NOVEMBER_____________________________________________________2005

Tuesday, November 1st

<Ruud> Carpenter's day today. A piece of marine plywood, some screws, patience and a lot of sweat, ready was the new support for our outboarder. We didn't like the idea of having such a heavy motor (35 kg) hanging on the dinghy, even with davits as strong as ours, so a construction was needed to keep the engine safely in an upright position during our forthcoming crossing. I was rewarded by another fantastic fantasy lunch by my wife and a hot cup of "sahlep" in the evening while the boat was rocking gently in a harbor full of light.

Wednesday, November 2nd

<Araksi> We wanted to leave Las Palmas already a couple of weeks ago but are still here. Having yet to finalize our insurance matters and some other paperwork we stick on to our anchorage here in the harbor. Certainly, one can imagine a much more attractive spot. Nevertheless this one here definitely has its advantages; we know our way around in the city by now; in a city which is big enough to easily find most of the supplies needed for boat and daily life. Additionally one meets lots of people with lots of experience. We enjoy the companionship among sailors. The only really annoying part of this anchorage is the "tsunamis" caused by the tug boats. They rush out the harbor with their extremely powerful engines producing quite a swell. Their task is to pull in and out the huge containerships. This happens only a couple of times a day, but it's enough to destroy your china (even on a catamaran) if you are not quick enough to secure them.

We had Norman for dinner, with whom we ended the day with lots of jokes and tales.

Thursday, November 3rd

<Araksi> Norman showed up this morning with his gear. Last night when I was talking about climbing the mast to fix the antenna in this rolly anchorage, Norman - who is a professional mountaineer - proposed to go up for us. Well, he didn't have to mention his offer twice. So this morning up he was to check the size and amount of the washers needed to fix the bolt and nut holding the antenna tighter in place. Then, Ruud went to supply the stuff needed. When he was back we gathered on Normans boat "Thomasina" to see the numerous charts, that he had offered us to copy.

In the afternoon our antenna was fixed firmly.

Friday, November 4th

<Araksi> The weather is deteriorating, there is a quite deep low over Madeira which will effect the weather here in the Canaries. Nevertheless I went to investigate about where to copy all those charts; we do not want to miss such an opportunity. The ARC-office was getting ready to be operative on Monday, so I just stuck in my head asking for an address. As I expected they could name a couple of places and even had a Spanish gentleman, a furnisher, in place who could drive me there. Well what else could I want, particularly because I have not been feeling that good since a couple of days.

In the evening we had invited Hans and Anja from "Fiddlesticks" for a drink. They are a Dutch couple waiting here as everybody else to cross the Atlantic.

Saturday and Sunday. November 4th and 6th

<Ruud> It is really getting crowded out here; yachts are pouring in and not all of the crew are aces in anchoring. In the night a small Austrian boat anchored in such a way that they came only a few meters to our bow. So I asked them friendly to go away. No reaction but a shy grin, so the friendly tone had to change a bit. A big yell over the anchorage and my well trained "angry look with flashing eyes" and things started moving: the anchor went up with a lot of difficulties and off they went. Unfortunately, they took their revenge too: while lifting their anchor, they had taken up ours and so we started dragging in an even increasing wind. Luckily, Araksi had noticed this and we could stop Garabes from touching another boat by only a meter. Re-anchoring was easy though, and we found back our peace.

In the middle of the night though we were wakened by a lot of noise. A 60 feet American yacht - still under sail- was trying to anchor in our vicinity. The crew of five were running and screaming around, making one navigational mistake after the other; a typical sign of being overly tired. The wind was pushing them towards us in rapid pace and only with the help of two dinghies, which were pushing the boat away from us, they could avoid collision. A very narrow escape, if they would have crashed on to Garabes, it would certainly have meant the end of the season for us, as repair work would have kept us here forever.

In the night, I dreamed about boats banging together, hulls being crushed and stanchions being torn apart...

Monday, November 7th

<Araksi> Anja and I brought the charts to the copy shop then we went to the organic food store. It has a big variety of articles and a very good vegetable stand. In the afternoon Ruud and I went to the internet center on Plaza Catelina which also has a row of telephone booths. I had quite extensive talks with my sister and mother for a very reasonable price instead of a quite expensive conversations by our mobile phone.

