Christina now has the distinction of being a real sailor after going all the way on only her second attempt - I´m talking about going up the mast of course. She was hauled up in the bosun´s chair briefly enjoyed the view before painting the spreaders and coming back down again. She promptly left the scene for a stiff drink.
Well we had a bit of a trial trying to get ourselves back to Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. First of all we had to contend with the fall out from Hurricane Morine - our dear friend arrived in a complete whirlwind and this set the tone for the next couple of weeks. We had fun as we kept on ending up moored next to boats full of hunky surf type fellows and Morine and Christina steamed up the windows trying to get a peak at them. We managed to keep up the hospitality by drinking two boats completely dry, including the cooking sherry! Morine said that she had the best holiday ever and we even cruised around three islands in her two week stay. The only problem then was that the battery on Oceana was defective and Morine ended up having to fly from La Gomera to Gran Canaria on her way home. We tried to sort out the battery but had to admit defeat and tried to sail back to Las Palmas. We got stuck in Los Christianos de Tenerife over Christmas and New Year due to high winds so had to make the most of our time there. We spent Christmas with Dave (an ex-millionaire) and Lisa, sitting in the cockpit of their catamaran in the sun eating and drinking in the usual festive manner and New Year was seen in with the most amazing firework display on the beach. We finally made it back to Las Palmas and have spent the last couple of weeks readying Oceana and ourselves for the Atlantic crossing to Brazil. We are filled with equal amounts of excitement and trepidation for our biggest passage so far - nearly 3000 miles or four to six weeks of sailing without seeing any land!
