May 24 - 27, 2005
We spent four days in Almerimar recovering in our boat with the Moroccan revenge, doing boat projects and waiting for the wind to come out of any direction except the EAST.
We finished the preventer and got the solar panel installed. The preventer is a system of lines that we attach to the boom in down wind sailing that keep the boom from accidentally "jibing." When the boom is "way out away from the boat," its pretty dangerous for the wind to get behind it and swing it across to the other side of the boat. This new line will keep that from happening.
We had shipped a solar panel with our shipment of goods received in Gibraltar. It's primary purpose is to keep the batteries charged when we are gone for the 8 months of the year when the boat is stored on the hard. When we're sailing, the solar panel can also add extra power recharging our bank of batteries.
Steve found a great shop in Almerimir that does stainless work. The two guys were from Zimbabwe and "escaped.". If you remember a few years ago, the blacks in that country basically "threw out" the whites. These 2 guys left with the clothes on their back, lucky to be alive. Mac had had a farm and Regis had a company that made farming machinery. A friend of theirs had a huge commercial farm with over 100 tractors and combines. When the government took it over, the blacks simply burned the tractors rather than keep producing food for the country. It was a sad story to hear how everyone lost out because of the government's actions. Now he has set up a shop fabricating stainless boat parts for yachts passing through Almerimar.
The town also has a great marine shop and would have been a nice place to "overwinter the boat." There are lots of restaurants there and condos are build around the boat slips. The town doesn't have the quaintness that Rota did, but the boatyard seems to be top rate.
The weather report seemed to say that the winds were lessening so on Saturday we started motoring West. At first there weren't any winds but during the day they really started building. We ended up doing a 20 hour sail to Cartegena. Most of the night we were pounding against the waves. That's definitely the hard way to travel.
The motor up to Cartegena was directly into the wind and we took a lot of water over the bow. This proved problematical, as we discovered most of the hatches were leaking. Arg. More repairs will have to be made before we can leave. Looks like the hatches will all have to be rebeded.