Fri Sep 19 0:00:00 EDT 2008
The shops in the Canaries had a lot of Iberian hams for sale. This is salt-cured meat, which seemed like it would keep well at sea. So we hung one off the backstay and covered it with an old sheet to keep the sun off. Periodically, we cut a piece off. So far, the meat is still very good.
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Comments [2]
Thu Sep 18 0:00:00 EDT 2008
We left El Hierro, the southern-most Canary Island, Tuesday afternoon. Winds have been very light so far...0-10 knots.
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Wed Sep 17 20:08:00 EDT 2008
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Mon Sep 15 0:00:00 EDT 2008, El Hierro, Canary Islands
A street in the small, pleasant town of Puerto de la Restinga, El Hierro.
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Sun Sep 14 0:00:00 EDT 2008, El Hierro, Canary Islands
El Hierro is the farthest south island in the Canary Islands. It was once known as the end of the known world.
We are arriving here after an overnight sail from La Gomera. The wind was quite light all night, and we spent several hours becalmed, waiting for wind. This morning we changed the yankee (jib) sail for the genoa sail for the light downwind conditions we are expecting to have for this passage and the next. The genoa is harder to handle (can't be tacked), but very nice to have in light winds and waves. It is so low to the water that it gets a lot of strain from white water hitting it when going upwind in seas, so it is only useful in light wind and sea conditions. Changing over to the genoa from the yankee takes most of an hour with three people.
The galvanized hook and turnbuckle on the left are serving as semi-permanent checkstays. We have a running checkstay on each side of the boat, which supports the main mast when the main staysail (voile d'etai) is set. Normally, you let off one running checkstay and pull in the other each time you tack or gybe, which is extra work when you already have three sails to tack. We are testing this arrangement, and may still have to use them as running checkstays under some conditions, so far, they are saving a lot of work when tacking and gybing.
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Tue Sep 9 0:00:00 EDT 2008, Off Tenerife, Canary Islands
After a month of work at the dock, we are finally underway again. This rock is on the north tip of Tenerife, in unusually light winds.
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Sun Aug 31 0:00:00 EDT 2008, Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands
The little girl has sailed from Tunisia to the Canaries (with her parents).
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