Las Palmas marina
Sunday / Monday 8-9 November
We are happily nestled in our dock on the end of K pontoon next to some enormous catamarans and other monohulls. La Bamba is one of the smaller boats here.
On Sunday morning we said goodbye to Kevin – we will miss him and his camera, so please reduce your photographic expectations!
We wandered into the big city and found a nice restaurant for lunch. Las Palmas is the 9th biggest city in Spain with a population of over 350,000. We are a bus ride away from the old town which is South of here and hopefully we will find time to explore that later.
I booked us in for our ARC check in and our safety check on Tuesday and did a bit of washing. David finished wiring in our new speed log and depth sounder that replaces our impeller. I think this is a great improvement as it doesn’t need cleaning and avoids opening a hole in our cabin floor on a regular basis!
There was a huge thunderstorm and rain shower which cleaned off our decks nicely.
On Monday we drove La Bamba round to the yard where she was lifted out of the water on an enormous crane with a sling. It was an uncanny feeling when we came out of the water!
Once ashore she was hosed down to get rid of the (impressively) small amount of grime on her bottom, and David cleaned the growth off the propellor – which definitely needed doing. He used pink acid which did the job!
David and Sam also changed the anodes on the prop which were pretty corroded. These are bits of sacrificial zinc that corrode to protect the metal bits of the boat. The new anodes David had brought to replace them weren’t quite the right size, but luckily the yard had one last pair we could use!
David also accidentally tested the line cutters on the propellor (to prevent it getting fouled on lobster pots etc), fortunately a kind yard worker kept a spare plaster in his wallet – which is a really good idea – as there was nothing in the yard’s first aid kit and all our plasters were up on the boat!
We then filled up with diesel – this should be the last time before the Caribbean! And we got a new gas bottle – unlike Lanzarote they don’t seem to have a supply problem here.
Then we went outside the harbour to calibrate our boat speed – this involves driving up and down a bit so the software can calculate the accuracy of the equipment.
The sea was much calmer than when we came in with fleets of Oppies and Lasers racing round the buoys.
After that all we had to do was wash the blood off the deck and get a late lunch in the Sailors Bar on the dock.
Tomorrow we check in for the ARC and Sam’s friend Rosemary joins us.