GRAN CANARIA :
arrival : march 17th 2000
departure : july 25th 2001
March 17th 2000 to july 25th 2001
We arrived in Las Palmas at 9 am. The only place available on the visitors
pontoon was right in front of our friends "P'tit Morgat" who had arrived
a few days before. After a nice coffee, we meet the people on the pontoon,
and we realised it was like being in France ! Next to us is "Java" a
French boat with a family of 6 aboard, then there's Sylvain with Stephania,
Angelo, three Philippe one three different boats, Jean-Philippe, and
so on. There are a few peolpe from other countries (Germany, England,
Belgium), we let them stay on our pontoon because we're nice
 The day after we arrived,
there was a triple birthday party on the pontoon. Three barbecues were
set up, many salads were brought and there was a shopping trolley full
of drinks. We were 60 people having a lot of fun, but it almost ended
under water because the pontoon is not built for so much weight and
it went slowly down until we had water under our shoes ! So to avoid
a general bath we spreaded on the pontoon and the party continued until
9 am for the latest ones. Since then, we've started taking care of the
boat : varnishes, various repairs and improvements, thorough cleaning
of the bildge.
Last week, we visited the island by car. The southern part has no much
interest except for Puerto Mogan, a nice little port very tourist oriented
but pretty. It is very dry land where the only things growing are ugly
hotels with swimming pools. The northern part is greener and has nicer
landscapes. We were told the mountains in the center of the island were
covered with tropical vegetation and lakes, but there has been very
little rain these last 2 years (except when I was varnishing the boat),
and the lakes and the trees were quite dry.
April 20 th
April is almost over and we are still in Las Palmas. Some chages have
ocured and we have taken new decisions since the last update. Basically,
after taking a close look at the money left over, we have decided to
anticipate and return home to work 6 months. We could go on for a few
months to Brasil, but there, we're not sure what we'll find and how
we'll be able to work. We know we can work at home right now, so as
our friends are all leaving for Cabo Verde one after the others, we're
getting the boat ready for her long lonely stay in Las Palmas. Not a
good feeling, but it's (probably) the right choice..
However, there have been some fun moments before we left like the
shaving session on the pontoon. Sylvain, who explained that his boat
is like a popcorn - when he arrives in a port, the boat explodes and
hundreds of things come out all at once and cover half of the pontoon
- has found a shaving machine ! It's so much fun that all the guys have
been shaved and as the dog was wlking by, he was grabbed by the legs
and shooof ! out whith the fur !
 Besides varnishing (it
seems it will never end) I I've started playing accordean again. There
isn't much space inside to play this type of instrument. Ludo's harmonicas
are a lot more convenient. I did find a place where I can play, knowing
that in the meantim, noone can go to the front cabin. Ho well.
|
 Friday
February 2nd 2001.
We're back !
We returned 3 weeks ago with about 100 kilos of luggage including a
new front sail, my accordean, Ludo's new saxophone, an SSB receiver,
sugar cubes...
We've started to clean the boat thouroughly inside and out, we have
to install the new receiver and make some improvements, and we should
leave for cabo Verde soon !
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Wednesday February 13th 2001
A big step has been taken : we have repainted Askoy !
As you can see in the pictures below, Ludo watches closely the guys
from the yard getting ready to lift the boat and take her back to the
water. In the meantime, I was playing reporters (I had my video camera
and my digital camera around the neck).I did notice the amused looks
of everyone around, but hey, I've got a web site to do !
The yard of Las Palmas is a professional and clean place where you
can have your boat taken out in very good conditions and for a fair
price. Even though it is never a good feeling to see our boat hanging
in the air, this time was quite all right. We could tell these guys
knew what they were doing. We stayed on board during the 4 days in the
yard which wasn't very simple for cooking and going to the bathroom,
and once they had let loose the yard's watch dog, there was no way of
coming down from the boat until the next morning...
Ludo didn't see the boat return to the water. The yard's boss, who
was making compliments on the boat took by the arm and suggested they
went to the office and take care of the bill. I guess he must have had
bad experiences with boats who leave without paying...
Once we returned to the pontoon, we made a new list of the few things
to do before we leave Las Palmas. We should shortly discover other Canary
islands followed by Cabo Verde.
Really, this isn't a very good feeling ...
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Sunday may 6th 2001
I hope you didn't beleive me when I wrote that we were soon leaving,
did you ? Well, to tell the truth, we beleived it too, but the sad truth
is that we are still in Las Palmas.
But don't be surprised, life on a boat is full of surprises, and the
last one Askoy had for us is that she doesn't want her old mast anymore.
As Ludo was checking the mast as we always do before a departure, he
noticed parts of the wood had come unglued in the top. "All right.
Let's stop everything, and take some time to think". This mast
is 40 years old. It is a bit too thin for us since we have added a lot
of weight, and Ludo has never felt comfotable with it. However, it seems
to be in good shape, the wood is fine, and it has been doing it's job
for so long. It must be a darn good and strong mast. So, what do we
do ? Should we repair the mast now, or wait for other symptoms ?
I'll let you guess the answer since we are still in Las Palmas !
After a few days of thinking, we decided not to do an approximate repair.
This would go against our way of doing things from the beginning. We
decided to take down the mast and reinforce it with additional wood.
But noone will be surprised reading that things didn't happen this way,
and we ended up making a bran new mast. Therefore, the three extra weeks
we had planned to stay in Las palmas turned into three months, but we
are very happy of the result and we will now sail with a lot more confidence.
The making of the mast is described in French, but I don't have the
vocabulary to translate it into English. Sorry... To see the pictures,
you can go to the mast page
in French
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