Anti del Mar 2.0
The night had been very quiet and there was little roll which was good for sleep. It was another lovely day with blue sky and little wind. Alex was flying back so after breakfast Ben and I took him ashore and deposited him into a taxi. It had been good to have him on board for the week. We then had a sneaky coffee and got a few things at the supermarket which was well stocked but very expensive. I suppose this was to charge the tourists high prices. For example, a pineapple was 14 Euros and a loaf of bread Euros 6.50.
We returned to the boat to decide what to do. David had to fly home on Wednesday 13th and Ben wanted to do the same as he had to get home for various reasons. Both were flying from Gran Canaria. Mark and I wanted to move on and did not really want to go back to Las Palmas or stay in Gran Canaria. After a conference we agreed to leave the next day to Tenerife and Ben and David changed their flights to fly from there.
We decided to chill and thought of moving on to another local town but decided to have lunch first. Ben suggested we got Puffin out and we all thought that our anchorage was rather good and why not stay here and we could move on as planned tomorrow.
Puffin for those who do not know is a nestling dinghy. In other words when not in use she is in two parts and the front part nestles into the rear part upside down. She is stored on the deck in front of the mast. It is actually a 10-foot wooden Spindrift dinghy sold as a kit by Fyne Boat kits and built by Mark in his garage which took him over 100 hours. It was a labour of love for the boat, and she is a pretty thing It is wood and fiberglass with the hull being white with a blue line around the top, so she looks like a mini Stormbird. The two parts of the hull bolt together with 5 bolts and she has two little seats. She can be used as a rowing boat, with an outboard motor or as a sailing dinghy. She has a 5 meter mast with one large sail. She has the name Puffin on both sides at the front and T/T (tender to) Stormbird on the rear. We have used her so far to row but had not sailed her.
We therefore untied her and made her one with the bolts and lifted her up with a halyard (rope) and put her over the guard rails into the water. There were no leaks from the bolts or from the tiller when inserted (the tiller is what you steer her with). We then placed the seats in situ and the mast which the sail is hoisted up on to. She has 3 battens (stiffening bars) in the sail.
When all was set Mark went first and sailed away in a very light wind. She looked great but can be quite tippy. Then we all had a go. It was great fun and the wind got up and soon we were all bombing along and having great fun like we were kids. She looked great and sailed very well and we were the only dinghy in the bay. It was such fun and well done to Mark. Eventually we had enough and took Puffin apart and stored her again on deck. She had been a great success. Ben had also been paddle boarding so we stored that away as with our other dinghy so were ready for tomorrow.
We had a great chicken linguine supper whilst listening to music and as the sun went down. It felt as if we had had a good day, sorted out what we were doing and were ready to set off for a new adventure tomorrow.
If you have any questions, comments, suggestions – do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com