Dawn on Day 2

Good progress for the first few hours with main sail and magic zero flying. As evening approached the wind gradually died. By midnight we resorted to motor power. Sea flat calm and no wind! This is not the weather we were expecting, and nor were the experts. If it carries on like this we will have to divert to the Cape Verde islands to refuel. We definitely don't have enough fuel to motor for 2800 miles! On the plus side, the stars were great, the sunrise is beautiful and we don't need to worry about batteries running down. So begins another day afloat.

Follyfin sets sail for the Caribbean

Sun is up and we are all busy stowing stuff, topping up fuel, discarding rubbish etc. etc. Over the past two days our resident Designer (aka Deck hand #1) and Media Manager (aka Second Mate) have been busy leaving Follyfin's mark on the marina wall here. As you can see, it is a work of art.

It is traditional for yachts to leave their calling card in the last port before they set off across the Atlantic Ocean. Our artists were determined that Follyfin's mark should stand out from the rest.

Hope you agree that they achieved their aim!

Note about Twitter for anyone brave enough to go there... so far I have been unsuccessful in tweeting via our satellite connection. So you may be disappointed that @Follyfin is not tweeting from the Atlantic. But we should be able to send updates to this blog via Our Girl on the Ground. Watch this space.

So that's all for now. Farewell from the crew of Follyfin - Mick, Fiona, Jim, Ivor and Warren.

Brief respite from the voyage preparations

The week started with a press conference in the Port Authority building

followed by a cocktail lunch involving octopus, paella, tortilla and other delicious Spanish delicacies, all washed down with excellent Canarian wine. Looked like they were pleased to have us here. Tuesday and Wednesday were taken up with yet more jobs aboard, e.g. washing lines free of Saharan dust, fitting lee cloths, checking life jackets etc.

This morning, Thursday, Skipper too busy to join the group outing to view Spain's highest mountain peak, El Teide, over 12,000 ft high. While he laboured to ensure everything is seaworthy and ship-shape aboard the good ship Follyfin, the rest of the crew boarded an organised coach trip. Once above the clouds we were rewarded with wonderful views of this dormant volcano.

and its recent lava flows (the dark areas on the right of the photo below)

Apparently there has been recent seismic activity detected, so an eruption is expected in the near future. The 'caldera' or crater formed by this volcano and its 200 smaller volcanoes in the vicinity is vast, extending to an area over 16000 hectares, all of which is National Park.

Tomorrow, Friday, is the final day on land and we will be collecting our fresh produce from the market - fruit, vegetables and meat. The challenge will be stowing it all. In the evening all the Odyssey sailors will be entertained to cocktails again at the Royal Yacht Club of Tenerife.

And then it's the off on Saturday at 11:00, so this may well be the last blog post from me on the European side of the Atlantic. So it's au revoir for now.

Test blog post from our girl on the ground!

Happy New Year! Before Follyfin sets sail across the Atlantic Ocean, we thought it best to test the method by which we can keep our faithful followers informed. So that is what this is, just a test, which you can ignore!

Back on board

Christmas is over for another year … and preparations for the Ruby Cruise are in full swing. We arrived back at Follyfin on Christmas Eve, both Skipper and First Mate suffering from a bad cold and cough. However work had to go on: re-commissioning Follyfin into sea-going mode, bending on the fore sail, checking out the mast fittings

fitting extra clutches on deck for numerous additional lines, fitting extra lee cloths in stern cabin and a plethora of other repairs and small jobs. One that was not anticipated, and not exactly small, was removing the thick layer of red Saharan dust that had settled over the entire topside of the boat. Simple hosing down was not enough … much elbow grease also required! Would much rather have gone swimming. The sun shines hot, sea is still warm (I am told) and the daytime temperature hovers around 25 degrees. Cooler at night though.

Needless to say and notwithstanding colds, cough and punishing work schedule, Christmas dinner was taken out with sailing friends at “Lilium”, renowned for its Canarian haute cuisine. Starters included octopus tentacle,

followed by grilled ox for main course, winding up with pineapple carpaccio with coconut ice cream. Nice change from roast turkey and plum pudding.

