Week 25: Lanzarote (90nm)

With a huge week of boat jobs behind us, we were incredibly excited to welcome our great friends, Ballin and Katherine, onto Serenity. They are crewing with us on our journey across the Atlantic, but, first, we’d prepare by spending the week training with them around Lanzarote. Discovery of a new engine issue means time on the island will be extended another week to wait for repairs, but as always we will make the most of it!

With a last couple of days before Ballin and Katherine were due to arrive, Alec and I were finalising the last of the boat jobs (see the list in the last post!) and giving the boat a good clean in preparation for the new crew. It was during this last bit of activity that a friendly couple of Brits stopped by to ask us a few questions about our Hydrovane. We quickly realised that Sam and Marianthe of Seahawk, and their friend Toby, were the first cruisers we’d met that were just like us! Young professionals that had become disillusioned with the London grind and so were taking a gap from work to explore the seas by boat. We instantly bonded over the similarity of our experiences, and spent a great evening hanging out and swapping stories! We were sad to hear they were leaving the marina the next day, but very glad serendipity had crossed our paths. They are also crossing the Atlantic before Christmas (though have some visitors in November that mean they are starting a few weeks later than us), so we look forward to running into them again on the other side of the pond!

MICK TAKES ILL

Alec mentioned in the last post that we’d discovered another engine issue, which was going to delay our departure from the Canaries. I will address that today in more detail, in two parts. When Alec’s accident happened with the engine last week (accidentally burning out the electronic controller), it gave me the impetus to address a couple of other things that had been bothering me about the engine for some time. I’d noticed two unusual, let’s say, behaviours from the engine for quite some time, but so far we’d always come up with what we thought were simple, innocuous explanations. First, we were regularly getting oil leaking out of the sail drive (the transmission). We initially put that down to the oil level being overfilled, but, when I last changed the oil in Gibraltar, I’d been extremely careful to get the level to precisely between the max and min lines. Despite this care, we continued to have oil leak on our way down to the Canaries, and then, when we arrived, I checked the level again and discovered oil seemed to have created itself out of the ether (the level was now above max). This didn’t add up, but we put it down to a difference in temperature from when I’d filled it to now (looking back, we were clearly clutching at straws…). Secondly, for some time, I’d been noticing an accumulation of little chunks of rubber under the engine. This issue in particular had been driving me nuts, because I couldn’t think what on earth they could be coming from. I probably checked the hoses around the engine 10 times (all fully intact, no issues), plus every other part of the boat that had any bit of rubber in, and was stumped. For a while we thought maybe they were bits of the previous (very crumbly) exhaust hose that were maybe being shaken to a low point under the engine from wherever in the bilge they were hiding, but later realised that didn’t make sense because the pan under the engine is isolated from the rest of the bilge. The engine was still running beautifully, which I think is partly why we didn’t give more weight to these issues. Anyway, these oddities had been bothering me for weeks, and, even though we felt sure both had simple, non-issue explanations, I couldn’t shake them and decided I needed to check with an expert to get some peace of mind.

I took some photos, and then drafted a detailed email to the engine workshop in Croatia that had serviced our engine when we first got the boat. One of the mechanics there emailed me back almost immediately raising the alarm – he said it sounded like we’d probably caught something around the propeller. This would have damaged the underwater seals, letting sea water into the transmission (which would explain the oil appearing out of nowhere and leaking). Further, he said, the event of hitting whatever it was probably had damaged the rubber coupling between the transmission and the engine, which was now slowly degrading (explaining the regular accumulation of the rubber chunks). He recommended fixing these issues ASAP, as, even though at the moment the engine was still going fine, either could lead to a major issue in the near future.

We always try to take expert advice with a bit of a grain of salt, as there is often a background desire for service providers to sell us their (very expensive) help. So, though now more worried, I decided we’d get a second opinion. I managed to get the guy who runs the Volvo Penta workshop here in Lanzarote to stop by the boat the morning before we headed out to train Ballin and Katherine, and he immediately confirmed the Croatian mechanic’s diagnoses. All I can say is: damn. I really, really wished I’d listened to my gut earlier and reached out for advice way before this. As I said, our Croatian mechanic got back to me straight away, so I could have learned about this weeks ago, which would have given us so much more flexibility and choice in organising the repair. But, you live and learn! It was a no-brainer that we wanted to get these issues fixed before we started crossing the Atlantic, but the repairs are no small job – the boat has to get hauled out of the sea to fix the underwater seals, and the engine likely has to be completely lifted out to allow the engine/transmission coupling to be changed :(. This would almost certainly mean a delay to our departure, but I immediately began exploring every viable option I could think of to get it done as quickly as possible, which would occupy me throughout our training week with Ballin and Katherine…

NEW CREW, NEW OUTLOOK

After the big work week and the frustrating news about the engine, we were both pretty much emotionally and physically spent by the time Monday morning rolled around. It was SO welcome that Ballin and Katherine were due to arrive that day! They are two of our very best friends, not to mention two of the most fun people I’ve ever met, so they were the perfect injection of new energy to the boat. They arrived ready for anything, and got stuck straight into boat life!

