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Our crew arrived
in Lanzarote. Bob Hall arrived from Germany where he and his wife
Judy had spent Christmas with their son and his family. Jeff Elledge
and Wiley Hill arrived from Florida. By January 2, all five of us
were on the boat and we left Lanzarote at 20:30 on a calm night and
motored in a calm sea all the way to Las Palmas on Gran Canaria. We
arrived at 14:00 and fueled up and were directed to a place on the
wall to tie stern to.
We arrived in good weather but from that point on it has deteriorated
into a real foul situation. The wind has been screaming out of the
east, which means we are getting sand off the Sahara. At one point
the dust was so thick you could not see the high rise buildings of
the city just across the harbor.
We have been
here trying to get a pole for our spinnaker and even with efforts
through several dealers we have not been able to accomplish that.
We have also tried to get the back light for our Nav Station radar
repaired; but that too we have been unable to accomplish.
We have provisioned with frozen canned and fresh foods and we will
top off the fuel and water before we leave. Now we are waiting for
the weather.
Through the
desert areas of the world we have not experienced a sandstorm like
this. The boat is covered with red dust and it has worked its way
through every nook and cranny inside and outside. Thank goodness
we have dock water and today Charlie washed
the boat down, it won't take long and we will be brown again
but for the
time being it is clean.
We are anxiously
watching the weather systems and hope for a clear window for the
crossing. We will be in the company of two other boats, Que Sera
Sera, and Prince Karl and we will all adjust our speeds to stay
within single sideband range.
We expect the crossing to take about twenty days, so it will be
awhile before you have an update to the web site. We are fortunate
to have three good sailors to share the work and the adventure of
an Atlantic crossing. Until later, from Sea Gem, waiting to go.
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