11/25/13

11/25/13

Just an update to let you know we’re still in port at San Miguel Marina.  Jerry Luh ordered an ssb tuner and it is stuck in customs in Madrid, Spain.  We’re ready to go otherwise.  Every day is filled with chores onboard to organize, clean, prepare.  To provision the boat and get propane we had a rental car, a Citroen Clio.  Clio is the average size car here on Tenerife.  Our rental was gasoline but most cars here are diesel.  With a 1.2 liter engine it was very economical but definitely not a performance auto!  Gerald called the engine a 3-legged hamster on a wheel.  Basic transportation.

On Saturday afternoon we decided to see what Tenerife looks like, other than from the marina to the grocery stores/propane place and back.  Ziggy, our neighbor we’re rafted to at the dock, suggested we drive to Masca so that’s what we did.  First onto the Autopista Sur  heading west then north.  Off the highway to a smaller two lane road carved into the side of rocky cliffs following the coast.  From the road sloping down to the coast are tiers of condos.  Condos all along the coast as far as the eye can see.  Every condo with an unobstructed ocean view.  The other side of the road is basically up rocky terrain.  Further along – we see banana tree plantations in terraced formations up and down the slopes.  So many banana farms.  The roads zig and zag.  Looking up there are light colored stones in lines along the mountainside – like a vanilla swirl around a chocolate ice cream cone.  These are roads carved into the edge of the mountain with a stone wall along the edge.

The roads continued to decrease in size as we made our way to Masca with no longer a line in the middle to keep lanes separate.  There were pull-offs to let traffic by if two vehicles can’t fit side by side.  Twisting our way up, up, up with hairpin switchbacks and commanding views to the crest of the mountain and then down the winding road to Masca.  The villages here are structures built together along the edge of the hill in Spanish style architecture.  At Masca we walked along the stone paths admiring the buildings fringed with colorful flowering plants, the view of the ocean way, way down the cliffs, and the sharp peaks above.

Clio, pulling as best as she could with her little engine, didn’t let us down as Gerald, our fearless chauffeur, sometimes shifted from first to second or second to first gear as we made our way up and down the rough roads.  Then back on the Autopista Sur going 100-120 km/hr. back to San Miguel.  Sounds so fast!  For Clio, that is very fast. 

Sunday turned out to be a great day for the first time to take the boat out.  Because of tropical storm Melissa hundreds of miles away the wind had left our region.  After untying the lines from Ziggy’s boat and then untying the lines from Daydream we left the marina with a light breeze.  Mainsail up, jib out - everything works well.  Gerald got out the fishing line and we had the opportunity to practice stopping the boat to pull in a fish when the pole bent over and Gerald started dancing all around.  OK, next time we’ll be ready…by the time we stopped the boat the fish wiggled off the hook.  A slow sail back to the marina at sunset.

So, here we’ll be until news about the ssb tuner and good weather.  There are many boats that come and go.  Many head to Cape Verde Islands and then to the Caribbean.  Others go directly to a Caribbean island destination.  One couple we met left Saturday headed to Antigua but ended up returning to the dock Sunday.  Their wireless keyboard was not working.  Funny in modern times what maladies keep a sailor in port.  I’ll try to keep you up to date on our departure.  You can always see if we’ve left by checking in to our SPOT page.  Our friends Ryan and Kari aboard Valkyrie have a page to check the progress of both boats although neither have left port yet.  Go to: http://spot.martellventures.com/group/Race+for+Burgers

Hope all is well with you and Happy Thanksgiving.  Send news when you can.

Karen, Gerald, and Jerry aboard catamaran Daydream

Provisioning at the Lidl - Jerry loading Clio

First loaf of bread made in the Dutch oven

Condos to the sea

Terraced Banana Farms

Banana Plantations

A road carved into the edge of the mountain

A road along the edge of the mountain

Good view one way the sea, the other mountains

Gerald and Clio at one of the mountain top parking spots

Switchback

View of Masca taken from road above

View from above

The village of Masca from above

Meeting a bus along the way

View of another village looking from Masca

On the way back - another seaside village taken at the top of many terraces of condos

Sailing along in a light breeze

Gerald trims the sails

Two Jerrys talk of sailing with a peak of  Tenerife in the distance

Panoramic view of Tenerife from aboard Daydream

San Miguel Marina, Tenerife

Greetings from Tenerife, Canary Islands! - See last line of this post for our SPOT online.....

We arrived at the catamaran “Daydream” around noon on Thursday.  Our internal clocks still thought – 6 am.  That did not deter the three of us from jumping right in exploring the boat, figuring out systems, cleaning, organizing, unpacking.  The previous owner was Polish – many of the labels, systems, and instructions are in Polish.  Trial and error resolved most questions and new masking tape labels applied.  Outside the sun was shining and the wind was blowing.  The temperature about 70 degrees.