We wanted to give them a couple of days to adjust to life afloat and to cover the basics before we headed out for on-the-water training, so we stayed in the marina for the first few days. Admittedly, this was also underhandedly selfish on my part, because I was still trying to finish off two boat jobs that I’d been struggling with. It turns out sewing a foam luff onto a sail (on the deck of your boat) is a minimum four person job, and I was extremely grateful for their help to finish that job off the afternoon after they arrived! The boat was also overdue for waxing, which helps protect the gel coat that in turn protects the fibreglass that is the basis of the hull’s structure. With four of us on the job, we managed it in less than a day! Major wins all around :)!

SAILING IN LANZA = SAILING IN ENGLAND

With the last of the jobs ticked, and initial lessons on sailing theory, ropes and processes under Ballin and Katherine’s belts, we were finally ready to head out to open water! Alec and I both learned to sail in England, which means sailing in the cold and the rain; apparently the weather / sailing gods feel these are the most appropriate conditions to learn in and reacted accordingly. Still, we had high hopes that the drizzle would peter out and give us a good first day.

This did not transpire. In fact, the rain steadily increased, as did the wave heights. Now, actually, this was great experience for the guys – if you can sail in that you can sail in anything! But, it meant that by about 1pm we we’d all had enough and headed for the safety of an anchorage behind Arrecife’s old breakwater. Our friends on Seahawk happened to be there (!), and helped us find a spot to drop the hook so we could get down into the shelter of the saloon as quickly as possible!

Massive credit to Ballin and Katherine – despite a baptism of fire that first day, they were up and ready first thing the next day for more training. And they were duly rewarded, as beautiful sunshine, a nice steady breeze, and a much more manageable sea state awaited us when we left the anchorage. Smiles were all around as we practised setting the sails and introduced the guys to sailing upwind. We were heading for a new anchorage between the island of Lanzarote and its small neighbour, Graciosa, which was to be our home for the rest of training. It was a c.35nm sail, so between lessons on sailing there was also lots of time to chill and get the guys used to just being on the boat out at sea. Alec decided to take this opportunity to throw in one of our fishing lures, just in case there might be anything tasty in the waters around Lanzarote…

FISH ON!

Marcus, our black and purple squid lure, was the chosen one for the day and boy did he deliver. Just as we were about to start preparing lunch, the fishing reel went off like an absolute shot! For a while, Alec could do little more than slow the presumed fish’s progress using the drag on the reel. He was just starting to worry about running out of line, when the fish started to tire and Alec managed to start regaining ground. Now, the fish did NOT like this turn of events, and started leaping out of the water in an attempt to get away – this was when we realised we had a monster on our hands!!! (Also when we realised we’d finally caught something other than a tuna!). On the end of our line was an enormous dorado (also know as mahi mahi or dolphinfish)!!

This was exciting for many reasons – 1. we got to introduce Ballin and Katherine to fresh fish on board, 2. this was by far the biggest fish we’d ever caught (probably by a factor of more than 2), and 3. dorado are a very sustainable fish population, so a perfect type to catch! It was also the most beautiful fish I’d ever seen. The base colour of this fish is a lovely golden yellow, with electric blue spots and bright green and blue fins. You sort of expect that kind of colouration from a little reef fish, but from a big ocean-dwelling predator? Mind = blown.

When we finally managed to reel the fish close to the back of the boat, we realised the size of the challenge we had on our hands. This fish was HUGE. Honestly it was nearly as tall as me from nose to tail. It took three of us to even get it on board (with massive kudos to Ballin for wielding the gaff with expert precision, despite it being his first attempt!). We estimate it to have weighed about 30 kilos, which puts it up there on the scale of how big these fish even get! Because of its sheer size, it took Ballin and Alec around 2 hours to process it. We didn’t really have the right knives to deal with such a big fish, but even with what we did have, they secured us 60 portions worth of fish meat!

