Voyage of SY Nessaru - Rota to Pasito Blanco, Gran Canaria
08 May 2024 | Puerto Deportivo Pasito Blanco, Gran Canaria
Colin Maslen | Sunny and warm

According to Prussian military strategist, Field Marshal Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Molke (1800-1891) "No plan survives first contact with the enemy". In our case, the "enemy" would be adverse wind and weather, the gremlins that cause things to malfunction, orcas, and human error.
Our passage plan (version 11) had us going from Spain to Madeira, but the weather routing options from Predict Wind recommended the Canary Islands, so our plan was amended accordingly. I cancelled our marina booking in Madeira, and then started looking for a suitable marina in the Canaries. There are over 30 ports and marinas in the Canary Islands, and believe it or not, most of them are full and some even have waiting lists! One marina in Las Palmas replied to my booking request as follows: "Good afternoon. In our Marina we do not make reservations, and we are currently full, we do not have available berths for that length." Fortunately I was able to book a berth in a marina at Pasito Blanco on the southern side of Gran Canaria.
After a relaxing few days in Rota, Nessaru departed Rota at 12:00 on Monday 29 April. The marina administration office in Rota had given us an orca "heat map" which showed the areas off the coasts of Spain and Portugal where orcas have attacked, and in some cases sunk, sailing yachts. So we motored at 6 knots to clear the coast and get well out to sea and away from the orca "playgrounds". At 14:40 we shut down the motor, commenced sailing, and shaped our course of 230 degrees for the Canary Islands. We were experiencing winds of 10 to 12 knots, in sea state 3, with a 1 to 2 metre swell, and making good speed at just over 6 knots.
The following day, Tuesday 30 April, was Michael's 71st birthday. Unfortunately the cake shop in Rota was closed on Monday before we sailed, so all Michael got was a birthday card!
During the day we were being set towards the coast of Morocco. I have read about shipwrecks along this very inhospitable coastline and wanted to be well clear of it. At 22:00 we furled the Genoa, left the mainsail on the second reef, and commenced motor sailing. The Raymarine autohelm, henceforth called "George", kept us on a course of 250 degrees for about 10 hours, after which we stopped the motor and resumed sailing.
On Wednesday we experienced our first rain squalls. In the afternoon the barometer began to drop, the wind and sea increased, and it was becoming apparent that we were in for a wild ride. At 19:50, with the Genoa fully furled and the mainsail on the second reef, we were doing 6 to 7 knots. Within a few hours Nessaru was literally surfing with a 3 to 5 metre swell on the port quarter. We reduced the mainsail further to the 3rd reef, and were still doing 7 knots with a 20 knot wind gusting to 30 knots. Unless you have experienced sailing conditions like this, it is hard to imagine how rough it can get in a small boat. Nessaru was pitching and rolling so much that it was very difficult to move about; meals were out of the question and it was impossible to even boil the kettle for a coffee. Steering at the helm was hard work, frequently turning the wheel from wheel-lock to wheel-lock, that is 30 degrees either side, to maintain a heading within about 40 degrees either side of our course. Throughout the night and much of the day, whoever was at the helm was wearing a lifejacket and was lashed in with a safety harness. It was white-knuckle stuff, which we hope we do not experience again!
Even though the ride was very uncomfortable, Nessaru proved to be a good sea boat; she rode the swell and handled the conditions quite well, and only once did a wave crash into the cockpit. However, the following day as the wind and sea began to abate, it became evident that the old mainsail, which we had repaired in Port Ginesta and reinforced for the Atlantic crossing, did not fair so well. The wind had ripped the top four sliders off the mast and there was a small tear in the sail. (The sliders are nylon lugs sewn onto the luff, or leading edge, of the mainsail. They slide up or down in a track on the mast, and essentially secure the mainsail to the mast.) In addition, two of the main sheet blocks (the pullies that help us control the mainsail) had failed; one had almost completely disintegrated!
At 19:00 we lowered the mainsail and lashed it to the boom. To add insult to injury, the shackle on the mainsail halyard had opened, and the halyard was now near the top of the mast and wrapped around the backstay. In other words, it was well out of reach, so that, re-hoisting the mainsail would have been impossible.
