Te rest of the story .. Lagos to the Canaries Part 1

With the furler fixed and Emma and Marcus on board we were finally ready to leave on what could only be described as a trip of a life time. The weather wasn't perfect and preparations had all taken a little longer than we hoped. In talking to a follow sailor, Pet on VMG, a cat bound for the Caribbean, it seemed we had to sit and wait... and lucky we did. Friends on Rehua had quite the journey the week before on route to the canaries... big waves and even bigger winds.

At this point we had done the shopping for the trip. Food for 6 weeks, with plans to top off the supplies in the Canaries.  This picture is of cured ham. Basically it's dried ham, hung for months and good for months.. a little time and effort is needed, but once you get the hang of it, it's a real treat when all other meet sources are exhausted !!!
Now it was finally our turn to leave. We chose to stop in Morocco, if for no other reason than to tick it off the list. The plan was to sail to Rabat, but quickly the plans changed and Safi was to be the new land fall. 

After almost a month tied up, the seas and motion got to everyone. First the crew, who suffered the worst. While we manged not to get sick, the crew were not so lucky and for a few days they became rail lovers. 

A little bit of fishing can take your mind off a lot of things. We had up graded the line before leaving Greece, and a good job we had. Almost with in minutes of putting the lure in the water, the reel went crazy. We slowed down and started the procedure to get the thing on board. 

First, we reduce sail area, usually this means furl the jib. Then start to apply tension to the line, slowly at first. And it jumped, probably a 300 lbs marlin, the biggest we had seen so far. I'm not sure we would have know what to do with it once on board. But none the less, we tried to bring it in. At first Anne taught it was a dolphin, but then the reality hit... we had a big one. While the line was strong enough, the lure was not, it was over, we had lost another one :(

And finally in the dark of the night, Safi appeared and we were in.  Safi harbour

Panoramic from the custom office

What an experience! Africa for the first time. People couldn't be more helpful, from the port officials who helped us tie up to the local fishermen offering advice on food and fuel. It was late when we arrived so we all decided to wait until morning to go exploring. 

The following day we organized fuel, food,  and a quick trip to the taxi drivers house... mainly to show his daughter that Americans do exist... and not just on TV... and then we were off. Canaries and more importantly Auntie Maureen here we come.

Every since our wedding, Auntie Maureen has been asking when we might arrive and given our planning skills it was always something like" soon" :) Next week or maybe two weeks... but now we could be more clear ... other than a quick stop to see old friends in Los Palmas, we would be there in a few days. The journey to Las Palmas was more than pleasant. With the crew aboard Anne got her shift off so the crew could be tested. All did a great job... crew proved they were worth the money and Anne got her more than desired rest. 

Sailing between Lanzarote and Fuerteventura we got phone service and Auntie Maureen was the first call.. we still had Spanish sim cards and the canaries are Spanish governed. She was more than excited to hear from us, but disappointed that it would still be a few days before we arrived. She was pulling the bacon out of the fridge and wanted to make sure it didn't want it to go bad before we go there.

In the morning we arrived in Los Palmas and anchored off for a few hours to do a little maintenance. Then before night fall we headed into the marina. Our friends were out sight seeing so there had been no rush to go to port. Now the marina office was closed early for another Spanish holiday, so we tied up and headed out for dinner. In the morning we were allocated a spot, right next to our friends on Rehua and spent most of the morning catching up. Then we got down to the repair list. First on the list was to replace one of the bulbs at the top of the mast with an LED one, to save power. 

Emma once again got the job. Up to the top it was. As with everything, Marcus and I got busy and things took longer than we hoped it might, so Emma hung out at the top for a while. I think she started to worry that she wasn't going to be let down and started to take pictures of exactly how long she was left at the top... first with the sun up and then as the sun went down. By the time she finally got down... it was dark.

With all the easy jobs done and a visit to a Doctor... I'm now really allergic to diesel, we said our good byes and were on the road again. This time, Aunty Maureen  knew we were on our way. Once we untied from the dock it was sure we would arrive no matter what, 10 hours or less.