Back to sea on our new PolePole

Rowan very happy to finally be on his new boat

We finally took ownership of our new PolePole on Monday 15 November. We couldn’t believe that all our timings had worked out and that the boat was ready on time. We shortened our stay in South Africa by 5 days, and had an unplanned mad dash back to the UK as South Africa had been taken off the UK red list. Just as well, as we managed to fly out to the boat with 5 suitcases weighing over 100kgs! This included a very important enormous container of homemade biscotti and rusks from my sister in South Africa, 6 kgs of pecan nuts from the farm, homemade marmalade and loads of boat bits.

A massive unpack onto the boat

We stayed in an Airbnb until Wednesday when we could finally unpack onto the boat. We had a huge amount of gear we had brought down in the Campervan in August plus our 20 boxes of gear off the old boat that we had shipped over from Martinique.

Chaos reigned, it was mayhem working around the workmen and then 20 cases of wine arrived on top of all the other boxes. We finally got them stowed away in the bilges. At least we won’t run dry for a while. It was freezing cold, we could see the snow covered Pyrenees from the boat, the snow line came further and further down the mountain during our stay. We had to go and buy two heaters as the evenings were perishingly cold. So lucky we had taken out our two season down duvet, we were very snug as soon as we were under it. Great incentive for early nights!

Snow on the Pyrenees near us

We slowly managed to get everything in order on the boat, which feels enormous compared to the old boat and we are thrilled with it. We have an island in the kitchen with a dishwasher in it, absolute luxury! Thursday we went out with the hand over crew to do sea trials. Testing out some of Rowan’s new sails. Sadly there was so little wind that Rowan had to put the engines in reverse to fill the sails. However he was pleased with the three extra sails that we managed to put up, all for different kinds of wind and different sizes. Just the biggie (Wingaker, like a parachute) was not hoisted. Rowan is thrilled with the boat, much bigger engines mean more power and control, and also everything can be done from the helm. No more going to the mast when you need to reef in the sails.

Putting the sails up for the first time, not a great test for the sails as there was hardly a breath of air, but easy as the sea was flat as a pancake

Big Spinnaker just managing to fill up

Little storm Spinnaker

Rowan’s pride and joy, a Code sail made out of fancy fabric

The main sail and self tacking jib made from whizzy 3DI!

Friday 19 November, Tom, Rowan’s sailing advisor and helper flew in from Wales to help us do our first trial sail on our own. Tom helped us for our first week on original PolePole and was invaluable with his level of experience, very reassuring to have him on board and knowing that he is crossing the Atlantic with us. Saturday we left Canet on our first sail on our own. The winds looked relatively good for us to sail to Menorca and back. We had to get back for various fixes and repairs. We had good gentle winds and managed to have a good sail round the last bulge of the French coast, this bulge is called Roses and is the big obstacle to get around. The wind channels down between the Pyrenees and Alps with ferocity at this time of year, and can create very tricky sailing conditions. Once on the Spanish coast it is much calmer, especially if you hug the coast. Rowan is very happy with the way she sails and how close to the wind we can get. It’s a real step up for us comfort wise. The kitchen is wonderfully spacious, with loads of refrigeration and a great oven. Our cabin is very spacious and airy, with lots of windows compared to old PolePole.

Tom and Rowan all dressed up, leaving the snow capped Pyrenees behind

Hugging the coast

We successfully made it into a very smart but very quiet out of season marina in Palamos. We had a very easy mooring right at the entrance so made life very easy for getting in and out. We had a lovely wonder around the old town, and the harbour master excelled himself by recommending a great place for supper which had excellent tapas.

Nearly at our first night’s stop, Palamos

Palamos marina

Next morning at 5am in pitch dark we struck out across the open sea to Menorca, we knew it gets quite windy out there, and it lived up to its reputation. We were hitting 30 knots of wind occasionally and PolePole was handling it like a dream, Tom even recorded her going over 20 knots, which is a real first for us. Old PolePole’s top speed was 12 knots. It was a long days sail and we finally made it to the Minorcan coast in the dark. We decided to anchor in a protected bay, a little nervous relying on everything working first time as we had not tested the anchor. But all worked well and we were very impressed to wake up and find ourselves surrounded by huge cliffs and enormous expensive looking houses on the top.