<Ruud> I did my boy scout "good deed of the day" today: Oliver, our new boating neighbor had let go his heavy dinghy while fixing it to his Catana 582, Safari. The current quickly took control of the inflatable and Oliver had no other solution than to strip and jump after it. Good reaction, only a naked man has no pocket to put away an ignition key, so when he finally reached his dinghy, he could only jump aboard to be carried away towards the open sea. Luckily we had seen all this, and so I picked him up with our own inflatable, and delivered him safely to his wife and children. Next time I want to save a naked woman though...

Tuesday, November 8th

<Araksi> It is a beautiful day today, with no wind and lots of sunshine, which means lots of energy input through our solar panels. The last couple of days were dark and dreary so we had to run our engine for an hour or two to fill up our batteries. In the morning I ran the washing machine and cleaned - only halfway - the waterline of the boat. Here in the huge and busy harbor it gets dirty quite fast. Norman came by with a lengthy list of drugs for our first aid kit. He had given to one of his crew members the task to set up a drug list, and the latter had carried out his task meticulously. Now we are one of the beneficiaries of his hard work! At noon we went to pick up the charts. The copies are nicely done, thus we are now possessing charts of South America and of most of the Pacific islands for a very reasonable price. In the afternoon I baked bread, inspired by Anja's talk about baking rye-bread with just plain yeast. It worked. This makes the entire process much easier, for now I don't need to prepare the laborious sour yeast, necessary to rise the dough made of rye flour. In the evening we went out for dinner. Back on the boat, we enjoyed the quiet evening, the gentle movement of the many boats, and the bustling city with its sparkling lights.

Wednesday, November 9th

<Ruud> Our survey report - needed for the new insurance - is finally ready. So I took a long walk to the end of the harbor where the surveyor`s office is situated. Garabes was evaluated at a price very close to the one we paid when purchasing her, confirming that Catanas - unlike many other yachts - really keep up their value.

I finally could then prepare the letter to the new insurance company, putting an end to a task that took surprisingly long to finalize.

Thursday, November 10th

<Araksi> We went to take our second tetanus injection today at the Red Cross inside the marina. As expected, the vaccine knocked us off a bit, so we took it easy for the rest of the day. We also got the address of the tropical institute for we want to be vaccinated against other illnesses too.

Friday, November 11th

<Araksi> We were almost all day long on the way today with Anja and Hans. We first found the tropical institute which is on the way to the industrial zone, our actual target today. Anja was looking for inox pipes to support the boats awning while I am interested in wooden planks for making some shutters for our hatches in case of a damage. At noon we ate at a Chinese restaurant, on the sea front. It was 17:00 when we were back on board. I was exhausted, especially since the tetanus injection of yesterday was still troubling me. Tetanus is apparently one of the few shots which can knock you down for a couple of days. How true!

Saturday and Sunday, November 12th and 13th

<Araksi> It is a dark and rainy weekend with some strong winds. Anja and Hans came by to say goodbye on Saturday, before they left for La Gomera.

On Sunday morning the Coast Guard was doing some rescue exercises here in the harbor, mostly a show for the ARC people. Now only a week left for the departure, the marina is full of the ARC participants.

Monday, November 14th

<Araksi> I suppose we made the drug store in the marina a little richer today with our long list of medicines for our first aid kit. Most of them are from the list Norman had given us. Having that done we marched to the institute for tropical diseases and had all our vaccines (Hepatitis B, Typhus, Yellow Fever) done. No pains, no weakness at all. In the evening we had Norman and his crew on board for a goodbye drink.

Tuesday, November 15th

Norman left, we had Annick and Michael on board, they will leave tomorrow morning for Tenerife.

<Ruud> A few days ago Oliver had passed by and we had agreed to go fishing with his catamaran. Oliver - though trying hard - had never caught any fish before and was happy as a little child when we caught our first prey - a nice skipjack tuna of some 2.5 kg - just 30 minutes after leaving the harbor. An hour later the second one - a bonito of some 3 kg - followed crowning a perfect sailing trip around the Northern peninsula of Gran Canaria.

At home, Araksi converted the two fishes into a five star sushi meal and the three of us enjoyed with some excellent wine.