We continued sailing towards the Canaries with just the Genoa. The following morning we used the spinnaker pole to set the Genoa, which worked quite well until we accidentally jibed. (To jibe is to shift a fore-and-aft sail from one side of a vessel to the other while sailing before the wind so as to sail on the opposite tack. It can be a dangerous manoeuvre and needs to be carried out with care.) The accidental jibe was my fault; I was so tired that I lost concentration and turned the wheel the wrong way! We then got ourselves in a bit of a muddle. Michael steered while I did my best to disentangle the pole from the Genoa sheets and disconnect it from the clew (bottom corner) of the Genoa. I have to say that handling a heavy spinnaker pole at night on the foredeck of a pitching boat is not easy. We got there eventually, and have decided that from here on we will be more circumspect about using the spinnaker pole at night. With the Genoa now fully furled, we started motoring with George doing the steering, to give ourselves some rest.
Speaking of rest: With a four-hour watch system, by the time we come off watch and turn in and then get up again half an hour before going back on watch, we might get about three hours rest at the most. (It takes about 15 minutes just to get dressed in about three layers of clothing including foul weather clothing and sea boots, together with life jacket and safety harness.) Then there are times when we both have to be up, such as when we are reefing the mainsail or dealing with situations like an accidental jibe. Rest does not necessarily mean sleep. In heavy weather when the boat is pitching and rolling, sleep does not come easily no matter how tired one might be.
For meals, we tend to have a light breakfast such as muesli, and for lunch something which is easily prepared such as noodle soup in a cup (I am already tired of noodles!). For dinner during the Second Dog Watch, we do our best to have a decent, cooked meal, usually followed by tinned fruit. Sometimes we just cook something pre-prepared, a pizza for example, and if it is not too rough, we might go to a bit more trouble and be a bit more creative. Occasionally Michael makes an omelette, and I have to say that Michael's omelettes are the best!
Now who would have thought that, in a big ccean, the likelihood of a solitary yacht being on a collision course with a merchant ship would be anything but very low? Yet it happened to us three times in less than 48 hours. In accordance with the International Regulations for the Prevention of Collisions at Sea, commonly referred to as The Rule of the Road, power-driven vessels are obliged to give way to sailing vessels. (There are exceptions to this rule, such as when a power-driven vessel is navigating a narrow channel and/or is constrained by its draft, exceptions which do not apply on the open ocean.) Yet on each of the three above-mentioned occasions, the merchant ships took no avoiding action whatsoever, and it was up to Nessaru to alter course and pass safely astern. It makes you wonder about the competency of some of the crews of these vessels.
On Sunday morning, 5 May, we had our first change of time zone, and retarded clocks by one hour. We also resumed sailing with the Genoa to conserve fuel. Later that evening we furled the Genoa for the last time, started the motor, and rounded the south east corner of Gran Canaria. We were not due into the marina until the following morning, so we slowed down and motored on an east-west "racetrack" until 07:20, when we altered course to 020 degrees for Pasito Blanco. At 08:45 we were at the refuelling wharf, and by 10:00 we are in our allocated berth, B23, and so glad to be there!
For most of this passage from Rota to Pasito Blanco we saw very little sea life until we reached the Canary Islands where we were greeted by a large pod of dolphins. The two exceptions were a sea turtle that Michael saw, and a small squid which we found on the fore deck one morning. Thankfully, we did not see any orcas.
Our route from Port Ginesta to Pasito Blanco was 1,344 nautical miles (2,489 kilometres). The distance actually sailed would be somewhat longer because we are at the mercy of the wind and our track often deviates from side to side of our planned route.
Before leaving Port Ginesta, we had contracted South East Asia (S.E.A.) Sails (Thailand) to make a new mainsail and ship it to Shelter Bay Marina in Panama for us to collect on arrival there. The sail has since been completed and duly despatched to Panama with DHL. Since our arrival in Pasito Blanco, I had a very frustrating time trying to contact DHL so as to arrange for the shipment to be redirected to Gran Canaria. DHL were no help whatsoever! In some instances, when I asked to speak to someone in English rather than Spanish, they just hung up.
Isn't it a shame that so many large organisations become so disinterested in providing any genuine customer service, unless, perhaps, you happen to represent a large corporate client. Sadly, it is often nearly impossible to even get to talk to a customer service representative, let alone speak to one who might say, and genuinely mean, "How can I help you?"
Fortunately there are still some companies around who will try to help resolve a problem. Eventually, after giving up on DHL, I searched for a freight forwarder and got to speak with Julio Sánchez at Panamá Soluciones Logísticas Intl (PSLI). What a refreshing change! After advising me regarding the process for authoring PSLI to take carriage of the shipment from DHL, Julio added, "beyond that point we will handle everything with ease."
We will now wait in Pasito Blanco until our new mainsail arrives. There is still work to be done, such as replacing the mainsail halyard and cleaning the boat. Michael has already completed some more maintenance on the motor - he just started it up as I was writing this - and it is working like a charm! We also plan to hire a car and have a look around the island.