Part 9, Sailing Las Palmas, Spain – Santa Maria, Cape Verde.

Nov. 20^th 2010

3rd sail and last sail up

Today’s 06.00-10.00 shift started with lots of light. A huge cruise ship on port side with hundreds of lights lighted up the last part of the darkness and made us change the heading for 15 minutes. No reason to get too close to this giant.

Around 10.00 hours when Gunnar got up from his sleep we checked our position and got our speed confirmed to 3 nautical miles / hour. It was quite good in comparison to our vessels limping status with two wrecked sails. However we had yet another bonus sail. In between the main sail and the front sail the boat was equipped with a 3^rd sail. Now the waves allowed us it was time to hoist it out in the sun and let the wind fool around with our last piece of healthy sail. We both went up on the deck while Sheilah tried to keep the course of the ship. Gunnar ensured that ropes for both port and starboard side were in place for this new sail. However twice he had to return on deck and retie the port side rope – some birds must have been messing with the tie while we not looking! Now with the fog sized sail up we immediately accelerated to 5 nautical miles.

Every time we checked the remaining distance on the GPS we gave in a bet on the remaining miles – a qualified guess. I came up with 109 miles and I could see on Gunnar’s surprised look that I this time not only were close but spot on and it made our destination reachable within the next 24 hours if the conditions would continue like this.  We had never been that close and felt good as we seemed to have passed Neptune’s big wave challenge and now we had a new actual sail moving us forward at our expected average speed.

109 miles left and doing 3,2 nautical miles speed

Just before midday I blessed my body with breakfast; cornflakes and chilled milk. Then a nap was needed followed by a body refreshment. All together it made me feel reborn and 100% ready for a 15.00-18.00 hours shift. It was calm and joyful flavored with yet another different and magic sunset. This could never be routine. The small golden lit waves hit the vessel like small appreciating and embracing hugs. 

I took the 22.00-02.00 shift and did expect to discover the silhouette of land in the starlit horizon. But as I got close to the end of my shift I had to let that imagination go. I saw nada out there. The reason was that we were moving slow again. Our speed was reduced to just 2-3 miles. The wind had died completely on us.

I got almost 4 hours of sleep that night which was my night record on this voyage. At 06.30 the whistle was blown with air from a satisfied captain who was longing for some sleep. I was surprised to learn that he didn’t bump into the sight of land yet. 
Far away on starboard sight a cargo ship was slowly moving while the sky gradually changed the black background to deep blue which soon was taken over by a lighter version. The time was now 07.25 just before the appearance of the sun and there it was: “LAAAND – LAND AHOY!!!” I shouted but I guess the rest of the crew was all enrolled in a thick heavenly passionate substance of dreams to hear my annunciation. . . In a moment I thought of putting my lips around the mighty thief of dreams which would wake them up in a split second; the orange whistle but I almost immediately found mercy – I knew the value of sleep and transferred my excitement to my camera that started shooting the first images of land in 8 days.

LAND AHOY in the horizon just before a beautiful sunrise

It reminded me of the latest King Kong movie when they first encounted land… but hopefully no surprise like that were awaiting us.

King Kong get ready for some visitors ;)

Nature had more surprises ready though. Huge shoals of flying fish appeared just above the surface of the sea. There were hundreds and they flew astonishing long distances in the air before they all disappeared back in the blue sea. It was amazing. Soon I had to sit back down behind the wheel and digest the impressions.
My thoughts couldn’t let these flying fish go. I wanted to know more about this special and different specie... Did anyone investigate that story yet? It’s nothing less than a wonder – we are talking about a creature which is half fish and half bird. Many questions started popping up like: do they breath in the air or in the water? Do they speak fish or bird language and most interesting; how on earth were they created? Now excuse my mind for running wild but could one imagine that a romantic bird was on hunt for prey, made a full duck down in the water for a fish but on the way fell in love with the targeted fish (hey, opposite attract;) and ended up – somehow – to make love to this fish?!! It could also have been a brutal water rape. At least the fish saved its life and a new magnificent specie was soon born!:)
I smile found my lips and I had the feeling that a scientific zoological professor was taken prison inside of me and just needed to be locked out. I mean we have the flying fish, mix it up with the little mermaid and we soon will both be able to swim with our brothers in the sea and fly with our sisters in the air learning new cultures and languages... Or OK wait, maybe my mind was just in a serious need of sleep again...!

  

I didn’t get that sleep though. When Gunnar and Sheilah woke up at 09.15 to the horizon showing land we started preparing for reaching land and with the continuous poor wind I took down our new sail and our blue acting main sail in the back. Gunnar turned on the motor and we travelled the last miles to the south of the island of Sal for engine in a moderate tempo AND autopilot which worked when having the diesel engine employed. Even though running for engine is not at all as cozy and joyful as when sailing for wind, music filled the cockpit and we could all enjoy the time together relaxing. The sun mirrored in our sunglasses as the island slowly passed on our port side. Our goal was reachable within hours and we would be anchoring up in the village of Santa Maria before darkness. Perfect.

We came into the bay around 17.30 with the main sail and front sail all tight up – we wanted to ensure we didn’t look like vagabonds coming to town with our busted sails and other damages. 5-6 sailing boats primarily catamarans were already anchored up in the bay a part from a big dutch schooner and we ”parked” Sheilah CV about 200 meters from shore. After making sure we were not drifting, Sheilah prepared some well deserved spaghetti with meatballs which included a beer. I don’t want this to sound too impressive but still – it was actually 10 full days since I last had alcohol!!! We enjoyed fully to be safe anchored up at our destination and could now laugh out loud about all the challenges, how we had been under pressuer and reacted in the emergency period:) It was a true relief. It had been much tougher than anyone anxiously would have anticipated but with hard work, courage and good teamwork we had now succeeded.

Gunnar, Sheilah and Sheilah CV - image taken when having a swim around the boat

Before long lack of sleep caught up on us and at 21.00 hours the whole crew retired into the cabins and both Gunnar and I were looking extreme forward to not only a full night’s sleep but the fact that the orange alarm whistle would not break into our dreams and wake us up felt like an award.
I felt the calm sea outside my cabin walls just rolling the boat a bit, took a few deep breaths and off I went. Sailing into new unexplored seas in the endless sea of the dreams…

YOU!!! You don't go anywhere - soon an sailing evaluation and update on my present life will be online. Feel life and do stay around for more thoughtful stories on sbock.hugbucket.com.