The alarm clock rings at 5:00 am, and I torture myself out of the bunk. To Gaby, not to stand there as a grouch, the alarm clock always wakes me half an hour earlier. This half hour I use to get me, with coffee, halfway awake and when Gaby then gets up, a basic communication, to be able to follow. We leave Tenerife again. Not quite voluntarily, but Tenerife has returned to level 3, which possibly on the other Canary Islands, again leads to Corona tests. One day before the classification, we throw off the lines at 7:00am. The command goes to me, at this time, then already much better over the lips. The initially absent wind and the 1.5m high wave, are sufficiently and loudly commented by me. This is, by the way, the time when I run up to top form, and Gaby becomes quieter and quieter.
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| Katinka under sail |
But the jet between Tenerife and Gran Canaria, is not long in coming and so not only my communication picks up speed, even our Katinka already shows 5 knots, on the plotter. Knowing that it winds in the south a bit more, we set the main in the first reef. In the meantime, Gaby is getting calmer and calmer and then stops communicating altogether. So I talk to the waves, the sky and especially to myself. Meanwhile we sail 6 knots and I get the genoa a bit tighter. The wind comes clearly from northeast. At least the wave sets to the south, so that it does not always crash against the port hull, but hits us diagonally from behind. We are now at 7 knots of speed and the wind has increased to 18 knots. Gran Canaria looms in the haze, while Tenerife is lost in the same. Foam crests on the crest of the wave, now and then a wave wants to know it nevertheless once, and crashes against the hull. This is then commented by me with all sorts of swear words.
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| Best conditions on sea |
Gaby, meanwhile, registers my torrent of words, but is only moderately impressed and considers a comment entirely superfluous. With 22 accounts, the jet has reached its peak today and it goes along with 9.5 knots. I start to trill a little song to myself. But as it is in life, someone always presses the fun brake and so the wind in the shade of Gran Canaria decreases quickly, from 22 knots to 5 knots. The boat loses speed, the wave becomes calmer and just at the moment when I have spoken my 4000 words daily workload, Gaby speaks to me again. "How far is it?" We get the sails down and drive the last piece under engine. On 6m sand we anchor in a bay with two other boats. In the evening we are alone. The area is rough and lonely. Exactly what we need now, rest.
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| In the south of Gran Canarias |
The next day, we put our IridiumGo into operation. The plan is to maintain communication at sea via satellite, with a pre-paid card. First and foremost, weather data should be received via the system. To test the IridiumGo, I order 75 minutes with a duration of one month. The whole costs 150€, so 2€ per minute. With more units and longer durations, the cost per minute can be reduced to 0.80€. Can you communicate today for 9.99 € reasonably decent and also long, throughout Europe via various providers, the month over, with satellite communication, then pay significantly more . If the 2€ are too expensive as an extreme pain threshold and the 0.80€ seem reasonably bearable, you should not read on here. With five sent emails, three SMS and a data attachment of 600kbyte in total, the credit is used up. The five emails contain, as information "Test 1 -5", as well as the three SMS. If I now generously assume another 400kbyte, the limit is 1000kbyte. If one assumes an average 70kbyte Grib file as the usual size of a weather file, such an information costs 10€ or 4,20€. Apart from the costs, such a connection is anything but comfortable and requires some patience. There you see again, how valuable my 4000 words a day are, especially when I transmit them via satellite. At least we have learned one thing, this technology must be used with care.
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| IridiumGo |
After the knowledge gained, I try to react off and deal with the hull cleaning. With a spatula in hand and a snorkel in the mouth, it's hard to talk, which keeps the cost down. The Coppercoat keeps, at least after a year in the water, what it promises. After a good hour, both hulls are free of the toppings. We get a berth in Puerto Mogan and squeeze into the narrow harbor basin on place 2, with stern to the harbor wall. Not quite easy to get ashore, but we sit at the harbor cinema in the front row.
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| Puerto Mogan, Gran Canarias |
What we experience in Puerto Mogan so everything, we tell you next time, here on www.glenswelt.com. Until then, we wish you allways fair winds and keep a stiff upper lip.
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