Valent

Preparations for the rally are continuing in Las Palmas, with more seminars to attend and work being done on all the boats. On the 31st October the kids went trick or treating on the other pontoons and all along the family boats pontoon, and gathered enough sweets to last them across the Atlantic and back, and probably until October 2024.

Dwight, Neil and Mike have arrived and have settled into the boat, so the crew is now all complete. The positive impact that they have brought has had a massive impact on getting the jobs done. Will has even started to learn to delegate (though it was clearing a blockage in the heads and cleaning up afterwards). We have also enjoyed having my sister Alex over to visit us, and she has been able to experience the build-up to the start of the rally.

However, there will be a change of plan for some of us: Sophie has decided after much deliberation that she doesn’t want to sail across the Atlantic. A combination of things going wrong on the boat, coupled with some scary moments at sea on the way here, have left her feeling very uncomfortable about sailing longer trips. All of this in addition to her being prone to sea sickness and not really eating on passages has led to Sophie being extremely reluctant to sail on longer passages. We don’t want to force her into something which she is very unhappy about doing. We tried to get her more comfortable with sailing on the way here, but sadly this has not changed her feelings about it.

Sophie is ok with shorter trips, perhaps a day or overnight sail, and she loves arriving at new places and exploring, but unfortunately she has been dreading the prospect of two weeks at sea, and so reluctantly we have agreed that she doesn’t have to do the crossing. I will accompany her, while Will, Lucy, Neil, Mike and Dwight will do the crossing together. Sophie and I will spend some more time in Gran Canaria, and then fly to Grenada (possibly via the UK) before Valent arrives in time to welcome her in.

In conjunction with Sophie’s decision a bout of pragmatism has set in. We have always been committed to returning the girls to mainstream education by September 2024. As a result of all of our boat problems over the last couple of years, we no longer have time to complete a circumnavigation. In the time available we could only reach Australia and that had been our aim. However it is very expensive to get your boat back from Australia, or to sell it there given the import tax. Even the alternative of sailing her back would require at least 2 people with 4 months available and the associated costs. Even more reluctantly therefore we have decided that we have no option but to sail to Grenada and do a Caribbean circuit, working North and returning to England in the Summer of 2024. It is a galling decision, but the only sensible option left open to us after being let down so badly by certain contractors.

This is all obviously a very disappointing change to our plans, however we have agreed to it to make sure that everyone continues to enjoy the adventure. With the shorter sailing journeys as we island hop through the Caribbean, we will still be able to spend time as a family sailing to and exploring the many different islands. We will also be able to do this in company with the other ARC+ family boats with whom we have become good friends. On a positive note it also opens up the option of visiting the East coast of the USA before sailing back across the Atlantic.

I’ll write another post in the next few days with an update on the start of the rally, and to explain how you will be able to follow Valent’s progress across the Atlantic.

The marina in Las Palmas is filling up with boats for the ARC+ (via Cape Verde to Grenada) and ARC (direct to Saint Lucia) rallies and the atmosphere is building. We are on a pontoon with all the family boats, so the children are getting to know each other well and spend their time running up and down the pontoon going from boat to boat. There are many nationalities on the pontoon – Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, Swedish, German, Australian, American, Canadian – all here to cross the Atlantic together. Although English is not the first language of many boats, the children manage to communicate and find ways of playing together, and everyone is very friendly.

Boats all across the marina are displaying their ARC and ARC+ flags, and many are “dressed overall” with international maritime flags in celebration of the rallies. In total there are 91 boats taking part in the ARC+ rally starting on 5th November, with 160 further boats taking part in the ARC rally starting two weeks later.

On Sunday there was a rally opening ceremony with all 30 different nationalities carrying their national flag, parading around the marina behind a brass band and followed by a group of drummers. When we reached the end of the marina each flag was raised on a flagpole and the rally was declared “open”.