With our experience last summer after leaving Follyfin in the water for 6 weeks in Lisbon and finding the propeller thickly encrusted with barnacles, it was certain that plant and animal organisms would have latched on to her hull again after 3 months in the water. Our usual method for cleaning the hull is to beach the boat then go round at low tide manually removing all unwelcome visitors. This of course costs nothing. In Spain (and Canary Islands), however, beaching a boat is illegal and carries a heavy fine if discovered.  A clean hull is essential for maximum speed and could save 2-3 days on a long passage such as the Atlantic crossing. So we bit the bullet and arranged for Follyfin to be lifted out and for her hull to be pressure washed.

And boy did she need it! Much quicker and saved a lot of elbow grease as well.

Now we were ready to roll. Even though not all jobs on the list have been ticked we decided it was time to transfer to our official departure port on Tenerife. Moorings were slipped at 11:00 on 30/12/15. The passage was 132 miles as crow flies and should have taken only 27-30 hours max. But as we have discovered in the 5 years we have now been doing this sailing lark, the wind is never exactly where you want it. We finally made it into Marina Santa Cruz on NE tip of Tenerife at 21:00 on 31/12/15, well after dark and absolutely shattered. Skipper being unwell with persistent cough and an awkward swell combined to ensure not much sleep was had on passage. Thank goodness we have 3 more crew joining us for the Atlantic! We heard the NYE fireworks, and I gather it was a good display…

Meet the Ruby Cruise Crew

As the crew has now arrived to join us aboard Follyfin, and we will shortly be embarking on our Atlantic Voyage, this is an opportune moment to introduce the crew members  to you, our faithful followers. So here they are:

The Skipper (Bosun & Engineer)

First Mate (Navigator, Quartermaster & Galley Slave)

Cabin Boy (Master Baker & Tactician)

Second Mate (Media Manager & Chief Bar Steward)

Deck Hand #1 (Designer, Water Monitor & Entertainment Manager)

Going home from Lanzarote

Having been here almost 2 weeks, in extreme heat (for us at least, which would have been OK if we hadn't had to be working nearly all the time), we feel we have achieved almost everything we set out to do.

Spare parts have been ordered for delivery to Follyfoot, including a fan for the fridge which conveniently  (or not depending on which way you look at it) packed up the day after we arrived. Fortunately The Engineer managed to diagnose the fault in a short time and get this essential piece of equipment running again. Other items include new hinges for one of the 'heads' lids, replacement mushroom aerial for the satellite phone and a couple of small blocks which have worn out ... to name but a few.

Not all work and no play however. On Sunday evening we invited a few English and Irish people on other boats in the marina, whom we had met by various means, for 'drinks on the pontoon'. This was cause for much amusement amongst the other occupants of our pontoon, mainly French and German, who had to negotiate a path through our impromptu party up the walkway to quayside - no tables on the pontoon! I think we can safely say a 'jolly' time was had by all.

Now to Lanzarote: the marina in Arrecife is very new without a lot of character - there's alot of concrete involved. What it does have is a high number of eating and drinking places, including a Burger King. Now I have nothing against hamburger joints per se - great for kids - just as long as they are not positioned directly above the end of the pontoon on which we are berthed. Similarly Friday and Saturday night rave ups, actually extending into the morning (07:00 is the latest we have experienced) are fine for the youngsters. But please don't have the bands play through huge speakers on a stage actually in the marina, or even in the town about a kilometre away which was almost as loud!

There are a huge number of boats here, mostly sail boats like ours and some alot larger. But the most interesting are the 6.5 m yachts in the mini-Transat fleet. To enter this race, the boat must have NO engine and be sailed single-handed. Shortly after we arrived they started arriving from the first leg of their marathon (Douarnanez to Lanzarote). Most of the skippers are well tanned, good-looking young men (I'm allowed to say that now I'm a pensioner ...) but there are a few lucky young ladies too, also pretty good-looking themselves, it has to be said. The next leg goes from here to Guadeloupe starting at the end of the month. Not a challenge to be undertaken lightly.

Lanzarote does have a large sandy beach which at the far end away from the hotel, the only multi storey building on the island, is hardly crowded, as seen below. The sea is very warm! We were not expecting golden sand since this island is volcanic. Hardly possible to have imported that amount of sand though ....?

Tomorrow we fly back to UK, just in time to attend a wedding, and then back home on Monday. No posts from me until we return to Follyfin on Christmas Eve. We will than have to transfer her to another marina two islands further south, Gran Canaria. Then it will be all systems go for the "off" from Las Palmas on Gran Canaria on 9 January 2016. The Ruby Crossing is fast approaching - exciting!