Las Palmas
Thursday 12 November
On Thursday morning we had our rig inspection. We did have it done in Lymington earlier this year but we have sailed over 2000 miles since then so we thought it would be a good idea to do another one before we do another 3000 miles (very soon!)
The rig checker was very complimentary of our rig and told us it was ‘maybe the second, maybe the best set rig in the marina’ or perhaps he said it was the best he had ever seen? Anyway I’m taking it as a confidence boost!
We then walked round to the harbour wall to watch and cheer on the ARC plussers who are finally setting off on their first leg of 900 miles to Cape Verde. It was a rather grey day with spitting rain but they were all glad to finally get off after a 5 day delay.
There were several boats with kids on board and I did notice that pretty much every boat was bigger than La Bamba – especially the ginormous catamarans.
Despite the weather it was a lovely send off and I felt quite emotional thinking of the big adventure we are all setting out on.
On our ARC rally we will have some enormous monohulls with up to 15 crew on them which will be a sight to see when we set off on Sunday 22nd.
When we got back to our dock there was lots of empty space!
David and I went to our first seminar – they put on quite a few of these – on Downwind Sailing. Unfortunately it was given by a salesman for parasails. These are big spinnakers with kite style slots (holes) in them which are probably useful on a catamaran.
Having established that 15% of the audience were catamaran sailors he proceeded to tell us all that we wouldn’t be able to reef going downwind (we can) so we should all dump the main completely and just use a parasail day and night (although you have to look out for squalls and take it down for those – are you then supposed to hoist the main?).
He was very scathing about asymmetric spinnakers, and it’s true that they don’t go dead downwind, (Lily is best up to about 140 degrees) but he also dismissed goose wing with a poled out Yankee (which is our most likely preferred option and excellent dead down wind) because apparently you can’t gybe – we most definitely can.
Anyway we aren’t buying a parasail anytime soon, and to be fair he did say some useful stuff about chafing – which is the biggest problem on a long passage – and to perhaps think about a second down haul on the pole and a block pulley on the end of the pole which we are considering.
We then chilled – I am learning the ukulele and enjoying it – probably a lot more than those who witness it.