Waking up beneath the cliffs in Menorca

We decided to sail around the island to the port of Mahon on the other side, for more protection as the weather was looking stormy and the wind was coming from a different direction. The storms started swirling around with loads of dramatic lightening. We got in late afternoon and had the tiniest mooring berth with a tangle of other boats lazy lines to navigate. With a bit of a wind it took us a few attempts to get in, it was a good challenge to Rowan’s mooring skills in the new much longer boat! Such a relief to be tied up safely while the storm flashed all around us. We disconnected all our electrics as the boat built two before ours was struck by lightening, it was in the boatyard requiring 3 months of repairs. Catamarans are particularly vulnerable, with their twin hulls they can’t be earthed as current coming down the mast can’t go around corners. Mahon port is at the end of a very deep bay, extremely protected which is why it has so much naval history, lots of English evidence.

Finally in our tricky berth in Mahon

We had a great wander around the old town and the Harbour, bringing back many happy memories of holidays here when the kids were tiny. We had a good evening meal on the harbour, being out of season there was not much open, and of course being Spain we had to wait well past 8pm to be served food.

Stormy rainy weather

The very sheltered inlet of Mahon Port

Exiting Mahon

Early breakfast up in the old town and then back to sea returning to the boatyard at Canet. It was a long sail through the night with good winds. Quite a lot of marine traffic to negotiate, but otherwise a straight forward long sail.

Crossing the shipping lanes on our route back to Canet near Perpignan (you can see the bulge of Roses we have to go around again)

We couldn’t get to Canet too early as the storms had so roughed up the sea we couldn’t enter the marina harbour, as the swell and waves were breaching the harbour walls at the entrance. The wind died which slowed us down and we finally got in around 4pm, the swell had calmed enough for us to safely go back to our dock. We handed over quite a long list of things to be sorted.

Tom left the next day, Friday 26th, we took him to the airport in Carcassonne, and then joined Benjy and Cat for lunch there. Benjy is one of the first French wine makers Naked enlisted, and Cat is Australian, we’ve stayed with them before and really enjoy their company. We had an amazing meal at a very trendy restaurant, as usual ordering way too much, with huge bone marrow bones to start, sooo rich! Saturday we had a bit of a rest and got a few more things sorted and packed away. On Sunday we had Benjy, Cat and their daughter on board for lunch, plus Richard our handover fixit guy. I experimented with the slow cooker, cooking up a lentil dish in practice for the Atlantic crossing as lentils will be the vegetarian’s staple diet (Hannah and Tom).

Amazing bone marrow and crusty toast lunch in Carcasonne

Monday was a day of repairs and lots of sorting out of various issues. There were loads of laundry to sort out before our new crew arrived. David and Anne-Laure arrived on Tuesday from England. By this stage we had all the breaking news about Omicron the new Covid variant. All our S African families and friends, were all justifiably incensed that South Africa was being red listed again. Also a huge issue for Hannah trying to get home for Christmas from Botswana. David and his wife Anne-Laure are the owners of the next Catana 53, hull 12. Rowan is in contact with all the previous 10 owners which is how he met David. He invited them to come sailing with us to Gibraltar. They had a meeting with Catana in the afternoon finalising some of their choices. By 4pm Rowan was itching to go, and no sooner had they finished their meeting, they boarded and we were off!

Sun setting on our departure from Canet

New crew, Anne-Laure and David

Once again hugging the Spanish coast

Rowan has been watching for a reasonable weather window to get to Gibraltar, without having to go straight into strong headwinds. We had quite a send off from the Catana guys who escorted us to the fuel dock where we filled up.

We got the sails up and started heading for Gibraltar. While we had the winds and so as to avoid a bad weather system behind us, we sailed and motored solidly for 3 days through the night. It was a pretty rough passage as the sea was so churned up. Poor David and Anne Laure, both much more experienced sailors than us, were seasick, which was not a great start for them. The water was incredibly choppy, I think they were exhausted and suffering from a cold too. They were very stoic and never faltered doing their watches at night. David races a few sailing boats and has a lot of experience, he’s done 4 Fastnet races ( a very scary race between England and Ireland, where a number of people have lost their lives) amongst others. They also had a Nautitech Catamaran for 4 years, like our old boat although theirs was bigger. They had a worthwhile time working out exactly how they wanted things done on their boat. They haven’t given their final choices yet, so could make some changes to the specification. I suspect Catana are silently cursing us! Anne-Laure is French which also helps enormously with communicating with the boatyard.

