Log #38e Montana Roja, Tenerife Written at: Palmeira, Ilha do Sal, Cabo Verde Jan. 12, 2006 Hi Folks, We are in the Cape Verdes for a couple more weeks before heading across the Atlantic. This log may go out at the same time as Log #38d. I tried to send 38d out a couple of days ago, but after a very frustrating hour with an I-Mac computer at the local airport, I could not get it to recognize my memory wand or to provide a word program to create text. I don’t know if it was the setup of the computers, but I was extremely frustrated and gave up. Nothing is ever simple, and computers and E-mail continue to be the most frustrating aspect of cruising. This log gets us out of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, but all is not smooth sailing. I have described some of the strategies that can be used to deal with the open rolly anchorages we have found in the Canaries and attached a picture of the red mountain we anchored behind. The weather here in the Capes Verdes is warm and sunny. They get rain only two months a year in May and June, but we brought a bit with us as it rained lightly for about five minutes a couple of days ago. We have made friends with a pleasant New Zealand boat anchored near us, and have been mutually of help in various maintenance tasks. All is well with us. All the best, Aubrey Log #38e Montana Roja, Tenerife All the services were restored at the marina two days after Storm Delta, but a few areas in the city took a bit longer to be re-established. We left our mooring at Santa Cruz mid morning Dec. 2, waving “goodbye” to a few boaters. As we exited the marina breakwater into the larger outer harbour, our engine alarm sounded! I immediately shut the engine off as we drifted helplessly in the middle of the commercial harbour. However there was no traffic and no wind, allowing us time to check out the engine. A water hose from the upper part of the engine to the water heater had blown off, and we lost all our engine coolant. Quickly replacing the hose clamps, we filled the heat exchanger with distilled water and were underway within 10 minutes, making a note to get and add antifreeze (for its anti-rust protection; we do not intend to be in any areas where we will encounter freezing of the water coolant!) at the next chandlery. Heading initially for La Gomera, an overnight passage, we decided instead to anchor at Playa de las Tejitas on the southeast coast of Tenerife as we were motor-sailing in very light force 2 breezes and didn’t want to motor all night through the Atlantic swells. Enroute we were visited by a school of about 20 dolphins, frolicking around our bow, and showing off their fantastic maneuverability as they swiftly, effortlessly glided beside and beneath our bow, turning on their sides to look up at us, and periodically leaping out of the water at speed and showing the ability to change course so rapidly it would put the best steeplechase horse to shame. The beach (playa) was protected from the NE swells by a large ochre red cape called (Red Mountain). On dropping anchor at 1700 (28 01.78N, 016 33.23W) we observed another benefit of this protected anchorage in the form of a nude beach, with people in the nude or topless walking the beach, playing beach ball, doing yoga exercises, including headstands, and sitting in the lotus position watching the sunset. We were going to spend another day in this pleasant location, but raised anchor in the morning to motor three miles down the coast to check out Marina San Miguel, a new marina reported to be under construction in 2003 according to our pilot. It was still under construction! The breakwater seemed quite complete, but the port and starboard entrance lights were not functional. There was 25 feet (7 metres) at the entrance, but just inside there was a shoal area with only 16 feet (4.5 metres). At the further end of the camber was a single pontoon with a half dozen sail yachts from 10 to 14 metres in length moored. As we slowly motored into the camber we were waved off by a couple of men working on the port hand mole light fixture. We did not have a chance to go up towards the pontoon to see if it had electricity or water, as the wave off did not seem very friendly, and Judy was nervous about going further into the camber. There were a few resort developments not too far away, but no town to speak of. I suspect this marina will be a private one for the resorts only. Back we went to the anchorage under the lee of Montana Roja, off the nude beach, but this time we set a stern anchor as well, since the previous night was a bit rolly. Strategies to deal with rolly anchorages A rolly anchorage is very uncomfortable; possibly even more so than being in a heaving sea. Everything has to be secured or else objects will roll off the counters, and even out of the cupboards; and walking around a rolling boat is more difficult than in a pitching vessel. There are a variety of strategies to deal with rolly anchorages, basically four in number. 