Gran Canaria

November 19, 2017

Gran Canaria

Our overnight sail from Fuerteventura to Gran Canaria was rough, so we welcomed the sight of Las Palmas on Thursday morning. The marina was in ARC mode, so we were escorted to our birth on Pontoon S17, the family pontoon. As soon as we docked we jumped off to see if we could see Indian Summer and any other families on the pontoon. There were lots of ARC plus boats in full swing, preparing for their departure on Sunday 5^th November. It was good to be able to watch and learn. We had just over 2 weeks ‘til the ARC started. So much to do!

We've arrived at the ARC 2017!

Baking banana bread (thanks for recipe Megan D/ NOOSHC Cookbook)

Cluedo with friends (from left Catherine, Isabelle, Hayley, Megan)

Kids head out to see ARC+ leave with the big kid, Xavier :)

The official ARC program started on Monday 6^th November. There were seminars to attend on rigging, navigation, weather forecasting, provisioning to name a few. There were Sundowner Drinks each evening; a family BBQ on Wednesday 7^th; sight-seeing tours (when we weren’t working on the boat); and Kids club, which ran every day during the week before we left.

When we were in Gibraltar Dave had ordered a new main sail from a sailmaker in Sydney, with the hope that it would be in Las Palmas when we arrived 6 weeks later. With the help of a customs agent it was at the ARC office for us when we arrived. Our first significant task was to change the sails over and confirm the new sail fitted, given it was based on measurements and photos we had taken in Gibraltar and emailed back to Australia. The good news is that it fit, and it looks like a great sail.

Old sail

Dave fitting the new sail

Beautiful new sail

Wednesday night 7^th November was an unexpected bit of fun. We went to the ARC Family BBQ, which we thought would be a good thing for the kids, just a couple of hours… I am not sure who had more fun, the kids or the adults. It was great to meet a group of people like us, taking their families on a sailing trip across an ocean. At around 10pm we were invited back to Infinity for after dinner drinks. Somehow, we fit about 12 adults into the cockpit of the 45’ cruising yacht, where we chatted on while the kids played hide and seek on the other family boats. This of course involved running up and down the pontoon at full speed. I’m sure the non-family boats sharing our pontoon were so happy to be on the family pontoon 😊.

On Friday 9^th November Hayley, Megan and I joined the ARC reforestation project. With a group of other rally participants we took the bus to a farm in the mountains where the Foresta foundation was regrowing some of the forest that has been removed from the island over the last 400 years. 10 years ago there was only about 5% of the forest left, but the foundation has been working for the last 10 years and is now up to about 15%. ARC contributes to the project to carbon offset the rally. The whole day brought back fond memories of the Nepal NATURE project, especially as I seemed to be the one digging the holes so that the kids could plant the trees!

ARC tree planting project

Down on the farm - city kids :)

The nursery

Hayley digs a hole for the tree

Megan, looking particularly dangerous

The planting of the tree - great work Hayley, Isabelle and Megan!

While we were planting trees, Dave was back at the boat replacing the battery bank to ensure we had a more stable power supply on our passage. No rest for the wicked.

Dave sorting out the batteries

Boat prep! Will we ever be ready to go?

On Saturday morning we were up early to sing happy birthday to Mattias from Indian Summer. Hayley and I then made a beeline to HiperDino supermarket to do our first major provisioning shop – just for non-perishables. It took us two hours to complete the shop – I guess that is 1 hour per trolley. The only mishap this time was when we accidently broke a bag of rice, which then spilled all over the floor. My amazing Spanish skills came into their own as I tried to explain to the shop assistant that we needed help. We muddled our way through, the floor was cleaned and they didn’t hold it against us. Our groceries were delivered to the boat at 3pm.

First provisioning shop...

3pm was also the time that the kids had to be over at the ARC office for the Kids Beach Party and Dave was at Rolnautic looking for more boat parts. It was also when John Baulderstone, our crew for the crossing, arrived after his marathon flight from Sydney. We got it all sorted out and by the time the kids got back from the beach party the boat was mostly back to normal and two trolleys of shopping was stowed away.

Saturday night we dragged John to the pontoon S17 party to celebrate Mattias’ birthday. It was our first experience of ‘pot luck’ where everyone brings something to eat and hopefully it all works out. Some of the non-family boats also joined us and it was another fun night.

Sunday 12^th was a big day – the flag parade and opening ceremony for ARC 2017. Hayley and Megan were the flag bearers for Australia. It was a long, hot walk from one end of the marina to the other, but to quote ARC yellow shirt Claire, ‘It’s amazing how much fun you can have walking around in a carpark’. After a quick lunch we head straight to the pool at the maritime club to cool off.

Team Raftkin AUS

Flag bearers

ARC 2017 is open!

Cooling off after the opening ceremony at the marina club

Kids club started on Monday, with opti sailing the first activity. The kids had a full schedule for the rest of the week, with a visit to the science museum on Tuesday, equestrian therapy on Wednesday and search and rescue demonstrations on Thursday. The search and rescue demonstrations were for the grown-ups as well. The ARC organised a demonstration of a recovery from a yacht by sea rescue helicopter, followed by flare firing and then the opportunity to see a couple of life rafts activated in the pool. We had the opportunity to put on lifejackets, jump in the pool and climb into the life raft to see what it was like. The kids had the opportunity to climb in too, before they tried to sink it.

This looks familiar - Opti sailing at Kids Club

No different to home - packing up the boats

Great to meet new friends sailing

Kids club gave us the opportunity to get the boat ready while the kids were busy. Dave and John went over the boat with a fine tooth-comb and got through Dave’s List of Things To Do. We finished the provisioning and also got to a couple of seminars.

ARC Seminars

Wednesday 15^th we celebrated John’s birthday. The ARC put on a dress up party for him too 😉, the official Under the Sea ARC Rally party. Friday 17^th there was an official farewell party. It was all starting to get very real. There was tension and excitement.

Happy birthday John!

Farewell party

Saturday 18^th our fresh food was delivered to the boat. We washed everything before bringing it on board, drying it and storing it away. We are definitely not going to starve on this trip. I can only hope that we will be well enough to eat it all!

On Saturday afternoon I was sitting in a marina café with Megan, madly trying to download enough books to keep her going for 3-4 weeks across the Atlantic. I noticed this strange man looking sideways in the window of the café, looked again and there was Sandra, Tobias, Nele and Noah from Tuvalu. My heart sang to see their smiling faces. We went into town for pizza and a catch up on what we had all been up to these last few weeks.

Hayley and Megan washing the fruit and veg

Provisioning complete

RAFTKIN, ARC boat 153 ready to sail

Sunday 19^th soon rolled around. We were up early for last showers, final tidy up and readying of the boat. The band marched along every pontoon to farewell us all. At last there was nothing to do but say goodbye to the other family boats and motor out into the procession of boats making their way out of the marina. Hundreds of people lined the seawalls on either side of the marina, waving flags and hands and everything they could as we motored out. Right at the top of the northern sea wall we could see Sandra, Nele and Noah waving enthusiastically. Hey Ho Lets Go!