Here’s the weather pattern so far: no wind until about 8 am.  The wind picks up and blows about 20 knots.  About 8 pm the wind stops.  All from the northeast.  Perfect direction for downwind sailing to the Caribbean.

Thus far the new mainsail is on the boom and the stack pack installed.  Jerry and Gerald continue to inspect and test everything – electrical, plumbing, engines, steering, lines, gear, the list goes on and on.  The boat came with lots of tools and spare parts.  In addition to what we brought – most tasks can be completed.  Our neighbor Ziggy has been kind to loan the rivet gun needed for the stack pack installation.  (Ask Gerald how to say rivet gun in German when you see him next).

There is a small grocery store 5 minutes away by foot that sustained us for the first 2 days.  We had ham and cheese sandwiches, bananas, milk and wine.  Gerald and I ventured up the hill (everything is up from the marina on this volcanic formed island) to find the Super Mercadano other sailors told us about.  Most people speak Spanish here so we have to seek out a Brit to ask for directions.  A kind lady gave us directions and drew a map.  Up through the resort areas full of condos to the Super Mercadano.

Our first hurdle at the grocery store – getting change to put a 1 euro coin in the slot to unlock a shopping cart.  Then into the crowd of Spanish speaking Saturday afternoon shoppers.  We ended up with two carts of food and stuff before calling it quits.  How do you ask for bleach or yeast with very limited Spanish?  We resorted to poking holes in the foil of the jugs that might be bleach and sniffing each one before finding the right jug.  Simple gestures, while holding a bag of flour and saying “pan” resulted in a box of packets that could be yeast.  (Haven’t tried them yet.)  After the checkout we go went out with our two heavy carts (the wheels not only roll forward but turn in any direction making it harder to control but easy to drive sideways while shopping).  How do we find a taxi?  Waiting a couple of minutes ended up being the best way – a taxi arrived with customers but he called a taxi for us.  Down the hill back to the boat.

We are all doing well and hope to be ready to leave in a week – sea trials still need to be done besides more provisions.  Our departure may coincide with the ARC Rally but not intentionally.  The ARC Rally: A gathering of sailors on one of the other Canary Islands, Las Palmas, plan to leave the 24th. 
Wifi is very slow and only available at the marina office.



Karen, Gerald, & Jerry aboard Catamaran “Daydream”

PS  We have a SPOT electronic device on board that will show our GPS position when we push the button.  You should be able to look at it here:

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0xzdMs0KbdCjimA4Z4O2BG38ySD6yQfna

I’ve also linked it to my Facebook account.  We've checked in a few times to make sure it works.  If you click on satellite view instead of map you'll see a picture of the marina but not the exact boat as Google map is not that up to date.

Our arrival - lots of gear!

A view of the marina

Karen & Jerry being silly with the t-shirts & glasses found on board.

Jerry installing the stack pack track on the boom.  Thanks to Ziggy our neighbor for the rivet gun & rivets!

Gerald puts the rivets in for the stack pack lines on the mast.

11/7/13 - Gypsies Don't Have Plans

The time of the year is upon us when snowbirds such as ourselves journey through the Erie Canal and south along the east coast to a warmer climate aboard their floating homes.  You may have been wondering, “Why haven’t I heard from Jerry and Karen?  What are their plans for the winter?  How is Jerry’s health?”   Jerry is doing well, trying to do as many things as he used to but learning to scale back, walking as much as he can,  and he is not scheduled to see the doctor again until next June.  Persephone is high and dry at Callahan’s Marina on Oneida Lake.  After  a summer of cleaning out and cleaning up and advertising Persephone for sale she awaits a new owner.  (If you know of anyone looking for a cruising sailboat, let us know.)  And our favorite response to what our winter plans are: ”Gypsies don’t make plans.”  We really didn’t know what we would do this winter until just last week.

Options:  1. Our friend Jerry Luh had been looking at a catamaran all summer.  If he bought it we promised we would help him bring it home.  2. Our friends Ryan and Kari were hoping we would come aboard “Valkyrie” and sail to the Caribbean with them this winter.  3. We always have my little trawler on a trailer to take to FL to travel (but we’d have to come up with a truck – we sold our truck this summer).  

 It seemed that the catamaran deal was not going to happen, so we were packing the car last Monday to drive to Ryan and Kari’s in Deltaville, VA with our gear.  That’s when Jerry Luh called and said, “I bought the boat!”  The catamaran that Jerry Luh is buying happens to be in Tenerife in the Canary Islands.  We will be flying to Tenerife on 11/13 and preparing Jerry’s new boat for a sail from the Canary Islands to North Carolina via the Virgin Islands and Bahamas.  We’ll be taking the route of the explorers – sailing downwind.  The gypsies now have a plan.  I will do the best I can to keep in touch.