Passing snow capped mountains along the Spanish coast

Great sunset

We were very happy to finally enter the Marina in Motril for a well earned rest. Roberto is the harbour master of the marina which is his families’ business, he was a really friendly character and was there waiting to guide us in. The problem was he wanted us to go through a tiny gap to a very complicated berth which I immediately thought was not possible. Anyhow Rowan gave it a go and even with David and Anne Laure we were unable to prevent our first altercation. Luckily it was on the anchor of the boat next to us so did no damage to them although it did damage us. It luckily did not damage the main structure, it hooked a bit of trim around our bedroom window. Roberto insisted on repairing it with fibreglass the next day. We finally had to get another cat to move to get us in. Roberto added insult to injury claiming he could have got us in the gap, we’re still not convinced! David paced it out and said it was impossible which boosted Rowan’s morale.

Finally in the marina at Motril

Tired and relieved not to be banging about we walked to the beach and had a wonderful sunset. A strange place eerily empty but big infrastructure about, it must heave in the summer although the beaches are brown and not quite so appealing. We enjoyed sundowners but couldn’t get supper until 8. We landed up eating down the road from the marina which is in a rather industrial port. It was not the greatest meal, I thought I would eat fish and landed up with a rather strange gelatinous dish.

A well deserved sunset drink with David and Anne-Laure after our over night sailing

The weather forecast was rough for the next two days so we stayed put for a couple of days. The next day Roberto organised a hire car for us and we drove to Granada to visit the Alhambra. We parked and got all the way way to the gates only to find it booked out and no tickets available for a few days. We consoled ourselves by going to the old town on the opposite slope and having a wonderful terrace lunch with a great view of the Alhambra and snowy mountains behind.

Walking around Girona

Views across to the Alhambra

Sunday we got a few chores done and hosed the boat down which Anne-Laure and David were very proficient at. Anne-Laure put a special nano coating on the windows which repels the salt water. Sadly Rowan has picked up a nasty cold so he wasn’t feeling his best. We had discovered that our vhf aerial was hanging loose, it was blowing a gale and we were wondering how we’d get it back up there. Roberto came to the rescue and went up the mast around 5pm when the winds were supposed to quieten a bit. It seemed to be as windy as ever but Roberto went ahead and scaled the mast which was rather hair raising. He managed to get one clip on but obviously it needs a bit more attention. Roberto also did a rather dramatic rescue of a catamaran, bringing it into the marina at high speed onto the dock opposite us in roaring winds and in the dark. We couldn’t quite make out the problem but the Cat had some kind of engine issues that kept a lot of heads buried down in the engine hatch.

We set off at 4am for Gibraltar knowing the sea was going to be rough but at least the wind had died a bit, as we motored straight into it. It was our last reasonable weather window for a good 10 days, so we had to go for it. It was pretty bumpy but not too bad. Dolphins along the way cheered us up, they stayed with us for ages.

It was a long day, we could see the Rock of Gibraltar from miles away. Hugging the coast to keep in calmer waters, it just seemed to take forever to get there. We had wonderful playful dolphins join us for a while. Finally we arrived as the sun set behind the Rock which was pretty impressive. Our marina was actually in Spain and around the corner so by the time we got there it was pitch dark, so we opted to anchor in a very sandy calm anchorage nearby. It all worked like a dream thank goodness. We went to bed very happy we had reached Gibraltar as it should be a lot easier and more comfortable from here on. During the night David heard a dinghy pull up outside his window. He went to investigate and found it full of young men. He told them to ‘bugger off’ which thankfully they did. A bit unnerving but guess they were checking us out.

Finally we get close to Gibraltar at sunset

Looking across the other way to Morocco, only 8 miles away

Rounding the spit of Gibraltar to our anchorage

Next morning Rowan did some practice manoeuvres in the calm waters, we threw out a fender to go and retrieve, which he expertly retrieved which was a good boost. We did a perfect docking to get fuel (over 500 litre’s) and then into our berth. Rowan’s chesty cold still hovering around, we cleaned the boat and rested in the afternoon while David and Anne-Laure explored Gibraltar. We walked into the old town on the Spanish side for supper and desperately searched for somewhere to eat. Anywhere reasonable was full so we landed up having a very mediocre meal which was disappointing.

David and Anne-Laure left the next morning. We finally got going late and walked into Gibraltar. It is really bizarre as Gibraltar is on a spit of land with the famous rock which still has enormous big guns on the top of it. As soon as you go through the border you have to cross the runway which cuts the whole way across the country. They have to stop the cars and pedestrians when a plane comes in which luckily isn’t that frequent. The traffic gets so congested every guide says it’s much quicker to walk into Gibraltar than get a taxi. Just rather bizarre having to cross the middle of the runway. Rowan was on a mission to get to a chandlery which we did a very fast walk to through the less interesting parts of town. We managed to clock up 12kms which explains why I felt so knackered. We did finally walk into the old bit of town, through the original single entrance through the fortifications. All the fortifications dating back to the 1700’s. The old town was rather quaint although full of rather tacky shops and very rough English accents. We were in need of an early quiet night.