Amidst the celebrations, boat preparations are the major focus at the moment, with a lot of issues still to resolve before departure, including making sure the engine is working properly, re-fixing the autohelm, and repairing the furling mechanism of the headsail. Valent was lifted out of the water a couple of days ago so that a new ropecutter could be fitted underneath, and the day fuel tank was scrubbed clean of diesel bug. A new sail (parasailor) is arriving hopefully soon, and on 1st November we take delivery of a new Starlink system, which should make us more easily contactable while at sea.

Provisioning is another big focus, and the freezer is now full of Will’s pre-cooked meals, many types of meat, and enough variety to feed a hungry crew over the whole Atlantic passage. Fresh food provisioning will be done in the last couple of days to keep the food as fresh as possible before departure.

Last Friday we left Will to get on with various boat jobs and I took the girls away from the boat chaos to join a forest regeneration project, travelling to the mountains to help with reforesting part of Gran Canaria with local varieties of trees. A group from the ARC+ boats, both adults and children, worked with a local forestry project to plant over 100 new trees, bringing the total planted by ARC and ARC+ volunteers to over 3,000 trees to date.

We have also found time to explore the old town of Las Palmas, visiting the house where Christopher Columbus reputedly stayed while having repairs done to his rudder (we know how he felt), the old cathedral and the Canary Islands museum. There is a swimming pool within the marina which the girls have been going to every day, including one evening when they swam by moonlight.

Amongst all this, our near neighbours from Woking, Julie and Stewart, were over in Las Palmas on holiday last week, and it was lovely to meet up with them a couple of times.

In the next few days there will be many seminars on various subjects to attend, including downwind sailing tips, route and weather, satellite communications, and a guide to the Atlantic night sky. Added to the boat preparations and with various drinks parties and crew dinners to attend in the evenings (it’s not all work), this looks set to be a very busy period in the lead up to the rally start date on the 5th November.

Our additional crew Neil, Mike and Dwight will be arriving to join us on 31st October and 1st November, a few days prior to departure. My sister Alex is also coming over for a few days to wave us off.

Plus on 31st October there will be Halloween trick or treating on the family boats pontoon, with boats being decorated and all the children dressed up – it will give the Woodham Waye trick or treating back at home a run for its money!

We stayed in the marina at Puerto Calero for four nights, until they needed their berth back for an incoming superyacht. They had put us in the superyacht area as we are one metre too long for their normal boat area – we spent the four days feeling dwarfed by the 49 metre superyacht “Christopher” next to us…as you can see below we look like one of their tenders!

Then on 1st October we headed further south to the southern tip of Lanzarote, where we anchored for a couple of nights. Anchorages can be a good option as there are no marina fees, you get more of a sea breeze to keep you cool, and you can swim from the boat. The frequent ferries nearby however meant that this anchorage was quite rolly – whenever the wake from a ferry reached us, whether eating a meal or during home-schooling, we needed to pause and hold onto anything which might be knocked over.

In an anchorage it also helps to have a dinghy with which to reach the shore. After several months (including in Gibraltar) since the dinghy engine was last used, it was not going to start. Will checked the fuel line, checked the spark plug, changed the spark plug all to no avail. A blocked carburettor was diagnosed and Will decided that was beyond his expertise. So, feeling the need to occasionally be on land we decided to go into the nearby Marina Rubicon for a few nights to have the outboard looked at. This proved a hit with the girls as it had a swimming pool which we could use!

We explored the area and walked along to a beautiful cove for lunch one day, through the dry volcanic landscape of the southern coast.

Once the dinghy engine was fixed (yes it was a problem with the carburettor), it was time to head out to anchor again, this time at a more tranquil bay (Punta Papagayo) along the coast. Lucy and Will did plenty of swimming from the boat.

We then had a journey of around 95 miles remaining to reach Gran Canaria, where the ARC+ rally will start from on the 5th November. With a number of issues to be fixed or checked (including the temperamental engine, the generator which has started producing dirty exhaust water, a patch on the headsail needing repair, JonBuoy repair and a reinforcement needed for the autohelm) we decided to head straight there, to give sufficient time for all the issues to be looked at. Starting late afternoon on Tuesday we had a slow journey overnight in gentle breezes, with Valent sailing along at a stately 4 knots like the dignified old lady that she is. We even tried a spot of fishing, but unfortunately missed the bite that we finally got – so the previous night’s leftovers for supper.

