Positive News At Last

Hooray, as of about an hour ago it's working! They spent yesterday putting everything back together which wasn't without the usual problems. Things not coming apart, and things being very stiff to put back together. Some hits with a hammer with a prayer "please don't break" seems to have done the trick. They finished up last night refilling with oil ready to test this morning. And, so far it is reported to be running well, and doing what it should, with the leg free and easy to lift and drop. So now it's a massive clean up operation, the boatyard being very dusty with the wind getting it everywhere. Pete was doubtful they would be able to get lifted back in until Monday, when they would really put the engine through it's paces and give it a good test. Then store up on Tuesday to be ready to go (fingers crossed) on Wednesday. This gives them 25 days to get across to St Vincent before we do! Thank goodness for the satphone, as at least I will have a good idea of progress, and can always try and organise accommodation for a few days when we get there if necessary.

They are out and they have parts!

Here she is being lifted out.

After and bit of an epic they finally got their hands on the parts this morning. Augustin has joined them now and has been worth his weight in gold with his ability to speak the language! They got lifted out yesterday morning and spend the day taking things apart, cleaning and antifouling.

Three Wise Monkeys

So today it's a case of trying to put everything back together in working order. Fingers toes etc crossed big time! They are certainly alot happier with just being able to finally get on with something after a wasted week. I have no idea at the moment when or how quickly they will be able to get lifted back in. With all the ARC boats wanting to antifoul before they go, the lifting schedule is completely backed up but once again they are hoping Augustin will be able to sort it for them.

No Parts As Yet

Anchored outside the marina at Las Palmas

The parts have not yet arrived, and it is an anxious time. Pete has been hearing horror stories from other boats down there waiting for shipments of things, and apparently it is quite normal for stuff to be sent to Madrid and stuck there for at least a week. Anyway he made a phone call to Silette this morning and they kindly tracked the consignment and it is showing as having arrived in Las Palmas. So a bit more digging and Pete now has the address and phone number of the local office so he is hoping to find out some more today. The hanging around is getting to them, as it is not an ideal anchorage, quite awkward for getting ashore, and they have had no wind for a week which means power onboard has become a huge problem. They are running the engine to try and keep the essentials going but it is a pain. It will be a huge boost if they parts arrive today, and the new crew should turn up tomorrow. He is a Canarian called Augustin, and is in his early thirties. He has quite alot of experience and speaks 5 languages so he will prove very useful if they get to the stage of negotiating with the boatyard about lifting out the boat. So, in theory things can only get better!

More Engine Trouble

When they had organised themselves nicely in Gran Canaria ready to concentrate on finding crew, Pete decided to try and free the engine leg up some more. It had been really stiff since the work in Spain and they were unable to raise it out of the water at all, which was less than ideal. Anyway as you can probably guess, he tinkered, and it broke again. The new pins that the engineer had drilled made everything really stiff and tight, and this put pressure on the casing and yoke which have now broken. (I think this is right anyway) I do tend to glaze over these days when it comes to engine trouble - I just wait till he gets to the how much it's going to cost bit. Anyway, he is now waiting for more parts from Silette. They can lift him out on Wednesday and he can sit in the boatyard to do the repairs, which he is going to attempt himself. He says he has seen it being dismantled and reconstructed so many times now he should be able to do it without an engineer. If he gets stuck he will call one in then. Once again Silette have been really helpful, and have couriered out the parts, which he is hoping will arrive on Tuesday. So it's a waiting game once again. On the positive side, he is getting plenty of interest in the crew space. Apparently there are youngsters everywhere trying to find spaces on boats, and there is a notice board full of adverts. He is gutted to have missed the twin blonde scandanavian girls who were looking for berths, surprisingly enough they were snapped up pretty quickly(!) Meanwhile it is quite an experience down there with the place being totally overwhelmed with the ARC boats and their preparations.

Lanzarote to Gran Canaria

The forecast was for light easterly winds so we took the opportunity to get going. It was really quite difficult to get into the right frame of mind for going back to sea after so long in the marina but it was going to be beyond our budget to stay and we might never leave then, so prise ourselves from the berth we did. Once out we dropped into the watch keeping routine fairly swiftly with Adam doing the first stint as I was feeling groggy and had a baggy head, I was finally catching the cold I hoped San had left behind in the UK before she came out to see me.
As is normal on this trip we had dolphins leaping not far away before the afternoon was out, these were on a mission though and ignored us and went straight on by. The sailing was very easy with the wind from dead astern and hardly reaching force three, it was a bit slow but very comfortable and we were in no hurry. In the late evening I could see the loom of lights from Las Palmas from over fifty miles away so it was easy to just steer straight for our destination. I was quite surprised by the amount of shipping going to a fro here, this kept us alert as only a few nights ago a big French steel ketch was run down out here and the ship did not stop and probably never noticed, fortunately the yacht survived but is a right off with a massive dent amidships. It must be said there was no one keeping a watch on the yacht at the time apparently so the story goes.

Las Palmas is a big city and the marina and anchorage is huge, we went straight to the anchorage but took three attempts to get the anchor to dig in, space is a bit limited as there are loads of yachts here but we picked our spot not too far from the beach, and a nice sheltered anchorage it is, apart from when the speedy boats are playing or a tug boat goes past.
There is a big notice board at the marina with loads of people wanting to crew so we are fairly hopeful of finding another crew for the trip across soon, the two Swedish girls advert was quite appealing but I only have room for one more unless I kick Adam off or he kicks me off Hmmm choices.