Finally in our berth in the marina on the Spanish side of Gibraltar

The runway you have to cross to get into Gibraltar

Old fortifications and entrance to the old town

The next day I frantically cleaned the inside of the boat, did piles of washing in our wonderful full sized washer dryer, and prepared the beds for the new crew arriving in the evening. We also had to do a big provisioning shop for our passage to Gran Canaria. We walked to the wonderful Mercadono supermarket and then finally managed to get a taxi back to the boat, with a full boot of provisions. I had just finished putting the last purchases away when our crew arrived. Jonny Chadd lives across the Waveney valley from us and is an experienced sailor who has a boat who Rowan has gone sailing with. Chris is also a very experienced sailor who we met in Turks and Caicos on our first year sailing, they were in lockdown with us there for a month, they just waited for the right window and sailed home, which just happened to be Beccles, 6 miles down the road from us at Mettingham! Chris and Lorraine took seven years doing a circumnavigation and have many years of sailing experience as they’ve had boats for years. He always used to amuse us at T&C’s as he was always busy doing something extremely practical. The last crew member was Lucy, who was recommended by Chris, she is a pro sailor (world champion Female Topper sailor at 18!) who has also owned a cat. They met sailing in the Pacific. Amazingly and by pure coincidence she is crew for David (crew who just left) on his racing boat. We went out for supper at the nearest restaurant to the marina on the waterfront and it was an excellent tapas meal, the best so far!

Next morning, Friday 10th we departed at 7am for the Canaries. It was quite something going through the Gibraltar straits, we hugged the Spanish coast mainly to keep the right side of the shipping lanes and to keep away from the main current, the sea rushes through into the Med at this narrow opening which is only 8 miles wide. Morocco felt very close. We had to motor through with our main sail up. Keeping track off the enormous tankers coming in and out was quite something, especially when we were through the straits and out of the exclusion zone, we changed course to cross the shipping lanes to head south. From there we headed at a good wind angle to Gran Canaria and had a lovely gentle day sailing, watching the Moroccan coast get further and further away.

Leaving Gibraltar at first light

Spanish coastline on on the straits

Crossing the shipping lanes

Looking back at the straights, Morocco on the right and Spain on the left, with all the traffic in the middle

Next day the wind dropped and with the wind behind us we got the enormous Wingaker sail out. It is our first time to put it up and it was reassuring having our competent crew on board. Lucy had these kinds of sails on her cat and does lots of racing with big sails. She was very good at getting the sail all straightened out on the deck for an easy hoist. After a lot of untangling we finally got it up and Rowan was thrilled with it. We had a long comfortable sail with it up and we all enjoyed a wonderfully sunny day. As it was our first time to get the big sail down we took the precaution of doing it long before sunset and thank god we did. A little string that brings down the snuffer sock to bring in the sail got caught on something. Everyone tried a lot of flicking to try and release it but with no success. Finally the only solution was for someone to go up the mast and so Rowan got the bosun’s chair out and with Jonny on the winch up he went. Luckily the wind was only around 10 knots otherwise this story could have ended differently. He got to the first stay fairly easily but from there up it was far more tricky, the mast is at such a curve at the top (for speed!), Rowan was struggling to hold onto the mast. He had to let go the mast to get his leatherman out to cut the rope as he couldn’t release the offending rope, however it was stuck in his short’s pocket as the chair was so tight. Every time he let go the mast to try and do something with his hands, he went flying like a wrecking ball. It was absolutely terrifying as he got flung around the mast into the metal stays. Rowan’s adrenaline was pumping, he was terrified and exhausted. At one stage he got his ropes wrapped around the mast and I was wondering how we’d ever get him down. Luckily he got untangled and we quickly brought him down. Thankfully we had managed to get the spinnaker sail tied to the mast before he went up so we were not having to contend with a big flapping sail. We all had to take a few deep breaths once he was down and consider the options as we had to get the sail down. A plan was made to ease the tension off the rope and to get the boat going in the same direction as the waves for a smoother ride. Chris gallantly offered to go up and give it a go. He’s obviously been up a few masts in his many years at sea. Jonny winched him up and he clung onto the mast with a full on bear hug. He got up and luckily without tension on the stuck rope it flicked out instantly and before we knew it he was down again. What a hero! The sail came down and packed into the front locker, thankfully all before the sun set. Poor Rowan I pumped him with Ibuprofen and it wasn’t long before he had the most spectacular bruises around his thighs and arms. We were all so relieved that he was fine otherwise. We had an easy watch that night as the wind was gentle and the normal sails gave us an easy comfortable night.