We were able to enjoy both the sunset and the sunrise on our trip, and arrived into Gran Canaria just after sunrise on Wednesday 11th October. The marina here already has lots of ARC and ARC+ rally boats, with many more due to arrive over the next couple of weeks. We are on a pontoon reserved for family boats, and the girls are looking forward to meeting lots of children from the other boats as the rally start date approaches.

One last post on Morocco before we move on from this fascinating country. Although Agadir is a modern city, it provided a good vantage point from which to explore other parts of southern Morocco. We ventured to the edge of the Sahara desert, where the girls played in the sand dunes and experienced a camel ride. We saw argon trees which grow only in southern Morocco and from which argon oil is obtained. Goats climb the trees to help with harvesting the berries, but collecting the kernels afterwards is not a pleasant task!

We visited a fisherman’s village along the coast from Agadir to see how they live in cottages in the cliffs, and went to the town of Tiznit where we tried some delicious freshly baked flatbread, from the communal oven where the whole community can bring their bread to be baked.

Our guide on our desert trip told us that Marrakesh was mostly untouched by the recent earthquake and the souk was back to trading as usual. Having cancelled our original plans to spend a few days in Marrakesh, we were able to make a day trip and see the great square and the souk. In the maze of ancient streets are many doors with two door-knockers: we learned that the outer one was for men, and the inner one for women and children; they make a different sound and women would only answer the one used by other women and children.

We had really enjoyed our time in Morocco, and found everyone to be very friendly and helpful, however it was time to continue our journey to the Canary Islands. We set sail from Agadir to Lanzarote, a journey of 230 miles or around 36 hours. At the start there were calm seas and grey skies and it was hard to see the difference between sea and sky at the horizon. As we left Morocco behind the skies cleared and the wind strengthened, and we were able to sail at around 6 knots using our mainsail and genoa.

We were visited by several pods of dolphins during the trip, and we sailed past a large number of small crabs swimming fast a long way from shore in water nearly 2,000 metres deep. A flying fish landed on our deck, trying to escape from the tuna, a sure sign of being in the warmer waters of the Atlantic ocean. On the second day at sea we saw a pilot whale, a huge grey shape moving slowly at the surface of the water – then a flick of his tail and he was gone back into the depths.

After departing Agadir later than planned in the morning following the usual clearing out bureaucracy, with a trip length of roughly a day and a half, we envisaged arriving at Lanzarote in the dark, or spending a second night at sea. In order to avoid this we tried to keep our speed up, and later on we decided to use our engine as well as our sails. Oh no – the engine started to lose revs again, and cut out entirely several times, a deja vu moment from the previous trip. Will changed the filters and changed to the other fuel tank (we have a small day tank and a separate larger tank) as the problem might be diesel bug in the day tank. This seemed to work and the engine kept going, enabling us to average over 7 knots with wind speeds up to 20 knots. There were some quite large waves which created a corkscrew motion for the boat, but we were making good progress.

On the trip we tested the hydrovane, which steers the boat using the wind – the orcas had bent the hydrovane rudder so this had been replaced in Gibraltar. By mid-afternoon of the second day at sea we started to see the volcanic coastline of Lanzarote.

We sailed down the coast of Lanzarote and reached the marina at Puerto Calero before sunset on Wednesday. We are now in the marina for the next couple of days, with a plan to then head further south to another marina or an anchorage.

We left Tangier on 11th September, heading south for the capital Rabat, a journey of 150 miles or approximately 24 hours. After Lisbon this would be the second capital city we had sailed into. With very light winds we used our engine and reached our destination during the morning of 12th September.

At Rabat the Bouregreg river divides the city of Rabat on one side from the city of Sale on the other. To reach the marina you have to sail (or motor) down the river for about a mile, a picturesque journey going past the old medina of Rabat, with fishing boats on both sides of the river, rowing boats (boat taxi) crossing slowly in front of you, swimmers jumping in, jet-skis whizzing about, while all the time you are trying to make sure you stay in the middle so the water is deep enough. A backdrop to this is the nearly 1,000 year old Hassan Tower, a 44 metre structure built as part of plans for the largest mosque in the world. Construction was abandoned in 1199, and despite earthquakes the structure is still very visible.

