Get Ready

At: Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands

We’re doing a lot of small boat jobs that needed to be done for a while now. Las Palmas is a very seductive city for this: All kinds of marine shops are close by and just invite you to invent boat projects. They’re toy stores for sailors.

We had riggers inspecting the rigging before the crossing. They came back with three possible problems, none of them urgent.

We checked all the automatic life vests. Not many people know this, but you don’t actually have to replace the gas canister every year. They have a minimum weight printed on them. Just get out the kitchen scales and check if the canister is still heavy enough, which means full. Inflate the life jacket by blowing into the little tube and leave them sitting overnight. If it’s still inflated in the morning, you’re good to go!

I sent the crew on a quest to find ceiling paneling material. Since I took down the ceiling in Mira’s room because of a small leak, and also because it was disintegrating after all these years, it didn’t have a ceiling anymore. Hannah and Antoine scoured the town and found the exact material I was looking for. I fixed the ceiling.

We’re also contemplating buying a new watermaker, because the one we have is inefficient and needs the engine to run to have enough energy. Having to run the engine for an hour to make 15 liters of water is not very inviting, so we just don’t do it.

Last but not least: provisioning! We’re not really sure about what we can and can’t find in Cabo Verde. Fresh food shouldn’t be a problem there, but all other foodstuffs are a bit less certain. The supermarket next to the marina delivers food to your boat the day after you buy it. Barbara, Hannah and Antoine spent 4 hours in the supermarket until they got kicked out because they were closing for the night.