Jonny at the helm

Chris checking out the squeaky boom

Lucy and Rowan getting the big Wingaker up

The parachute (Wingaker) is flying for the first time, you can see the air pockets in the middle of it , that acts like a safety valve, releases wind if there is too much and allows inflation in low wind

Jonny fishing

Enjoying a comfy ride in the sun

Lucy and Chris

Changing sails

Next day, Sunday 12th the wind completely died. This was not at all what we were expecting. Rowan has watched the weather so often to the Canaries and the prevailing trade winds have blown consistently until now! Engines on and with our new whizzy bigger Yanmar engines we can go between 8 and 9 knots. However we toned it down a bit as it looked like we would have no wind on Wednesday either. It was gloriously sunny. We did put the Wingaker back up briefly in the afternoon which much to all our relief, went smoothly. We know to keep the offending ropes taught away from the mast so as to not get caught. The night watches were going really well and a lot less tiring splitting it amongst 5 of us. Quite a few tankers and fishing boats to avoid.

Monday was another glorious sunny day, but hardly any wind, the motors engines going endlessly, I was a little worried our fuel wouldn’t last if we motored for another whole day. The wind was forecast to pick up in the night a bit. Midday we were nearing 10 knots of wind. Thrilled to turn the engines off, we got the Spinnaker up again and enjoyed pootling along between 4-5 knots boat speed. Slow going but very enjoyable, everyone out in shorts. The fishing line was out and we had a very gentle day. Most importantly we got the spinnaker down with no issues. We put up our Code sail, slightly easier as it’s on its own furler. Rowan’s very pleased with its performance, it’s made of special wonder fabric, thick, stiff, grey plastic called 3DI. We had a very hazy sunset, we thought it might be because of Sahara dust, but no evidence of sand on the boat like we had in the Caribbean. After supper the wind did pick up a bit and we cruised along. Being the only non sailor I was given the night off while we had the bigger sail up. We were bracing ourselves for the big South Easter winds predicted for the next day.

A very hazy sunset

Morning of the 14th broke and we were very excited to spot the first of the Canary Islands. We went off course a bit to take advantage of the wind. By midday the winds were hitting 20 knots and once it got to 25 we took the Code sail down and used our normal self tacking jib. There was lots to concentrate on with quite a bit of traffic about, and the wind channeling between the islands. We had an early supper, Rowan’s favourite, lamb chops and mash. We could see the lights of Las Palmas on Gran Canaria, but the last stretch always takes so long in the dark. A little nerve wracking going into a marina you haven’t been to before. The harbour master had left and we had permission to tie up to the fuel dock. We finally found the correct green and red buoys guiding us in, and found a good spot on the fuel dock, we were soon moored up. It was just after midnight when we finally cracked open a bottle of champers to celebrate arriving in the Canaries. We always do dry overnight passages, so everyone was very happy knocking back some delicious bubbles. We kept hearing a boat called kiwi Cat calling the harbour master. Rowan called him and told there was nobody here and we’d give them a hand. Turns out it was exactly the same as our old Cat, a Nautitech 40 Open. They had taken a whole day longer from Gibraltar and had some older foreign crew, it did not look a barrel of fun. The kiwi skipper is taking the boat back to NZ after 4 years in the Med. He’s joining the same ARC rally as us, but heading straight to Panama when he gets there. What a good nights sleep we had, we’d always told ourselves that getting to the Canaries was the hardest part of the crossing, so felt mightily relieved to be here.

The Canaries finally appear in the distance

Celebrating at midnight, our safe arrival at Las Palmas, Gran Canaria

Woke up to rain the next morning, that was definitely not what we were up for, but it did help with cleaning the salt off the boat. We filled up with fuel while at the fuel dock and finally got placed onto our spot along the wall at the marina. Very good to have our feet on land again and a good meal out.

Cloudy weather with a rainbow to cheer us up

Our final spot in the marina with our Arc flag hoisted, all the boats around us are doing the crossing

Crew dinner

Boats getting into the Christmas spirit

The crew departs back to the UK

Aloes in flower reminding us of South Africa

Exploring the lovely old town of Las Palmas

A square dedicated to dogs

Flying home, the Canaries from the air

The volcano peeping above the clouds

Back to the Uk for a week over Christmas, joining all 3 of our children. Back on the 28th December with Phoebe and Hannah. Tom and Luke join us on January 5th and we set off on the 9th with Phoeb’s waving us off. I will resume the blog on the 9th!