Commodore
January 9, 2022

The big day finally arrives!

The PolePole crew with Tom

The family

We had to pinch ourselves waking up, that the big day had finally arrived. We’ve been back nearly two weeks in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria after a wonderful Christmas back home with all the kids. Phoebs and Han flew back to the boat with us while Luke stayed at Mettingham to see in the New Year with friends.

We had a week end to explore Gran Canaria by car which was fascinating. An island of many different sides. Some desert like, others green with bananas and some lush bush on the steep uninhabited windward side. We did a brilliant walk around a volcano crater, followed by a delicious authentic village lunch. New Year’s Day we drove to the top of one of the highest mountains and did a very strenuous ridge line walk after climbing 115 floors. We then drove over the mountain and down the longest, most dramatic vertiginous pass, challenging Rowan’s driving skills in our underpowered 9 seater (the only car available to hire). We landed up down in a fishing village where Phoebs had found us a fantastic gourmet restaurant. We had their tasting menu which was sensational, we rolled out after eating way too much after our strenuous walk. It certainly made up for our very modest New Year’s Eve on the boat.

Otherwise it was a busy week of getting chores done, provisioning and avoiding the diarrhea/sick bug. Sadly I started the ball rolling feeling lousy the day we had invited people over for drinks on the boat. Next day Rowan was laid low in bed all day, and so it went through us all, except Phoebs. Luke arrived on the 5th and was struck down two days later when he boarded the boat. What a welcome!

Friday before departure was a bit nerve wracking getting our compulsory PCR tests done, organised by the Arc rally. We were pretty confident as we had all been doing lateral flow tests. But next morning as test results filtered through we heard the one boat we had on board for drinks had tested positive so were having to abandon the rally. All a bit scary until we got our all clear. Two boats along our pontoon had tested positive, which means you cannot participate.

Feeling one step closer we did our mega fresh provisioning shop in the wonderful fruit and veg market. 22 crates of fruit and veg and 120 eggs later, requiring 2 taxis, Rowan and I completed the provisioning (Han and Luke both at this stage overwhelmed by the bug). Of course I had a few last minute trips with Phoebe back to the wonderful huge department store El Corte Engles. They do a special deal for Arc participants from their supermarket department, delivering right to the gang plank with a helpful ten percent off. We did this quite a few times. We are so impressed with Las Palmas, it is so sophisticated, we found everything we could possibly want. The place really has a wonderful atmosphere, with very friendly healthy looking locals.

The girls found a place to get matching PolePole shirts embroidered which worked out so well. Han designed us some great boat cards, plus got our blog reactivated and updated. Phoebe had organised the most extensive set of spreadsheets for our provisioning, with each meal’s ingredients itemised, so we will definitely not starve for 21 days! Goodness knows what happens after that. Very good winds too with the enormous amount of beans and lentils on board for the two veggies (Han and Tom).

Finally Sunday arrived and we were given our 12:45 start time on the line. Rowan and Tom came up with tactics and were pleased that both French boats on either side of us departed before us. We had a little scraping with the French Cat on our way out for a sail on Thursday. Although the old French man was spitting mad at the time, it turned out to be the tiniest of scratches on a hired old boat. It was very windy and we had blown onto them. The French mono hull on the other side were very convivial, very chic salty sea dogs, and also in the booze business.

Phoebs did a brilliant mad dash to El Corte Engles to buy another bread tin, so I can bake two loaves at a time, saving oven gas! Plus we needed more flour on board as I had calculated it a bit tight and Rowan wants to make his sourdough too.

With all our massive emergency checks and boat inspections done we were ready to go. One of the more macabre things was we had to get our boat names onto our black life jackets, we assume so they can identify you! Phoebs and Han got some white tape embroidered with PolePole, so we looked pretty smart in our named shirts and life jackets as we set off.

So, so sad leaving Phoebs behind, I sneaked a little tear when she was out of sight, as it feels very sad not to have her on board. She has been a star in helping us get sorted. She is super organised, no task daunts her, she just gets shit done. We will miss her. However I suspect she is quite relieved as she certainly felt a bit queasy out on the water on Thursday. She flies to St Lucia on the 12th and has a lovely Airbnb where she will focus on her next phase of G&G for a week before we arrive. Oh and her boyfriend Daniel may pop over from NY to see her!

It was a smooth departure with people waving us off all along the walk ways. As we left the marina behind we hit the choppy waters in the harbour, with loads of the boats out jockeying for positions and to add to the melee was a fleet of about 40 Opie sailing boats all under instruction. No doubt fun for them but nerve wracking for us. Thankfully the multi hulls go first and Rowan (and Tom’s) cunning plan to crawl up to the line worked like a dream. We were second over the line, a perfect execution amongst all the many boats.

Typically the weather is not playing ball and doing something unusual. We are going to hit an enormous area of no wind for days. So the big debate is whether to go north or south of it. The further north you go, you are likely to hit the bottom of stormy European weather. The safer, but longer option is to go south all the way to the Cape Verde islands and this is what the boys have decided to do. Most of the boats we tracked while we still had signal were opting to go north, just a few coming our route! We have employed a weather router (German man) to guide us and he chose our route too. So fingers crossed we have made the right decision.

Sadly after an hour of tacking with us out with the first 5 boats, the wind died and we all got our engines on. Great French etiquette as the French Cat radioed to us to apologise that he was going to motor. I think he thinks we are racing, and although Tom and Rowan are very excited about our positioning, we are definitely not racing!

We got to the end of the island and the wind picked up. We got the big Gennaker sail up and we were back sailing. We are now completely separate from the fleet, we can’t see a single boat.

We feasted on Phoebe’s pre cooked curry and all felt ready for bed. A tiring, adrenaline fuelled day. We are letting Han and Luke off night shift while they get their sea legs.