Bluewaft - Log Day 1

SY Bluewaft – 20 November 2016 – Las Palmas
Vella Latina Marina
Day 1
After a week of preparation we are now ready to leave. It’s been a bit of
a challenge, with both James and I getting ill with the flu. James has now
fully recovered and I am well on the mend, but it did put a dent in our
preparations. James has done a great job covering for me and the guys have
all pulled together to complete the final provisioning. It’s been great
having a resident Doctor on board!
The Vella Latina Marina has been challenging. The 3m tides and a wall that
only had 2cm of freeboard at high tide made fending off a challenge. In
the end we went bow out which reduced the grey hairs but made access to the
shore more complex (climbing over the dinghy). The constant diesel fumes
from the waiting tankers was also unpleasant (particularly when recovering
from a chest infection).
This year the ARC has nearly a full complement of 220 boats (although there
were two last minute withdrawals). There has been good support this week
from Raymarine (who updated our software), Jerry the Rigger who inspected
our rig and gave it a ‘clean bill of health’, and Lagoon who helped sort
out with some minor repairs.
Las Palmas was a lot of fun, with the usual mix of good food and friendly
drinks at Sundowners. The Tourism Minister from St Lucia here to see us
off and promising us some good rum when we arrive.
We are being seen off by Sam, Elli, and Juergen and enjoyed a farewell
dinner at Hotel St Catalina last night.
The winds look like being light this year. The winds will start off 10-
15kts from the NE. The trades seem to be not fully developed. We are
thinking of travelling South for about 150nm and then heading West. The
problem is a big dead spot about a week out. We have to decide whether to
go North and risk getting caught in the expanding wind quiet zone or South
and having wind on the nose…Thankfully we have plenty of diesel!
So final preparations done, emails sent, garbage off the boat, weather down
loaded. Ready to go!