Archive for September 2021

Thursday, Sept 30, 2021 Latitude 28o  28’ N Longitude 16o  15’ W Santa Cruz Marina, Tenerife A Winter’s Pause Pete and I arrived in Santa Cruz on Monday morning the 20th of September. By that afternoon Pete had found a COVID testing center and passed his required PCR test. By Wednesday morning at 4:30 AM…

Wednesday Evening, Sept 22, 2021 Latitude 28o  28’ N Longitude 16o  15’ W Santa Cruz Marina, Tenerife Landfall On the afternoon of Sunday, Sept 19th a hint of the  high coastline of Tenerife first became visible shrouded in haze. That evening and on into the night, the sailing remained the same as it had been…

Tues Evening, Sept 14, 2021 Latitude 38o 58’ N Longitude 12o 10’ W 650 miles to the Canaries Smooth Sailing We have crossed over to the favorable side of the low pressure system and small waves now push gently on our stern and the wind blows softly at 14 knots over our right shoulder. Together…

Monday Evening, Sept 13, 2021 Latitude 40o 06’ N Longitude 11o 35’ W Rough Seas The seas today were coming hard at the boat, not in neat waves but confused, driven by an approaching low pressure. They were only a meter or so in height, but steep. Sequential hedges of water. The wind builds to…

Sunday Morning, 10:00 AM, Sept 12, 2021 Latitude 42o 02’ N Longitude 08o 58’ W Off the coast of Spain On the Move Nothing special to report, other than that we are on the move again, destination the Santa Cruz Marina, Tenerife Canary Island, 879 nm to the SW. The mechanics in Baiona did a…

Saturday, Sept 11, 2021 Latitude 42o  07’ N Longitude 08o  51’ W Monte-Real Club de Yates Baiona, Spain AIS:  Automatic Identification System An Automatic Identification System  on board is nearly indispensable for sailing anywhere there is traffic about, especially at night or in a fog. It turns traffic separation into a video game since other…

Friday, Sept 10, 2021 Latitude 42o  07’ N Longitude 08o  51’ W Monte-Real Club de Yates Baiona, Spain We’ve been docked at the Monte-Real Club de Yates in Baiona, Spain since Tuesday. Mostly of that time has been spent having the fuel system fixed and preparing the boat for the next passage. After an oil…

Thurs, Sept 9, 2021 Latitude 42o  07’ N Longitude 08o  51’ W Monte-Real Club de Yates Baiona, Spain “Mejor” said Angel the mechanic, turning towards me as he found the source of the fuel leak. I knew enough Spanish to remember that was a superlative, but not sure whether it was good or bad. “Best,”…

Baiona, Spain Speaking of statistics (see last blog), last Saturday morning the levels on the three fuel tanks read 10.5, 12, and 12.5 sixteenths respectively. This corresponds to approximately 58 gallons of diesel since the tanks, all together, hold 80 gallons. After doing the math, there was room to siphon 20 gallons of fuel from…

138 miles to Baiona, Spain “Les grandes personnes aiment les chiffres” – Antoine De Saint-Exupery observes accusingly in the Le Petit Prince. It’s a story I never tire of reading. I’d like to think that I’m not one of his grownups, but I’m very guilty of the accusation. Crew members are requested to enter a…