The rally begins! …or, any least we have started with the seminars and get-togethers with our fellow Vikings. The rally is co-organised by Carlota and Oliver, who have talked us through a series of subjects from boat safety, to provisioning, with plenty of tips on all aspects of the crossing. The seminars have been held in the marina boat club house, as well as some informal walk-arounds on the pontoon where we are all moored.
There have been plenty of social events too – a guided tour of the old city of Las Palmas, drinks and meals out, and we have enjoyed meeting so many of the other rally participants. It has been interesting to see the range of experience, confidence and knowledge of the others, and we have benefitted hugely from the help and advice of some of the more seasoned sailors.
We have also, and at the last minute, managed to get the corroded sea-cocks on our boat replaced. This had been a big concern since we discovered them leaking about two months ago, especially as the boatyard in Pasito Blanco failed to replace them, and then when we discovered the replacement parts had to be ordered from Italy, with all the inherent delays of trying to get the parts imported in the run-up to Christmas. It did not help that when the boat yard was finally ready to do the repair, the winds had whipped up making us very nervous about safely bringing Merryn into the dock for the haul-out. This is where our fellow sailors came to the rescue, with AJ, Jenny and Jan helping to fend us off the concrete walls, and two marineros in ribs guiding the boat against a nasty cross-wind. Fortunately, all was well, Merryn came out of the water, and three days later returned with new seacocks installed. We were also delighted to be out of the water during a particularly nasty spell of bad weather that saw one boat rip out a mooring cleat and another suffering some damage as it knocked against the pontoon.
When not sorting out boat issues, we have been exploring the town, seeing the Christmas lights and enjoying some lovely meals – not to mention one surreal moment when we found ourselves caught up in a Star Wars convention! It has been great to socialise with so many new friends, and we were almost sad to leave for a Christmas break back in the UK (which is where I’m writing this).
Yesterday we celebrated Cate’s birthday with a fine and boozy lunch with our friends Ros and Godric at Sam’s brasserie on the riverfront, and we will be heading down to Kent for Christmas with Dad and family in a very short time. It will be good to have Christmas with family, and good to get back to Las Palmas in time for New Year, and for some final preparations before we set sail – probably on the 6th of January, if the forecast is good.
This will be our last post before the start of the sailing trip, but we hope to post daily updates during the voyage, so keep reading the blog and follow us on the tracker map that I’ll post on the site.
