Breathing life on the Canaries

Upon arriving in Las Palmas the first thing I had to do was clearing the whole boat out to try and get rid of the mould or at least to stop it spreading. I also had to organise all my stuff a bit better and managed to throw away a few things. All that took a good few days and then my darling Tjelvar arrived from Sweden and we chilled in Las Palmas, did some work on Caprice and then some beautiful night sailing back and forth to Tenerife in these steady NE winds and ended up in a picturesque little port on the other side of Gran Canaria called Puerto de las Nieves where I still remain anchored just outside the harbour. (Caprice is the little white dot in the middle, below)

When Tjelvar left, I again went into ‘get ready mood’ and it was just bringing me down. I found myself out of energy and getting Caprice ready felt like an overwhelming task. I just kept feeling quite low and was not my usual positive life loving being.

But a few days ago I had a revelation. I need to STOP and look around me and start just enjoying this trip. Otherwise, what is the point. I may as well go home. It doesn’t matter which day I will be ready for the Atlantic. I will leave when I am ready. And I need to stop to push myself so hard and stressing about getting this boat ready. Because that is wearing me down and I am not enjoying the time.

And I am really not in a rush anymore. With that viewpoint I actually got more energy and I then buried the top half of my body in the engine room for two days fighting with my leaking propeller axe, swearing, sweating, sawing off bits of my bed to get better access to the propeller axe, taking pipes off where the scin fitting taps were really stuck and so hard to close. I had to remove the pipes to be able to tighten the bloody nut on the propeller axe as the plyers are so bloody big and everything was in the way. And I pretty much won! It is now not dripping whilst still. Propably still will whilst underway though but I think I can live with that.

I have also just enjoyed my time here. The scenery and the weather are something to treasure in every moment. I went for a mountain walk one day and another I went to visit two new friends Julia and Lisa whom were staying in a natural palm tree house on a beach nearby, such a beautiful place! We cooked food on a fire under the stars.

They are sisters and together they are making an incredible journey around the world on foot, boat and any form of transportation that is cheap and not a plane. They are visiting communities aiming for a ‘utopian’ life and they are traveling mostly by land all through South America, America towards Alaska and across to Russia and then back to Germany. I met them because they are looking to crew on a boat to South America. Their travel blog is http://www.outthere.eu.

I was pretty tempted to give them a lift onboard Caprice to Brazil, but I do want to explore my solo sailing experience a little longer. And crossing Atlantic alone I don’t want to miss out on.

Now Lisa and Julia will stay with me and Caprice for a few days and help me doing some work onboard. It is really nice with the company and helps with the motivation. We are soon sailing back to Las Palmas together where I will stock up and get the final bits for my Atlantic crossing and they will search for a boat to crew on. Perhaps we will meet again on the other side of the big sea 🙂

I do not have a set leaving date yet but I will keep you updated. The mood onboard is good and I feel much more like myself again. The Atlantic is calling me!