13th January. The marina in Santa Cruz has expanded since the few, temporary, pontoons we tied up at in 1999 but it is in a building site as there is a massive remodelling of the waterfront going on. There is no wifi, showers that are solar heated (which we only discovered by trial & error)so they are cold until noon, and lots of dust! It is lovely for all of us to have Charlotte with us again, but especially for Harry as they go off and do things together.
Harry at Loro Park
From Santa Cruz, Tenerife, to Antigua is roughly 2800 nautical miles, and as we average 5 knots it should take us about 23 days (last time, in 1999, we were becalmed for 4 days and this voyage took 25 days). So allowing for days drifting we need to store for at least 4 weeks. We have enough fuel to motor for over 600 miles and we have 500 litres of water in 3 tanks (so if one gets contaminated we don’t lose all the water) plus another 70 litres in bottles. So, boy, are we careful! We can be as profligate as we like with salt water though and John has promised to get a watermaker by Panama...
We couldn’t get the gas bottles (for the cooker) filled here or in Gran Canaria despite driving to several places. Undaunted, John bought local bottles of propane and with the aid of a halliard to suspend them and cold water to cool our bottles he filled them himself. Our order from West Marine in America never got further than Madrid as the Fed Ex office there said we had to be Spanish taxpayers for them to deliver the goods to us!! I’ve made new mosquito net covers for the hatches and net hammocks for food, Charlotte & Harry have scrubbed the decks & done general chores and we all want to get going now.
Shopping takes ages as most things are unfamiliar, the only (very big) bonus being that once we leave we can’t shop for weeks. Pacing the supermarket we were trying to work out which flour was for bread – all the packets were unhelpfully illustrated with bowls of flour- and searched in vain for tomato puree.
Now the boat is stuffed with food, I am about to go and use the washing machine for the last time here, we will go ashore for a meal tonight and sail off towards the Caribbean tomorrow.
14th January. Ha! Thought that was SO well planned but the weather conspired against us with no wind and a nasty swell – so we have had a sunny day here and leave on Sunday 15thwhen we will go to GMT -1 hour as we are already at 16W (one hour difference for every 15 degrees of longitude).
PS See Food Blog for a bit more on the food stuff & my recipe for veggie burgers!