1/ One is to set a steadying sail, a small triangular jib or storm sail up the aft stay with the clew led forward to the mast, or on the mizzen mast if the boat is ketch or yawl rigged. This will keep the bow into the wind and facing the direction of the waves, if these are wind driven. 2/ Another is to attach a warp line to the anchor chain somewhere below the water line, and lead it aft, winching in or out to swing the bow into the waves. This was the technique used by Nelson’s ships when at anchor to be able to turn or warp ship when at anchor so their guns could bear on the enemy. This becomes problematical for small yachts, depending on wind, wave and tidal conditions. 3/ A third one is to use what I call “flopper stoppers”, which are buckets, nets or other devices which have a flapper pad which when hung in the water over the side or off a boom, will open up when that side heels over, allowing the device to sink, but when that side starts to return the opposite direction, the flapper closes thus stopping or dampening the rolling motion. I have not tried this idea, but it sounds interesting, and there are a few commercial systems available on the market. Last year in Ostia, I saw a home made device on a trawler from Ireland which was a square frame covered with netting, and a rubber mat hinged on one side only. The skipper would lower this contraption abeam over the side on his mizzen boom into the water. When his boat heeled over, the net frame would sink as the rubber mat would float upwards; but when rolling the opposite direction, the rubber mat would collapse onto the netted rectangular frame, and reduce dramatically the upward roll. I would like to try out such a system. 4/ The last system is to deploy a second anchor. If set from the bow, the second anchor can be at a 90 or 180 degree angle (from the first anchor) reducing the swing, and allowing the tension to be equalized or taken up on one or the other to keep the bow towards the waves. We used this system when in the Bahamas to reduce swing and to deal with reversing tidal currents in narrow anchorages. However here in the Canaries we used a stern anchor (hauled out and deployed from our dinghy). Depending upon the angle of the swell and the effects of the wind we could tighten up on the stern anchor to put us in line with the bow anchor, or we could slack it off to allow the boat to swing into the waves. In the Canaries, the waves do not necessarily follow the wind, as they bend around the islands and headlands causing waves at variance with wind directions. Depending upon wind or tidal currents such a system will allow me to re-orient the bow 45 to 90 degrees from the line of the bow anchor. Often, one does not know whether an anchorage will be rolly or not. Using the dinghy is a simple way of deploying the second anchor (bow or stern) once you have ascertained the predominant direction of swells coming in to the anchorage. There are probably a variety of other strategies such as lashing the helm to port or starboard to take advantage of any currents to swing you into the wind, or even flashing up the engine and motoring using helm to steer into the wind or waves. We did this on a couple of occasions in storm conditions to take the pressure off the anchor and to head into the wind to reduce the possibility of dragging anchor. I have even stood in the cockpit and shifted my weight from one side to the other to dampen a short term roll situation. Each system has its pros and cons, and the skipper has to determine whether to just accept the roll, deal with it using one of the above strategies, or find a better anchorage with less roll. However, on the trip over and back to that unfinished marina, we were trying to run our water maker. It didn’t work! We must have a functioning water maker for our Atlantic crossing. We couldn’t determine the source of the problem. It worked well on the bench at Sunshine Maritime in Porto Mogan and also when we re-installed it (see Log #38c). We checked out all the lines, and it still didn’t work. We had no choice; we had to go back to Porto Mogan on Gran Canaria to get it fixed once again. Next day we left at 0800 for the 45 mile trip back across to the south coast of Gran Canaria where we anchored once again in the rolly anchorage off Porto Mogan (as there was no room in the marina), but this time with a stern anchor out to deal with this rolly anchorage (27 48.98N, 015 45.70W). More about the bad news and delays at Porto Mogan in my next log. Next log