Once safely in the marina we had the usual clearing in procedure which involved a lot of paperwork, a boat inspection from the police and the customs officials, and this time even a sniffer dog. The steps down into the boat were deemed too steep for the dog to go inside so it stayed on the deck. (The steps weren’t a problem for Granny and Grandpa’s dog, Billy, when he came to visit us in Portsmouth in May!)

The marina is on the Sale side of the river, which is quieter than Rabat but has its own interesting history. With its strong French influence, as we have found elsewhere in Morocco, it also has many excellent patisseries. We got to know a French family on the boat next to us in the marina, who are home schooling their children aged 12 and 13 and making their way to the Canaries, hoping to cross the Atlantic later this year.

To reach Rabat from Sale you can take a tram, but we preferred the more scenic option of being rowed across the river on one of the local boats.

In Rabat we visited the mausoleum of Mohammed V with its many guards, and stocked up in the souk with its hundreds of different shops selling spices, fabrics, leather and jewellery.

We also had time to explore the medina on the Sale side of the river, all enclosed within the old city walls, which are lit up spectacularly at night (photobombed by Lucy).

After a few days it was time to continue our journey further south to Agadir, a trip of 300 miles or approximately 48 hours at sea. Leaving Rabat proved an interesting start to the journey, as there was an ocean swell of around 2 metres, and where the river meets the ocean it produced a surge of up to 4 metres over the sandbanks. (Much above this and they close the entrance and won’t let boats through). We were allowed out of the marina at high tide to ensure the maximum possible depth of water, and navigated our way back down the river past the fishing boats, swimmers, a dinghy sailing school and jet-skis keeping us company. The height of the waves as the river joins the ocean made for a bumpy start, nice for the surfers lined up along the beach but not so much fun on a yacht.

Once back out into the Atlantic ocean the swell disappeared and there was not much wind, so we decided to keep our engine on and head along the coast, intending to anchor in a sheltered bay at Essaouira, not far north of Agadir.

Unfortunately after leaving Rabat we became aware that our engine was not well – it kept almost cutting out, labouring and dropping its revs and needing a push on the throttle to keep it running. As there wasn’t enough wind to sail by, we needed the engine to make progress on our journey. Will identified the issue as air getting into the fuel line. He found a crack on the pre-filter and managed to change the base unit. Luckily this kept the engine going throughout the night and part of the next day, until there was enough wind behind us to switch it off and start sailing. We then sailed along happily at around 5-7 knots, slightly faster than we had been going using the engine.

While trying to get the best position for our headsail with the wind almost directly behind us, we had some trouble gybing it (moving it from one side of the boat to the other) and unfortunately got it trapped and subsequently wrapped behind the forestay so it wouldn’t furl away properly. We were unable to correct this until the wind died down so we continued using just our mainsail.

Eventually at the end of the second night at sea, the wind died away again and we needed to restart our engine. Crossing our fingers and holding our breath, we switched the engine back on – luckily it started after a few attempts and some manual bleeding, and kept going, while still keeping us on our toes by threatening to cut out every so often – nerve-racking stuff. Having daylight and calmer winds also gave Will the opportunity to sort out the headsail and furl it away properly.

With the engine issues and stronger winds expected to come in during the next few days, we decided not to anchor at Essaouira but head straight for Agadir marina, where we would be able to find an engineer to fix the engine (and be alongside). The trip had been eventful, but there were also some highlights, including seeing sparkling phosphorescence in the wake of the boat at night, the milky way above us, and dolphins at the end of the night watch.

We are now in the marina at Agadir, a more modern city which was largely rebuilt after a catastrophic earthquake destroyed the old city in 1960. The inscription on the hillside in Arabic reads “God, country, king”. The engineers have been here working on the engine, I am extending my French vocabulary into technical terms for engine parts, and we are hopeful that we will be able to depart for the Canary Islands in a few days’ time – next stop Lanzarote!