Final Preparation for the Atlantic
28-31 December 2023
After years and months of preparation the date finally arrived when we flew to Gran Canaria to provision and prepare for the Atlantic crossing to Barbados. This is some 2,600 nm and should take us approximately 16-18 days depending on the winds.
We picked up a hire car at the airport and Mark Malitskie, Keith Winstanley, Peter Saint, Robbie Harris and I set off for Pasito Blanco marina where Stormbird is moored. It was a lovely sunny day and a welcome change from the grey drizzle of the UK.
Stormbird was looking good but we had to take out what was stored inside and re pack the lazarettes. We put out the safety equipment and filled up the jerry cans with fuel. Whilst the weather was good it gets dark by 6.30pm and so we headed off to La Punta (restaurant) for a beer and supper. As many of us had been up early we had an early night.
29 December 2023
We were up a reasonable time and it was time to provision. Imagine buying for 6 guys for weeks provisioning – it means a lot of planning and so Mark and Keith did a check list of what we have and then to list what we needed. I dropped them off at the Supermarket and the drove to the airport to pick up Ian Watson who flew out a day later than us. We returned to the Supermarket to find trolleys and trolleys laden with food.
We returned with a full carload – well where do we put it all!! Well we have nets inside into which we put vegetables and fruit. The rest of the provisions are put in lockers of cupboards etc. We had a lunch on board and sorted everything out. Mark cooked a fantastic fish chowder washed down with some Vina Esmeralda.
30 December 2023
We have to check out of Spain and Gran Canaria. So we drove to Las Palmas to visit the Police Station and had our passports stamped and a form filled out for the boat. We also had a form from the marina as well. On the way back we provisioned for fruit and vegetables – kind of funny buying 100 apples, 120 eggs, 50 oranges etc. We returned with another carload – another load of stuff to store. We serviced the generator and then went through the inside the boat so everyone was familiar with the boat. This took some time but we had a great bolognaise cooked again by Mark.
31 December 2023
Another busy day After breakfast we went through the exterior of the boat and went through all our safety procedures including the man overboard procedure. We found that we needed to fix the hinges on the lazarette hatches. It was a busy morning and so I thought everyone deserved a break. We therefore set off to the Maspalomas beach area and had an enjoyable lunch with lots of laughs with the excitement building. There were further jobs to complete on return and the car was returned to the airport.
We had an enjoyable NEW YEAR’S EVE- where we all went through our 2023 year. We decided we would go out and check sails etc If all is well then we will just go. We look forward to our trip. Happy New Year to all and lots of love.