MAKING FRIENDS IN LA GRACIOSA

We spent the remainder of our journey up to our new anchorage next to Graciosa trying to work out what on earth we were going to do with all this fish. We quickly realised that with only a tiny little freezer, we would never be able to keep all this fish. Luckily, the anchorage at Graciosa is a well known spot for cruisers to hang out, and we bet a few of them would be keen to take some off our hands. It was perfect actually, as it gave us a great excuse to say hello and get to know our neighbours! Alec and Ballin, as the victorious fishermen, were sent out in the dinghy to make the rounds with about half of what we’d caught.

They had a great time meeting the other boats in the anchorage, and unsurprisingly were able to find homes for all the extra fish portions. We settled in for an evening of fish tacos on Serenity, and enjoyed thinking about all the other fish dishes that were probably being cooked all around the anchorage at the same time! After gorging on all that delicious fresh fish, we were sat around the table working on digesting when a knock came from the back of the boat. We popped back up on deck to find that one of the families that Alec and Ballin had given fish to had come by in their dinghy. To our great surprise, they’d come to present us with a beautiful chocolate cake that they’d made us to say thank you for the fish! How amazing is that?! We were blown away by such a nice gesture, and it served as a reminder of why we love cruising – the people that do this are, almost as a rule, incredibly kind and giving. What a wonderful end to a wonderful day!! Also, that cake was five stars – it was one of those melt in the middle lava-style cakes. We thought we were full, but we still managed to demolish half the cake in one sitting!!

Buoyed by these great experiences, we were set up for a stellar rest of the training week. Between sessions of theory and practical sailing exercises, Ballin and Katherine stormed along and made an amazing amount of progress. They are a testament to what you can learn in a short time if you put your mind to it! Alec is a fantastic teacher as well, not to mention had designed their entire curriculum from scratch – I have some pretty impressive people on Serenity with me :). I am especially in awe of the team because all of the sailing conditions we had throughout the training week were challenging. Of big wind, big waves, or big rain, we always had at least two of the three, but we didn’t let that stop us!

And we even found space for some downtime during the week. Alec and Ballin conquered the caldera that overlooked the anchorage, and we all got in some snorkelling and some grade-A napping. It was while we were snorkelling actually that we found the remains of a fishing net caught around the propeller under the boat – the mechanics had certainly been right about where our issues came from! Armed with this knowledge, I spent a good portion of the space around training trying to work out the details of our engine repair plan…

SHOULD WE STAY OR SHOULD WE GO?

It became clear as the week went on that the Volvo Penta workshop on Lanzarote was crazy busy and wouldn’t be able to get to us for at least another week or more. They are the only Volvo Penta workshop on the island, which meant either we had to wait it out or try to find another shop with capacity on one of the other islands. I reached out to 6 other workshops around the Canary Islands to see whether I could find earlier availability anywhere else. This is the busy season on the islands as they are the stopping off point for the vast majority of sailors who are looking to cross the Atlantic (and now is the prime season for crossing), hence why I asked so many shops! I hoped that if I asked enough places, I might be able to find at least one that could do it. And indeed I did manage to find a place that could get to us sooner, but the big catch was it would mean a sail to Tenerife, which is about 180nm away.

So, as we wrapped up training with Ballin and Katherine and were making our way back to a marina, we faced a big decision. Do we stay in Lanzarote and wait for the Volvo guys here to become available, or do we take the chance on sailing to Tenerife? It was a really tough call, because we were weighing up working with someone here who we had experience of (and were confident in) vs. taking a chance on a fairly long sail to someone we didn’t know, without full certainty it would work out, but that gave us a possible saving of between 2 and 5 days of time.

In the end, we decided to take the “Serenity First” route (that motto always comes in handy!!!) and wait it out in Lanzarote. It means less stress and we are certain about the repairs, even if it means a long wait. Plus we’re in a place we both know and know we like, and we can make the most of the extra time in exploring the island more. In the end we’ll be delayed about a week. We’d hoped to set of for Cape Verde on the 2nd of November, but expect to go the following Friday instead. It’s not such a big deal, as we’d built lots of buffer time into our crossing plans; and, importantly, we caught these issues before they became a problem and are able to get them sorted by a certified team before we head out into the big blue. That means we can focus on the experience of the crossing!

NEXT STEPS

So, decision made, we settled into our new home at Puerto Calero (a few miles further down the coast than Marina Lanzarote where we were previously) and started planning for how to make the most of our extra time here. Ballin and Katherine took charge as social directors for the added time, and quickly developed a varied agenda of hiking, wine tasting, exploration, etc. Plus, for good measure, we thought we’d take a day to do more odds and ends on the boat (we’re enjoying being at the part of the boat jobs list where it’s all gravy!). More on these adventures in our next post :).