Ocean Series - Vol 1 Gibraltar to Grand Canaria

Ooo I love consistency, especially when it relates to me failing to regularly update this blog, but good things come to the very few of you who have nothing better to do.

So exciting times as we head into a new, 3 part drama series about life on the high sea. This will pale in comparison to Below Deck, but at the very least I enjoyed it so let’s begin in the seaside resort of Gibraltar – or Gib as sailors in the know casually throw about conversation. “Where are you heading?” “Heading out the Strait, down the coast to the Canarys you know, stopping by Gib on the way of course” “oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah Gib, I know I know. I’m with you”

Checking out the animals in the Gibraltar zoo populated solely from confiscated animals attempting to be smuggled through

Crossing the runway picking up sails, the water maker and the Iridium Go under the watchful eye of the rock which now costs $150 for a family of 4 to walk up...

So on this wee journey we had our Swiss super sub Serafin along for the ride. I’m pretty sure I’ve covered Serafin’s meteoric rise to fame in another blog or on the tracker but if you haven’t caught up on that, all you need to know is if you’re looking for an ace Pina Coloda, look no further. Serafin really fit in well on the boat. Great with everyone and an extremely accomplished sailor so was a great pair of hands on our first trip in the big blue. Before we left though we had to solve a few things. We picked up the new sails and iridium Go in Gib (look at me go), so Serafin and I put up the new sails and configured everything for the trip but the major items needing sorting out were the no longer working wind instrument and mast head light. Now, the blog about the yard was long and boring so I’ve cover this quickly. The wind instrument at the top of the mast tells you how fast the wind is blowing, and the mast head light is the one you turn on at anchor. Our next anchoring wouldn’t be until Barbados so we were ok to not get on top of that but with some as yet non sailors on board, I’d really planned to be able to say “when the wind gets over 25knots, wake me up”. Also important to admit at this point that when I was in the boat yard in November and the 2 other kiwis boats in the yard were talking about how their wind instruments didn’t work, I was quick to brag about the state of mine and belittle their sorry state of affairs. It would never work again.

So as the 2 things at the top of the mast didn’t work after it had been removed and reinstalled, even though I’d put a brand new mast head light on when it was down. Only 1 really explanation and that is the cabling was somehow damaged during that process. In order to see if the cabling was the problem for the windex I winched Serafin up the mast with a new cable (on the outside of the mast) and tried that – no luck. We then after a few mild mistakes that meant we both had to head up there again pulled it down and plugged it in at the base and it was confirmed it was munted. I ordered a new one, sent it to Holland for the Atlantic crossing crew to pick up from the Dutchies in the family and we would meet them in the canarys and install it. Not ideal, but all would be well. The mast head could wait.

Do you like Pina Coladas and getting caught in the rain

We had a bit of a wait for weather in Gib (!!!) to get through the strait, and the departure time is very important when exiting the Med. Fun fact – The med is about 1m lower in water level than the Atlantic outside so it’s only natural that there’d be a bit of removing the plug from the bathtub action going on as water in the Atlantic desperately wants to get past the goalie into the Med. But then tides get involved and eddies do their thing and the upshot is as confirmed by absolutely everyone we’ve spoken to, no one knows just what the fuck is going on with the currents through the strait. Also in the news are some Orca having a right old time with rudders of well-meaning sailboats. But that’s about it. Oh wait, there are 1 or 2 cargo ships going about their business through this area too, and they most definitely have right of way and are aware of it. Come to think of it, anywhere in the med cargo ships haven’t gone through power gives way to sail skool but not relevant for this area mind.

The fairly crowded community that is Gib

Hello Mr Ship

We were lucky that we only had about 6-7 boats to cross on the straight, note the distinct lack of information in the True and Apparent wind speed sections, and also the 3 knot current against us just leaving the harbour - it would be worse later on

Given all of the above and us wanting to exit the med with the same # of rudders as when entering, our route would be to head directly south to Morocco and hug that coast on the way out before heading south.

Our route south

I was super excited to leave the med and head into the ocean. Helen was rightly nervous and Serafin was working toward his Swiss Ocean Licence (critical for a land locked country) so was as excited as I was. The kids were downstairs reading and we had to drag them upstairs to say goodbye to Europe, hello to Africa and the Atlantic.

On leaving we saw several pods of dolphins that freaked the bejesus out of us as we initially thought they were orca, but we were actually across the strait with little drama and soon fighting the current and tidal waves. I’ll shorten the rest and just say that we smashed into the current and it was not fun. A long, long day under engine doing high speed through the water but nearly walking pace over the ground – this was our final experience of the med and I’m still glad to have left. Pointless having a sailboat in the med!