Wednesday, November 16th

<Araksi> Around noon time we heard a familiar whistle from the direction of the marina. It was Helga's natural horn to attract attention and sure she did; without any electronic telecommunication devices we knew that Helga and René were here to visit us. After having some drinks on board we all went to town, and visited some nice corners of the city. René's main concern though was to buy a laptop, so we found out the address of Mediamarkt, a huge store for every kind of electronic and electrical devices. Once in this land of milk and honey for electronics every one of us went to search for something; while René and Helga were busy choosing among the various computers I started to search the rows for a bread baking machine, and I surely found one. Ruud detected a reasonably priced USB stick. We took some measures of the computer and the bread machine and were on our way back to Garabes, with the intention to come back on Friday.

We all enjoyed a delicious dinner within a warm atmosphere on board while recalling our many dinners we had together on Garabes or on Vagebond in Alghero.

Thursday, November 17th

<Araksi> While Ruud was busy with all the administrative stuff I organized our first aid kit putting notes on the boxes by indicating the diseases they are meant to cure. In the afternoon I cleaned the waterline of Garabes. Our dinghy was a good platform for me to go around the boat without having to be in the filthy waters of the harbor, it is a quite tiring job though to keep the dinghy close enough to the boat while doing the scrubbing. The whole thing took me two hours of work. Well, you would think the reward of a hard job is to lean back and enjoy the result which will make you forget the fatigue and the pain in the muscles. Damn no! Hardly half an hour had gone by as we observed a black oil layer on the water approaching our clean Garabes, noooooooo!!! Splash! everything was black; the waterline, the bottom of the dinghy, and even its attachment line. There was now a much harder job to be done!

Friday, November 18th

<Araksi> As appointed Helga and René arrived around 11:00. Helga had first to find a store at calle (street) Victor Hugo; a place where one can get all kinds of pesticides. The one she was interested in was for definitively eliminating cockroaches (a gel produced by Bayer). These creeping creatures will sooner or later find their way in one's boat. They usually give themselves, or better said their offspring, a lift on packages, cardboard, even on the bottom of the shoes to one's boat. The shopkeeper, an old and very pleasant person, gave us lots of information about the product and as well as his life. Helga and I happy with this different shopping experience marched back to the car, and let the boys bring us to Mediamarkt. Helga and René bought their laptop and we bought a bread baking machine. On our way back to the boat we stopped by the military hospital, which is located somewhere up on the hills adjacent to a cheerfully colored housing area. The pharmacy in this hospital is the only place where you can get the malaria tablets. We were finally around 16:00 on board. While René was busy testing the new computer Helga and I prepared various snacks for dinner. We once again had a pleasant evening, happy to be out here.

Late in the evening when we were enjoying our last bits of dinner, we saw behind us a catamaran approaching. Of course, that had to be Selcuk on "Orient Express", a 582 Catana; he had announced his arrival in Las Palmas a day ago. He and his crew being tired from the journey just yelled hallo, and retired letting the welcome hugs for tomorrow.

Saturday, November 19th

<Araksi> After breakfast we went to visit Selcuk. We had last met him two years ago in Sardinia, so it was great to see him again, even though we had been in touch via e-mail all the time. He sails now on "Orient Express" together with his girlfriend Catherine and her son. On board were as well Patrick and Hervé, two sales managers from Catana. Patrick invited us for a goodbye party which he was organizing for the Catana participants of the ARC. In the evening around 19:00 we were in the small private harbor next to the southern end of the marina where the catamarans were moored. Patrick had set up a stand with snacks and drinks and a dozen of sailors had gathered around it being indulged in some conversations. Two Americans were marching up and down the quai with their huge, mans high sousaphones, blowing out some kind of signal-tones, it remembered us on the communication tones of the extraterrestrials in the film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". It seamed to me as if they were warming themselves up, or tuning themselves in for the start tomorrow.

Sunday, November 20th

<Araksi> To name the departure of the ARC "the Exodus" is really not exaggerating. Around noon time a sheer 240 boats left the marina to line up for the start; and a few hours later the horizon was free of all those departurers. While they were a couple of miles closer to Santa Lucia, their destination in the Caribbean, the almost deserted marina was now filling up with all the boats which were chased out to make room for the ARCies. We watched the event with Helga and René who joined us with their friends Saskia and Wouter. Frankly we were expecting to have a more impressive start considering the huge number of boats leaving the marina. I suppose this lack of flood of impressions was due to the start line being quite out at a distance. Additionally our spot was not close enough to the entrance of the marine to observe all the starters. Nevertheless we had fun on Garabes enjoying our delicious snacks prepared by Helga, and the nice weather with all the activities going around us.

