

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Fully recovered from what ended up being a long, slightly swell-themed sail, we started heading down the coast of Lanzarote.

We hadn’t visited a marina in almost 3 weeks, so really wanted a decent shower. Puerto Calero looked a good distance away and could be a good starting point for getting to Fuerteventura. So off we went

This was mostly an easy downwind sail, with a little rain to start…

We called the marina on VHF 9, they quickly responded and said we could stay for 2 nights.

First, they had us moor on the fuel pontoon to fill out paperwork.

Before then moving to one of the most expensive accidents waiting to happen (between 2 million pound catamarans) alongside the pontoon.

Fortunately, we pulled off a smooth docking without a hitch.

Kathryn was still crazing pizza, as we didn’t find one in La Graciosa, so this was top of our list.

There was a little place called MargaRita on the other side of the marina, and the pizza there was truly amazing.

La Graciosa

La Graciosa

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After a day of recovery from our rather long crossing (we mainly lay around, sleeping eating and watching TV), we headed to shore to wonder around the Volcanic island.

First, we headed up the closest volcano-like thing, where we got a great view of our part of the island, nearby beaches and anchorage.

We then headed to the north shore to see the breaking waves and the few people surfing them.

The north shore also had many rock pools with all kinds of sea life in them.

The most interesting of which was a collection of hermit crabs all trying to get in line to swap shells. We watched for quite some time, but none of them could decide which one should take the new larger shell that they had found.

There was also a self righting sea snail.

Kathryn was craving pizza, so we headed to the main town of the island in search. There was a pizza place on Google maps that should have been open, but sadly not.

We ended up at the popular local restaurant where we had black squid ink paella.

The walk back to the anchorage took around 20-30 minuites and was lit by moonlight.

We spent much of the rest of our time in this anchorage snorkeling around. The water was so clear and warm we could see to the bottom with ease and didn’t need a wetsuit.

This also gave us an opportunity to dive on our anchor to see how close to the rocks we were.

Day 81: Sesimbra

Day 81: Sesimbra

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Our pre planning of heading to Cascais rather than heading further into the Lisboa river served us well on day 81, as the 27nm journey took us 10.5 hours due to light winds (we only adveraged 2.5 knots).

We managed to get the fishing rod out due to our mostly slow sailing. We tried a mixture of single deep diving lures, and also the paravane with feathers and a spinner.

As Adam was making dinner Kathryn started to reel the rod in, but is felt suspisciously heavy. Upon getting the paravane up to the surface Adam walkd away thinking that job was done., before Kathryn said “wait we caught something”.

Normally the paravane should come to the surface when it catches a fish, but either there was something wrong with this fish, the paravane, or perhaps it just bit at the last second?

We caught our first Mackerel scad (thanks Mark for helping us identify).

Anchoring in Sesimbra wasn’t ideal, we arrived just after the sun had set, and the anchorage remained rockey for most of the night, but there were not many alternatives.

Day 75-76: Cascais

Day 75-76: Cascais

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Day 75 saw us heading to Cascais. This was the moment we turned the first “corner” on the west coast of Portugal.

The anchorage was large and there was plenty of room for us right in the middle.

That evening we headed to shore to explore what Cascais had to offer and to find some food.

Once again, as keeps happening at many of our ports of call, there was a festival happening.

We stayed in Cascais for 2 days, as long ago during the planning of the trip Kathryn had seen a place called Quinta de Regaleria that looked rather awesome, and we had to check it out.

This meant a short taxi to Sintra and a day spent surrounded by more tourists than any of us have seen in a while.

Day 74: Ericeira

Day 74: Ericeira

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The next port of call on the way to Lisbon was Ericeira.

Parts of this hop were quite light on the wind front and mostly downwind.

We found ourselves gull winging with the Genoa and Ghoster, before switching to the cruising chute for the first time since leaving the UK in its newly repaired sock.

What a joy it was to fly in comparison to trying to hoist it behind the Genoa.

Here it is on the way up (excuse the talking)…

And here it is a few minutes later on the way back down when we decided it wasn’t going to work with the wind that we had at the time.

Upon reaching Ericeira we were only joined by one other boat in the anchorage. Most boats seemed to pass by Ericeira, probably due to its small size, and head straight to Cascais of beyond. The one other boat that joined us for the night we had actually been sailing near since Figuera.

The harbour had quite an interesting dock, lowered into the water by crane when in use, but hoisted out most of the time.