The first day on bord

Wow, what a day. It's been 30hrs since we left Las Palmas. We had winds from zero to 40 knots constantly changing direction (especially a night), we have waves constantly shaking us around. Alita is handling it very well, as always. Couple of waves broke over board so we got splashed quite bit. In the center cockpit however you stay very dry. It's great to be back on board and we're getting used to it. Big turtles passed our way and I saw two groups of little bird flying passed us so far away from land. Our current position at UTC 18:17 is 26°16,5'N and 016°49,92'W. We just had a wonderful dinner and now I will have the shifts into the sunset and sunrise. I hope this message via radio works. Michaela

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Good night and good-bye

I start my first sleep shift, position see below.

And it sticks

Good bye Gran Canaria

The wind has gone, the waves are smaller but kicking us from left to right to front to back. Marcus repaired the Center Blade (he had to exchange a capsule) and then I made dinner- just some reminder of Zucchini for Marcus, Corn for me and a tomatoe-avicado-palm heart salad for us. Have to eat slow. The food preparation while falling in all directions upset my stomach again a bit. We both took a pill, so I guess we won't have to throw up. We were hungry, too, which helps sickness.
Now the sun is getting low, we're slowly sailing into the sunset. Then the shift work starts.
On the boat fair we found mats which make everything stick to the table, no matter what angle you're at. Very cool. So now the plate sticks to the table and the food comes out:-)

Michaela

Chart plotter

We already traveled 25 nautical miles. We have wind of up to 35-40 knots in boes.

Bruno, our Auto-pilot is doing his job

Max today already: 11knots, average now 8,5 knots

Sail Alita, sail

Another one

Sailing

Look who is smiling :-)

YES! We are sailing!

Sailing away

with 20 knots wind sailing 8 kn fast just with the main sheet up.
Unfortunately the Center Blade is not working. We're now sailing to the south of Gran Canaria to use the wave - shade there (a lot smaller waves than here) and see if Marcus can fix it. If not, we have to go to a harbour in the south (Mogán, where we've been in feb).
Or stomachs start to adjust, we're fighting :-)

Sails up

at 14:17 UTC. Genoa with beam ready at 14:45.
Our stomachs are already fighting with the waves....Now comes the time with dry bread and water...

12:50 UTC

Under tears and the music "Conquest of paradise" we left the yacht harbour of Las Palmas and are now leaving the big harbour area as the waves start to come in. Our german friends (Michaela and her grandson Konstantin) waved us good-bye.

Marcus is calibrating the instruments now, then we'll set sails. I'll write more later.
Michaela

Last evening

Dear readers,
now our last evening in Las Palmas has come. We had a wonderful dinner, Germany lost the soccer game, we had a last drink with our dear neighbour Michaela and now I write my last words into the blog from here. It has been a great time here in Las Palmas, we met new friends, we found a family of people who helped us. Now Alita is readsy for her trip, so are we. It's only a 4 day trip to Cabo Verde, so nothing special. Looking forward to seeing something new. Yet now my nervosity starts. Now I have to say good-bye to Europe for a while. At the same time I will be discovering new continents. Very exciting.
I hope the connection during our trip works and I can blog every day so you know how we are doing.
I wish you a great time till we can connect again.
Michaela

Dinner

at Pier 19 watching the soccer game. Italy leads 1:0. Uups

Ok.from minute 40 or so on Italy was leading 2:0. I guess that's it for Germany. They almost never win agains Italy. 
Our favourite menu here: mixed salad with nuts and fried goat cheese in honey sauce.Sooooo goood.
Next course: croqeutas. Loved it.

Where are we???

Found at  "El Corte Inglés"

Sticker

Sticker in the back as well

Stickers

We finally put Alita's stickers on that I had printed in Germany.

German style breakfast

is possible even in Gran canaria. Found the bread and rolls at "El Corte Inglés" supermarket.

Bord electricity

Very well made...

Harbour of Las Palmas

Now the last days have started, work gets less. Allthough I still did not have the time to go swimming I took a couple of minutes yesterday to walk to the end of the wall of the yacht harbour to change the point of view. It was very interesting to see the entrance of the yacht harbour during the day. I only drove through there once during the day when we went to Puerto de Mogán in february for painting the boat. Next time I went through there was at the end of that same week, early in the morning (2a.m.) on my birthday, the first time I drove Alita into a harbour and into her parking place. I took some pictures of the scene so you can see how it was.
The view yesterday was very bad because we had heavy sand winds. Within few hours the boat ways completely red and the fire alarms on some boats went off. Very funny. I did not realize what all the noise was, Marucs told me. Too cute.

Harbour entry

Finding the parking place of Alita - imagine at night, 2 a.m. in the morning

Alita in her "parking lot" - two boats next to us to the right is the blue boat of our german friends (Wendy M)

Red sand on the solar panels

Alita parking

Alita parking

Here some more pictures of the harbour scenery:

AUDI and Mc Donalds very much support the sailing here....

Woods of masts

Pretty strong wind. In the background you see the cargo ships, right next to yacht harbour and beach area....

....and a sailing boat inbewtween

A view to the half island of Las Palmas over the harbour. In the center is a naval base with war ships.

The not so beautiful harbour side of Las Palmas

Inbetween surfers, warships, cargo ships this guy is fisihng....

Same spot, looking to the left: sufer, view to the harbour beach and the city center

Look at the girl: she is protecting her ears from the (warm) wind.

A cute boat. Have to look up what they do. Globe2child.org

 

 

We are not the only ones who want to sail around the world. Only that we have a wonderful boat.
This guy, called Terry, wants to take his boat on the long ride, his first destination is Falkland Islands. The problem is, that Marcus knows him already from 4 years ago, when the guy told Marcus he wants to go but his wife does not want to go. Actually I would NOT join him on his boat. See yourself (light blue boat):

I wonder if he is ever going to leave.
You meet many people where either the wife does not want to continue or one of the two got sick and then the couple gets stuck at that harbour.

Yesterday we "customized" Alitas "garage" - the sunsail which I had a company in Germany sew. We put on the last rings and prepared all the lines so that we can tie it quickly when we need it. Very pretty garage. I am glad the measures we took were ok and the guy who made it did a good job, everything fits perfectly well.

Today I went Grocery Shopping and carried about 20kg home (by walking about 1km)!! 14 kg milk and juices. Then I made breakfast (at 3 p.m.) and continued sewing (by hand) the cusomized mosquito nets. One takles me about 2-3 hrs - although in the meantime I found a way to speed it up.
Marcus got his compressor going and filled up his bottles for diving. You should have seen how happy he was! Before that he has washed the boat from the red sand. Wow, mountains of red sand got washed off....
As a break I played a bit with the grandson of our dear gemarn neigbours. Konstantin is very cute and has tons of energy. I am happy if I can run with him a bit...;-) The lady (of Wendy M) is also called "Michaela". We invited her for dinner on our boat tomorrow night. Horst, her partner, is in Berlin in hospital right now. It will be our good-bye dinner. On thursday we will watch the hafl finals of the european soccer championship Germany against Italy. We want to leave friday morning. FIll up the Diesel Tank, give the keys back to the Marina and leave. I am very excited about leaving. I want to SAIL! Finally. Forecast says we will have very good, strong wind. That means we will make it in about 4 days to Cabo Verde. Good wind, low waves. Let's GO!
Maybe I find the time tomorrow to go swimming. I still have 6 more mosquito nets to do.....
Wishing you all a wonderful tuesdays / wednesday.

Michaela