I baked my first bread in the machine it works! The result was better than of those I used to bake in the oven where they become much more dry.

Monday, November 21st

<Araksi> While Ruud went to the military hospital to take the drugs for malaria, I went with Selcuk and Catherine to the health store, spent lots of money but also arranged to buy grain in big quantity, I have to come back for it tomorrow. In the afternoon I was alone on board baked bread, read, and did lots of bits of work on the boat. By the way, baking in the machine is a real treat; you don't have the whole hassle of kneading the dough, waiting for it to rise, and then kneading it again, letting it to rise for a second time and finally putting it in the owen to bake. The machine does it all! The output was almost a success; the top of the bread sunk in a little, so the top of my bread looks rather like a valley instead of a hill. I think the remedy for it is to put some more yeast in the dough. I have to experiment for a while until I bake the perfect bread! The electric consumption of the machine is not that high. It is a 600 Watt or 50 amps machine (for a baking session). The baking program I use has a cycle of 3 hours and 40 minutes of which only the last 45 minutes are the most energy consuming.

<Ruud> Four ARC yachts had sneaked back into the harbor, all with some damage on the rigging or sails, among them a brand new Catana 52. Disappointment and frustration was written over the face of many of the owners and crew. Well, that is sailing too; you never can tell what goes wrong next time.

I went to the military hospital to pick up our malaria tablets. As the hospital is situated on a hill, I decided to walk down through an old quarter full of - apparently - picturesque houses. From nearby the picture changed drastically though, it was the first time that I encountered really poverty in Spain: everything reminded Africa: dirty streets, people in torn clothing, man laying drunken in the open. When looking inside the houses, one could see one-room "apartments" where many people were living, cooking and sleeping. A few blocks away, modern Spain started again, with all kind of boutiques and electronic shops; different worlds so nearby and yet they do not meet.

Tuesday, November 22nd

<Araksi> Three of us, Selcuk, Catherine and myself were on our way to the health store again. I bought 25 kg of grain, enough to bake our own bread for quite a long time. The storekeeper gave us a lift to the marina.

In the evening we had the crew of Orient Express on board for dinner.

Wednesday, November 23rd

<Araksi> It is a beautiful day today, the sun is shining and there is almost no wind. This is what I like at an anchorage. After a nice cup of tee I washed my hear and then started to work on our homepage. I once again neglected to update our site for quite a long time.

Catherine had prepared dinner on Orient Express.

Thursday, November 24rd

<Araksi> We were in town for lots of things today; internet, shopping, buying many small things for the boat and for our daily use.

The insurance company sent out yesterday the documents we have been waiting for. So we hope to receive them sometimes beginning of next week, and finally leave Las Palmas towards Tenerife.

Friday to Sunday, November 25th to 27th

<Araksi> On Friday Helga and René were here to buy some items. As they are in a marina in the more recreational South of the island they don't get as much spare parts as we have them here in the North, the center of maritime activities. Ruud and René went to one direction while Helga and I had our own projects. It is fun being underway with her, we always find something to laugh about. Back in the marina we had to wait for the boys; we thought that was a good opportunity to take some drinks of the waterside café. After a short while we all were enjoying the evening in the café and were telling each other the small experiences we had in the last couple of hours.

On Saturday we were again in town at the internet center, where I called my mother and had a good chat with her. I enjoy it a lot. We then went to the fishing store where Ruud had his rod repaired. It is a curious place which sells lots of things amongst them also self defense articles such as sprays and much more. We are considering to have some kind of protection device, since we don't carry any fire arms on board.

On Sunday you are supposed to rest! Well not today; we were determined to find the leakage in the corner of our berth. After hours of testing we finally spotted the place, which was the fastening of the wooden blend along the starboard side of the boat. Ruud was also busy tightening the screws of the boiler tank under our bunk. This drives the sweat out of him, since the whole system is installed in a relatively small area, which makes it extremely difficult to apply any kind of strength needed for tightening the screws.

