Pre Passage Preparations

We had allowed about 7 weeks in Las Palmas to have enough time to do any jobs, provision, take a trip back to the UK and take a breathe as well!!

This was more than enough time and after four weeks we were probably ready to cross – one of the drawbacks of the Rally became apparent as we had to stay around for longer.  But this was all fine and as more boats started to arrive we realised we were probably too early, and it was fun meeting our new rally friends.

We were still glad to have arranged to lift Yanula Blue – a good check showed nothing major, but some patches of copper coat (her protective bottom!) had come off and we needed extra time to patch her up. Coppercoat is a tricky substance that needs dry and warmth to cure as it is epoxy based – unfortunately when she was lifted it was wet and so more time was needed in the yard.  We are glad we did it though – some friends also lifted their boat to do similar checks on their three year old boat, and unfortunately found galvanic corrosion on the rudder stock! Blimey!! Unfortunately this meant they had to pull out of the rally and wait for a new rudder to be shipped.

The weather in Las Palmas was consistently wet and windy, with occasional glimpses of sun and we were busy!

Victualling variations

Jen wanted to check EVERY supermarket in Las Palmas to find food suitable for the crossing, including part baked baguettes (only in the furthest away Carrefour of course!), rice meals (that don’t need cooking!) and tinned provisions (as fresh would go off and re-stocking in Mindelo wasn’t guaranteed).

Chris was focused on our rigging set up for downwind sailing and generally checking EVERY part of the boat!! There was also more work to do on the water tanks that he had started in A Coruna.

Chris was also on a mission to get a new tattoo, or two, to represent his 10,000 miles of sailing! Find out more Tattoos

Soiree’s and seminars

There were also a range of excellent seminars put on by the Viking Rally team to help us prepare, including medical supplies, provisioning options, weather routing, the entries to the ports at Mindelo and Port Louis, as well as evenings out with all the boats. You can see the photos of the Viking Explorer events on our Viking Explorer Photos page.

It was an amazing feeling of camaraderie and spirit on the pontoons!!

Christmas Craziness

As it was Christmas an Elf named Buddy decided to take up residence on Yanula Blue and got up to all sorts of mischievous antics!

For New Year celebrations we had a pontoon party with karaoke and food that everyone brought and shared, although Kelly on Casa d’Brelly exceeded herself with an amazing platter, creatively using a gangplank as a table.

Tina, our crew, joined us in the final few days and quickly became familiar with things.

There were last minute provisioning runs, and fruit and meat deliveries, before we knew it, it was time to depart!

Leaving Las Palmas

The departure was scheduled for 6 January, but the Viking Rally has always been based on that being a target departure date, based on weather, and as the conditions were still not ideal all the skippers decided to delay and a new date of 8 January was agreed.

We cast off to an audience, with photographers and people wishing us all well. We weren’t the first to leave, but we also weren’t the last and it was an exciting and emotional start! You can see the photos of our Viking Explorer departure on our Viking Explorer Photos page.

Logging the location

We didn’t take detailed notes on the passage, but we always and diligently keep a log, so we will include some of the more memorable parts here (as we are writing this in May!!).  We took a 2 person watch schedule with Tina joining in as she got into the swing of things, and slowly starting to do small watches on her own.

Day 1 – 8 January:

• Chris had to fixed the remote steering line to the hydrovane
• Thankfulness II had to go back to Las Palmasas a line wrapped around their furler
• Windy was shifty and lighter than forecast and the gennaker was up
• Gennaker was taken down for night and the genoa was back
• A tanker went behind us!

  

Day 2 – 9 January:

• Air is chilly – wind topped 25kn but dropping as the morning comes
• Beautiful morning – with dolphins!
• Jen made sausage casserole
• Hydrovane working well
• Caught a tuna, hove to, line a mess

  

Day 3 – 10 January:

• Tina & Jenni on watch – saw dolphins
• There was a UFO (Unidentified Floating Object) that Skipper was woken for and hand steered around
• Dolphins at sunrise!
• Jenni making lasagne, Tina sorting the fishing line
• Engine on and oven on – charging battery
• Windvane & Autohelm both on

  

Day 4 – 11 January:

• No traffic seen – half way!
• Cargo ship on horizon – should go ahead of us
• Tug ahead – it was very close to us and Skipper (Chris) called it to check
• Rollin Rollin Rollin – big waves and 30 gusts
• We saw a turtle – confused sea state

  

Day 5 – 12 January:

• Wind is like squalls without the rain
• Chris is snoring! ZZZZZZZZZ
• Confused sea – more wind forecast
• Why does the wind always strengthen at night!?
• Reefed, snagged halyard, unreefed, moved halyard

  

Day 6 – 13 January:

• A rolly ride towards the islands
• 2 large flying fish on deck and some smaller ones
• All a bit grim and blurry out here!
• Gathered 8 flying fish
• Planning entry to Mindelo in the dark
• Still confused sea – hope to be there by 9
• Land Ho!!

  

We’d had an excellent passage. Our sail configurations worked for us, we had been very competitive within the fleet and Yanula Blue had shown us a different side of her. She was clearly at home in the open ocean and she had looked after us admirably.

Our position within the fleet was 3rd, Agape, a fast multihull was first, Xenie, an X-yacht X-43 was second and our tubby Moody 42 had made it in to third place. What a result!