11/26/2007, Arguineguin
All crew and boat are well but Jigsaw of Gosort is currently in the port of Arguineguin in the South of Gran Canaria. About three hours after the start of ARC 2007 we found that our prop was seriously fouled by a rope that subsequently became entangled with our rudder and profoundly impeded our ability to steer. Given the distance to go we decided to request assistance to return to Gran Canaria. Assistance was provided by the Spanish Lifeboat from Arguineguin who reached us at about 20:00 last night and towed us the 28 miles to the base where we arrived at about 02:00 this morning.
Once we are clear as to the extent of any damage we will let you know what we intend to do. I was injured in the attempt to free the rope and have had to have medical treatment to a cut.
Paul McCarthy.
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Comments [9]
Dear Paul
I was so sorrry to hear of your problems on the VHF at the start.
Yesterday we picked up a relay of your message to the fleet saying that you
will not be coming over to the Caribbean. I hope that you are just delaying
your start and not abandoning the dream. We had our own little problems
today when we found at dawn that we were towing a rope. It quickly became
apparent that it was not ours and after a little fuss we have recovered 30
metres of 1" rope and a 50 litre drum from around our rudder. No damage
fortunately.
Later we blew out the asymmetric holding on to it just too long, much more
serious.
I hope to see you in the Caribbean for another dive,
Your buddy from Aqualuna, Hedley
Best wishes from me too
delighted to hear that wounds are healing and that you're gearing up to continue your journey to St Lucia, thats the spirit! Looking forward to following your progress. Good Luck to all from Chris, Karen and Tom Riding x
love Steve, Annie, Hannah & Laura
best Geoff
Sorry to hear about your little mishap - but don't let it get in your way. These things happen!
Anyway keep going....all the way to St Lucia.
Love Lisa xxxxxx
love
Caz
Squeeze my nieces very hard for me now will you please.
10/27/2007, Lanzarote
2 weeks on Jigsaw has been fantastic. Jamie and i have had a great time,
superb experience, with mild detox pogram thown in. Just what the doctor
ordered.
Started off from Lagos (Portugal) and sailed none stop to La Graciosa which
was 545 miles which took 5 days. The days consisted of bright sunshine and
sailing about 5 - 6 nautical miles per hour, with biggish waves.
The time was spent in pleasent company and delightful music thrown in and
plenty of sunbathing.
During the evenings were sat in the moonlight under the stars which became our
friends as we were using them as navigational aides. During the night again
we made great headway aided by Vera the Vane (great investment means 'no hands
sailing'). James actually left me for Vera on a couple of occasions to be
with Vera in the cockpit.
(You must understand that Vera is a hydrovane instrument which steers the
boat)
We arrived at La Graciosa is a tiny Island with a couple of costal hamelts
dotted about on a very barren landscape.
No roads on the island except a couple in the small towns near the marina.
We stopped at an ancourage which was at the foot of a volcano (none active)
idilic Very nice which was approx an hours walk to the village. Myself and
Jamie actually climbed the volcano and at the top where you could see
practically the whole Island.
Anyway we are packing now to come back to England and will see you soon...
Luv Caz and Jamie.
Thanks to Mary and Paul and of course
Kate and Molly for putting up with us.
XXXX see you in the Caribbean
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miss you all
hannah and viv
10/26/2007, Lanzarote Playa Blanca
Been anchored at Playa Francesca since Sunday, a lovely place but we were subject to rather strong winds that made the anchorage rather uncomfortable to say the least,and landing impossible. We had to run anchor watches on three of the nights that we were there. At times it was a trifle marginal to say the least. Boats were bouncing around with gusto, but thankfully, despite the strongish wind, no swell or waves of any significance got into the anchorage. It was a beautiful location and when the wind did ease, as it did most days for a few hours, the swimming and snorkelling was first class. Wonderfully clear warm blue water, with a reef close by that was teeming with fish of many shapes and colours.
We ran out of water though, which made life a trifle difficult, but our friends Stephan and Tanya gave us water from their boat's water maker so we survived. Also had a slight problem with lack of electricity on board, mainly due I suspect to letting the battery charge go down so far as we were sailing for 5 days without using the engine at all. Got that rectified yesterday and now all systems go. Good job the crew on Jigsaw are a hardy bunch or they may have complained!! Good lessons learnt for future long passages though.
I sat up last night as the nearly full moon passed over the anchorage, it lit it up all night long, almost bright enough to read by. Staring sat the moon again, as I do rather frequently, I was impressed, best moon so far, I hope you saw it too!!
Finally got the anchor up at about 08:40 UT, today, Thursday 25th October, it was very very deeply dug into the sand. Now motoring towards Playa Blanca on the South of Lanzarote where we are booked into Marina Rubicon, to clean boat and crew all of whom are a bit grubby, fill up with water and food and get a few jobs done on the boat. Currently in position 29 11'N and 13 34'W, 25C and barometric pressure of 1016, no wind!
Now in Marina Rubicon at Playa Blanca Lanzarote. Lovely location and we will be here for a couple of weeks getting the boat ready for the Atlantic crossing prior to joining up with the ARC in las Palmas on about the 13th November.
Jigsaw.
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