Monday, Tuesday, November 28th and 29th

<Ruud> Tropical storm Delta is arriving and it shows: some six hours earlier than predicted, winds of some 30-40 kts set in. We had longtime hesitated to seek for shelter in the marina, but now it is too late anyway; the winds would made it simply impossibly to maneuver in such a tight spot with our lightweight catamaran. Personally,I was not unhappy with this, it is a simple fact that most damages occur in marinas and not in the open. What worried me somewhat are the other boats nearby. One does never know how they have anchored, so we prepare for a restless night with long watches.

And so it was: at the end of day, Delta really set in. The Canaries experienced over 70 knots that night and when it was all over, 200 000 people were left without electricity, a fisherboat sunk and a ferry was badly damaged when it was put against the rocks and 35 died in accidents related to the storm. In several marinas pontoons broke away damaging yachts that were ready to cross the big pond. Other yachts were not tightened enough and pounded against pontoons and concrete breakwaters, confirming the correctness of our decision.

But we had our share of excitement too: as predicted yachts started to drift and some people were taken by fear and tried to move their yachts into the "safety" of the marina nearby, which led to exiting movements in the dark, yelling and shouting at of the respective crew unable to handle their boat, and us sweating when yachts out of control passed closely by. One small sailing boat was racing towards us and the skipper could only just stop his vessel by throwing his anchor into the deep. It happened that the line with which was attached his dinghy had become stuck in the propeller. While the boat was pounding in what had become heavy seas, on of the crew jumped into the water to cut the rope, a crazy decision in such conditions - many are the stories of people being mortally wounded by sharp propeller blades. Luckily the god of fools had pity with him and he managed to free the boat and still be alive. And so we escaped collision by half a meter.

But it was not over yet: yachts were pouring in from the open seas and their tired crews were just putting down their anchor in the most impossible places, letting their boats drifting towards us. Yelling an flashing lights became an adequate means to chase them away again und as such save Garabes from any damage.

We heard many "maydays" over the radio; a French boat with an engine failure kept us further awake as the SAR - search and rescue - were desperately searching for them. In their panic, the crew was unable to give their correct position, but was finally found. Meanwhile, another crazy Frenchmen - being inside the marina!- sent out a second "mayday" as he too had problems with his motor. After the SAR find out that he was in no danger at all, we heard some mighty scolding over the radio. One thing was sure: this guy would have something to discuss with the authorities the next day. And to end the story, some - what else - French got into trouble when their wooden boat - a weird replica of an old Viking ship - was banged against a concrete wall and some of them were thrown into the water. In the end we both didn't sleep for a single minute, helped by tons of adrenaline now flowing through our bodies.

By Tuesday noon Delta finally decided that it was enough and slowly calmed down to some 20 - 30 kts of wind, which felt like absolute peace after such a busy night. Helga and René came to say goodbye with their friend Frank before their departure towards Tobago. We couldn't do much that day, being too tired, but Araksi did some last minute shopping with Helga and picked up our insurance papers that finally arrived.

<Araksi> Monday and the following night was the most critical time of the storm. Besides the whole excitement in the air it was very interesting to observe the psyche of humans in times of stress. During the night the three Maydays (distress calls) set out in a very desperate tone, and the following rescue action by the SAR kept us in suspense. In the aftermath of the storm though ,we gathered the real situation of those who had called for distress. The first boat was ten miles north of the marina and had some mechanical problems, but apparently not that serious to let the rescue team pull their boat. For when they heard that they had to pay for this service (not for rescuing the persons) they disappeared below deck. The second distress caller was in the harbor and had an engine problem (but didn't need it for any kind of escape situation). And the third one was calling for help because he perceived the situation of a fellow sailor who had fallen in to the quiet waters of the harbor as life threatening. I am convinced that the tension inside leads some of us to overreact and seems to blur our judgment. People seem to perceive things as if they were behind a magnifying glass. Most probably none of this calls had been set out, were these people not that excited. Another peculiar thing we observed is that all the calls were set out at night, even though we had much stronger gusts during daytime.

Wednesday, November 30th

<Ruud> Shopping and internetting governed the last day of the month. While walking through town, we discovered a small computer shop which had some very interesting computers on stock. I had planned to buy a new one at the other side of the Atlantic, but technical features and prices of the ones in display were indeed tempting...