Rainbow of Islands

Milky sail drive oil is bad. If it’s not clear, then there’s water in it. Gerty’s looks like the overpriced coconut water that sits next to the sports drinks in the health food aisle. You know, the blue bottle that touts 100% organic? Um, hello, it’s water – inside a coconut. Anyway, we’ve had this problem before. A fishing line was caught in the rubber seal of the drive during our sail across the Atlantic going east. To avoid disaster, Michael overfilled the drive. This increased the pressure and prevented the salt water from seeping in. Unfortunately, it was a trick, not a solution.

We’re about to sail west across the Atlantic, and the coconut water is back. Our next stop is The Gambia, where we will not be hauling out or diving into the crocodile-infested river to look for fishing lines. Therefore, Michael is coming up with a surefire fix. I know this because I spied him in Gerty’s small-person size workroom experimenting with epoxy again.

He’s making a doo-hickey (replacement cap for the sail drive), so he can attach a hose from the sail drive to a new expansion tank. This time, a simple formula was all it took for him to figure out a solution.

Pfluid = pgh, where p refers to the liquid’s density, g refers to the acceleration of gravity, and h refers to the liquid’s height. So, if we know the liquid density of the salt water and the distance the bottom of the sail drive is from the surface, we can calculate the salt water pressure at the bottom of the sail drive. Then, if we have the oil density, we can work backward to get the minimum height we need from the bottom of the sail drive to the oil expansion tank to ensure the oil pressure is greater than the water pressure. Duh!

It’s a good thing I’m around to focus on the important stuff, like the Canary Islands. I’m dizzy thinking about our journey to five of the seven. Actually, my head is spinning because I didn’t take my seasickness medication on our sail from Gran Canaria to La Palma. (Mistake. Big mistake.) Still, the islands are so unique that squeezing everything we’ve experienced into a short blog post is challenging. But, for our moms, I’ll try. 

We made landfall on La Graciosa, the sandy street island. We loved the juxtaposition of the sunny, relaxed town snuggled in amongst the stark, black volcanic landscape. However, the sailors were the main attraction. Somehow boats were drawn here- The Playa Francesca anchorage was not a harbor so much as a crossroads in the ocean – incredible and fun!

Then we worked our way over a lumpy, rumpy, dumpy sea to Lanzarote. Seasick? Yes. But it was worth it.

A steadier wind over a smoother sea took us to Fuertaventura, the half a shaved head of hair man-bun island. It’s a cool surfer dude place where we fit right in, of course.

Gusts up to 27 knots blew us to Gran Canaria, the pine forest with a view island, where after hiking to the famed Roque Nublo and Pico de las Nieves we enjoyed the taste of dirty clothes (Ropa Viejas-look it up.)

Then we wound up on Long Island, and things got crazy. There was a giant turkey and relatives! Wait, what? Oh, right – Long Island isn’t one of the Canaries. We flew home because Americans don’t miss Thanksgiving. Period.

Next thing I know, it’s today, and I’m writing this blog from La Palma, the rainbow island. I’m not going to write that it’s the most beautiful one. They’re all gorgeous in their own right. Just because we saw four rainbows, a laurisilva forest, a waterfall, and a clouded pine forest in one day, it’s no more exquisite than the others. Really. 

And, the Spanish dancing in the streets to live music in celebration of the stars (Lluvia de las Estrellas) – that wasn’t the icing on the cake either.

Last remarks

• Thanks to Mom, Bonnie, Rita, John, Elaine, and ZACHARY for traveling and hanging out with us in New York.  It was the best, best, best!
• Extra belly thanks to my mom for feeding us apple pie on Thanksgiving.
• Thanks to Cousins Tracey & Todd the perfect ending to our US visit.
• Merci beaucoup to our landlubber friends Fabienne & Yvonne – your warm welcome at Corralejo was the best! 

• Thank you to our new sailing friends for keeping us company: Joe & Nigel SV Wychcraft, Bunny & Henk SV Tiama, Laszlo, James, Nikki, Bill & Mindy, Ditmare & Marie SV Greyhound, Daniel & Victoria, Francesca & Shayne, and all the others.
• Good luck Marc, Lourdes and the children as you begin your land adventure from Corralejo to Madrid
• To all the brave adventurers waiting for your ride across the Atlantic, Fair winds!