But now we were out, the wind was there and the sails were out. We had a few yachts around us as we left the Med and the sun set, so it was perfect timing for us to notice the Nav lights suddenly stop working. Fabbo…

There was a fair bit of chop as the currents and acceleration zone exiting the Med converged with the Atlantic so it was perfect timing to be upside down looking at fuses. With the mast head light out the only one we had left was the steaming light so that was lit to give some visibility. Even my face was turning green being upside down trying to figure out fuses behind a panel in rolly seas. With each fuse blown I was no closer to working out the issue until predictably I ran out of the right fuses, so a larger one was the only option. Not a great one mind as a larger fuse means a fire hazard and in hindsight not my best idea but with some massive luck and stringent supervision, the stern light started flickering. Also luckily, the Bavaria is weird in that the forward nav lights are turned on separately to the stern light, so we just turned off the stern light, zip tied a headtorch to the pushpit and with that I went to bed feeling a bit of kiwi ingenuity giving me a warm cuddle.

We were making great speed now too. The new sails were amazing and with the feathering prop we were really sailing well. Really long period swells gave us some nice gentle speed boosts with a great movement but as dawn broke eventually the wind died down and then it wasn’t enough to keep the sails full and they started flogging. The familiar engine thrum or tractor started up once more and we were motoring again, and the next day the soldering iron came out and the stern light wiring that causes the fuses to have a paddy was fixed and the headtorch retired, as much as that hurt.

Bit of card game action

Nothing like pancakes for breakfast

Serafin Dominating

Looking through the logs we made decent progress down the African coast, wind came and waned until 3 days out we celebrated our first milestone of sailing 24 hours in a row, incredible really given how long we’d been living on a boat but then we had a great few days under sail. In fact taking over from Serafin during the evening after an amazing shift prompted him to exclaim Tu Meke was going like a “Fucking freight train”, although the next day he was said it was going like a “Fucking rocket ship”. Either way, you get the idea - we were making great progress and had a great wind angle.

Idyllic conditions with full gloriously white sails out

Heavily reefed for the night but still smoking along

Easing down the coast

And we had really great conditions for this trip. There were movies, card games, good weather, pancakes for breakfast and a nice, relaxed atmosphere. Helen got some sleep too – not enough of course but the conditions meant it was manageable.

Dinnertime down below means great weather up top

Daytime card games

Somethings up, can't remember what though

A highlight of this part of the trip was 2 other boats that were travelling together – a German and a Japanese boat. With a keen eye on costs, we elected not to start our sat phone account for this trip to get daily weather updates so we were very happy to have these 2 boats cruising down the coast with us, not only for their massively amusing canid banter as they recounted vomiting spouses who were now questioning life decisions, but also as they discussed in detail each weather model and we were very happy to have our 10 day downloaded forecasts be proved extremely accurate, even 4 days into the trip. At one point on day 4, our downloaded weather got a wind change right within an hour of the change – massively impressive and confidence building after the med which was a constant lottery. But yes, we had some daily entertainment as we listened into their scheds.

The really great thing about this trip was that working with Serafin we got a good taste of how Tu Meke liked to be sailed ready for the Atlantic. What sail plans worked in what conditions, how the hydro generator worked (amazing) and how our power worked (although if I did it again now we’d have had more toast on the crossing Maddie – Sorry!). Having his input and enthusiasm to work through sail changes and sailing angles was invaluable. Thanks mate!

The remainder of the trip was pretty cool. We spied Tenerife in the late morning but it’s a surprisingly large island and progress meant we would be arriving in the early hours which is never ideal. The wind died up in the afternoon and keeping the sails full became impossible. They were furled away, the motor came on again and we putted slowly through the night to ensure a daytime arrival and were met by dolphins. We handbraked onto the fuel dock and Serafin, bag packed and ready jumped off the boat into a cab and raced to the airport to get the flight we didn’t think he’d make due the delay in leaving from Gib (boom).

And that was that. Our first ocean trip done and dusted. We just needed to slowly motor around to the anchorage and have a well earned sleep but as we did the anchor refused to work so I put back the mess of fuses to their rightful home and all was right with the world again. In all looking back and baring sleep issues for Helen, absolutely ideal conditions making a satisfying first ocean trip for the boat and crew.

Dolphins bringing us home into Las Palmas, Grand Canaria

End of a 6 day voyage