sailing maloo: good bye monkeys

after a long wait for the right weather pattern we finally had the right wind prediction to go south.

the almost 4 weeks in la linea were a mixed experience: annoying, because we couldn't go anywhere, thinking that the weather might change and we'd miss our chance - exhausting, because we tried to use the time to get some boat-things done - cold, because the weather was just awful - funny, because those monkeys are really cute and fun to watch - great, because we made really good friends I would not want to miss anymore (Lisa, Gill, Cameron and Samuel of Fabiola took great care of us, feeding and entertaining us! thanks so much for not only that, guys! - I reckon borrowing our bikes just won't make up anymore...)

but there we are - out the strait of gibraltar we go, snug along the coast making use of a couple of back currents pushing us out. just after tarifa mark and i landed our first tuna! a wonderful fish, that would be our dinner for the next couple of nights.

with fabiola and a lot of other boats we knew around us, we went into the first night. with no moon out and clouds it was pitch dark- and very very cold. wearing two layers of everything we started our 4h watch regimen. unlike the prediction (which had a nice northeasterly along the route we plotted) the wind died off where we are.

the night went on, the next day came and in the morning the wind slightly picked up again. but the angle was not as nice as hoped... so we tried "goose-winging" for the first time on maloo. (i.e. poling out the headsail on one side and having the mainsail on the other side - very useful to go as far down wind as possible)

the second night started rather smooth but as the hours went on, thunderclouds built and in the early morning hours I found us surrounded by massive thunderbolts hitting the water - beautiful to watch when in a nice house with a cup of tea - bloody scary when in a boat with a mast alone on sea - so we switched of every antenna (like the vhf right up the top) and took all power off the batteries only steering to the compass to make sure we attract the least attention possible to any flash up there ;)

heavy rain followed and for the next day we tried to avoid one thunder system after the other - they fortunately had little wind in them (at least where we were) - but the wind direction changed like being on some joyride.

other boats - other conditions: just 20nm away from us, other yachts had great wind or even too much and a hell of a lot of bad luck. over vhf we got news of sails being torn and another boat suffering a knock down. horrible things to hear - but thank god no one was hurt or serious damage done!

morning of day 3 had us surrounded by a massive pod of very playful dolphins which stayed with us for over an hour... funny how you feel really knackered in one moment (after two nights of very bad to no sleep), wondering what you ever thought when you decided to do this sailing thing, and the next moment you are surrounded by dolphins and you know that exactly this sailing thing has clearly been the best choice ever made!

we heard them talk to each other through the hull of the boat as they swam left and right and under our boat - just amazing.

while looking at the dolphins i noticed a bit of rope coming out the back of our boat. it was stuck so the first thought was it would be around the prop (and this was not the nicest thought!) we took our little gopro camera and put it on a pole to film under water. we were quite relived to find this rope only being stuck between the rudder and the hull. again we were incredible lucky as this string would come out just after maneuvering in the marina 2 days later without us having to dive)... check out the video below!

a few hours later we got another visitor - a little bird needed some rest and after hanging out outside in the cockpit for a while he decided it was much cozier down below... so down he went.

he got really friendly and looked for various places to sleep (see photos), sat on my hand for a bit and tried our bed - i wonder what these birds do out there, since quite a few came to have a look if maloo would make a good rest stop.

I gave him a bit of sugared water, which he drank happily and after a short snooze he took off again.

friday the 9th we arrived in Graciosa at 10:00am planning to anchor for a couple of nights - but other yachts had the same idea so the anchorage was full and very rolly so mark and I decided to move on to rubicon marina on lanzarote, where we anyway had to go to pick up the last safety gear for crossing the big lake.

this added another 50nm to our trip - we caught another tuna, unfortunately, as after our first catch we were quite "tunaed out" and both did not fancy one more bite! (it was not wasted however: another boat in the marina was very happy to add it to their paella)

we tied off in rubicon at 17.00 - after 5 days and 4 nights on sea.

compared to other yachts around us we were incredible lucky and had no damage done to our boat even though the conditions were nothing like expected. the wind came from every possible direction, the sea was sometimes nice, sometimes very messy - it was definitely not an easy sail down and very demanding.

after a late dinner with the fabiola crew, we had a deep sleep and found ourselves the next morning on this most amazing island of lanzarote. unfortunately we will have to explore the island some other time (which is a huge shame) but las palmas is calling and we will do the jump of 100nm on monday night hoping to arrive for breakfast.

the arc-craze will start and we have to get the last preps done before the big jump.

I tell you, it is more than strange having talked about it for such a long time and now have it finally happening!