Back Home at Anchor
11/06/2014
Being at anchor in La Luna is "home" and we are delighted to be home. We finally left Marina Lanzarote, on November 3rd, 17 days after arriving, and 14 days past our expected day of departure. We had sailed there from Graciosa in order to check into the Canary Islands, gather groceries and provisions to last three weeks, fill our propane tanks, and to take in a bit of the larger island. We were most concerned about checking-in as we were two weeks past our Schengen sell-by date when we walked to the office of the marine police on that Monday, with documentation and trepidation both in hand.
"This is not a problem," the charming gentleman said. And stamped our passports with such vigor that EW suspected he'd dented the desk. By this time, we had met a number of US, Australian, and other non-EU sailors who had all spent a few years in the Med. They had tried to calm our fears by saying that most countries just didn't bother with the 90-day rule for cruising sailors on their boat. (Folks leaving from airports can have serious problems.) Still, we were technically illegal and our new friends tempered their comments with "most" and other qualifying words, which meant that some sailors could have challenges, so EW and I were definitely nervous. No need. We are now legally in the Canaries and I don't anticipate any problems getting checked out when we had to Cape Verdes or directly on our way back across the Atlantic.
Before met with the marine police, we had power issues on the dock at the brand-spanking new Marina Lanzarote, and the frequent outages fried the transformer we had purchased in the Azores, and fried EW as well. This of course, is a huge challenge as without a transformer we have no way to get power on a dock and can't stay in a marina with 220 power for more than a day or two. Two days later, we found out that Spain will not fill any US propane tanks. Ever. It's a new law -- so new the marina management wasn't aware of it until we and at least one other crew had walked miles toting tanks to the Disa "factory."
The short story for this short post is that we spent the next two weeks installing solar panels and trying to get butane in our tanks. These are stories for longer posts, with photos. For now, we are back in anchored off the desert island of Graciosa. This will be a time to write, to prepare the boat for our crossing, and to confirm our course. We can get email on the phone and will check it daily. I will write real blog posts and we'll walk through the sand to town a couple of times a week to check in via the laptop, post blogs, and make calls back home. We have solar power, a Spanish butane tank and the connections to make it work with our system, new walking sandals for me, all the provisions we need for two to three weeks at anchor in Graciosa, and a considerably lighter cruising kitty.
Ah well, life is good at anchor. And you should see EW check the voltage coming into the boat when the sun is out. He's so excited.
"This is not a problem," the charming gentleman said. And stamped our passports with such vigor that EW suspected he'd dented the desk. By this time, we had met a number of US, Australian, and other non-EU sailors who had all spent a few years in the Med. They had tried to calm our fears by saying that most countries just didn't bother with the 90-day rule for cruising sailors on their boat. (Folks leaving from airports can have serious problems.) Still, we were technically illegal and our new friends tempered their comments with "most" and other qualifying words, which meant that some sailors could have challenges, so EW and I were definitely nervous. No need. We are now legally in the Canaries and I don't anticipate any problems getting checked out when we had to Cape Verdes or directly on our way back across the Atlantic.
Before met with the marine police, we had power issues on the dock at the brand-spanking new Marina Lanzarote, and the frequent outages fried the transformer we had purchased in the Azores, and fried EW as well. This of course, is a huge challenge as without a transformer we have no way to get power on a dock and can't stay in a marina with 220 power for more than a day or two. Two days later, we found out that Spain will not fill any US propane tanks. Ever. It's a new law -- so new the marina management wasn't aware of it until we and at least one other crew had walked miles toting tanks to the Disa "factory."
The short story for this short post is that we spent the next two weeks installing solar panels and trying to get butane in our tanks. These are stories for longer posts, with photos. For now, we are back in anchored off the desert island of Graciosa. This will be a time to write, to prepare the boat for our crossing, and to confirm our course. We can get email on the phone and will check it daily. I will write real blog posts and we'll walk through the sand to town a couple of times a week to check in via the laptop, post blogs, and make calls back home. We have solar power, a Spanish butane tank and the connections to make it work with our system, new walking sandals for me, all the provisions we need for two to three weeks at anchor in Graciosa, and a considerably lighter cruising kitty.
Ah well, life is good at anchor. And you should see EW check the voltage coming into the boat when the sun is out. He's so excited.
Welcome to European bureaucracy!
It can be varied... i've a picture somewhere of a greek pouring liquid proprane into a bottle while his mate watches on smoking!
Posted by: SV Phoenix of Hamble | 11/06/2014 at 08:03 AM
I know that twinkle in the eye while checking solar input into the batteries. It's been 4 years and Ross still gets it! (I think there's a giggle in there somewhere too!)
Diana
Posted by: Diana | 11/06/2014 at 03:49 PM
Glad you are back home .. looking forward to hearing what soar panels you got and how much power ..we were always disappointed in ours ... upgrade to come down the road. Hugs
Posted by: Dora | 11/06/2014 at 11:24 PM
One of these battery chargers will charge your boat's batteries on any dock in the world. No more need for a transformer. We love it!
http://www.xantrex.com/power-products/battery-chargers/truecharge-2-2.aspx
Posted by: Ken Goodings | 11/15/2014 at 10:38 PM