We returned to Savarna at Yacht Port Cartagena on Sunday 28th August to find Pat Costello had arrived the previous day (as arranged). While we were back in New Zealand we had expected quite a few jobs to be completed on board. Of these several were critical in the context of the Atlantic crossing and a number were of a more general maintenance type. One of the key jobs that was well done was the electronics upgrade from the IS15 series to the IS20 series consequent upon the damage suffered when we took a lightening strike last October. Raul and his team did a good job.


Centre of Cartagena old town, beautifully restored

The rest of the work appeared to stall so we called in friend Geoffrey to come over from Germany and project manage the work and at the same time complete an engine and generator service. All I can say is that this was a very good call as otherwise nothing much would have happened. Many of the trades guys here speak very little or no English and that makes it more difficult, particularly when the response is si si! The good news for Pam is that they managed to install a new fridge unit directly under the stove in the galley so she now has two fridges and one freezer. My interpretation of this move is that there is now no excuse for a shortage of cold beer or wind!
We arrived on the Sunday evening and at 0800 hrs on the following day we were lifted out onto the hardstand so that we could clean the bottom, so Raul could install the new transducer (the IS20 series has the same size through hull fitting but the new series has a completely redesigned fitting so the old has to be removed. And finally we needed to install an exterior scoop on the watermaker inlet to stop it stalling with cavitation. Everything was going well until they cleaned the bottom and huge chunks of antifouling came off seemingly because of poor service preparation when antifouled at Prevesa earlier this year. I gave the Ionian Boat Assistance guys a big rap a few postings back however there work here was obviously hurried. We were finally relaunched on Thursday 1st November (which was a public holiday in Spain as they take there version of Hallowen very seriously) - this was the relaunch many euro's later after a new coat of antifouling and to make the boat look good a full polish also.
Friday the 2nd saw Raul and his mate on board to tune up the electronics and then out for a test sail in basically no wind. The electronics are all working well and the IS20 gear talks to the other Simrad gear on board. So we continue to work through a long list of jobs to get the boat ready for the crossing. But we are making good progress at last.
The challenge at this time of the year to exit the Med (around 250 miles to get through the Straits of Gibraltar) and then sail south down the North African coast (about 700 miles to Las Palmas) is that the weather system brings through a series of strong frontal systems from the SW. This is exactly the direction we do not want and we have heard of many boats waiting for the right weather window to escape the Med and get down to the Canaries. We are following the weather carefully and it looks as though we will have a five day window from Monday evening through until Friday by which time we will easily be well down the North African coast.
The weather here is quite cool, usually dropping to around 10 C overnight but getting up to 21 C on a good day. The Canaries will be a lot warmer!
We were also pleased to find Cindy and Bob here on Godspeed - we had last seen them in Malta and thought they would be a lot further west by now as they had been planning to winter in Seville.
Must get back to some boat work!!

Cheers
Keith & Pam