The Passage to the USA begins!!!!

 On Saturday, November 20, Adventuress left Estepona, Spain, to begin her voyage to the USA.  The first leg was a five day passage to the Canary Islands.  Her freezer was full of JFK meals prepared and frozen at a local Air B&B apartment.  Three hanging net bags were overflowing and every nook and cranny was stowed with dry goods.

…….and the crew was ready for adventure.  The crew includes:

Werner Brouwer from Holland.  He and his wife Ad have been friends of ours since we met them sailing about 5 years ago.  Werner, Ad and a friend built a 50 foot sailboat which they cruised Europe and the Med.  Since then it was sold.  Werner and Ad are now building a 40 foot sailboat.

Jim O’Shea we met in Marco Island when he and his wife Laurie were cruising on their Island Packet 350.  They are living on their Island Packet traveling to the Bahamas and New England annually.  Jim is a retired large animal Veterinarian.  Hopefully his medical skill wills not be needed on this trip.

Dan Gray and his wife Laurie own a Cabo Rico 38 which they restored and they spend six months per year sailing her south and back to New England.

Adventuress arrived in the Canaries Thursday November 25.  Unfortunately the winds were light and fickle for the five day passage.  The good news was that Dan, the resident fisherman, caught a mahi mahi and a tuna, and then a second tuna in the Canaries.  There is nothing like freshly caught fish for dinner.

Adventuress picked up fuel, water and a few provisions in the Canaries.  The weather forecast was perfect for a Sunday, November 28th departure.  So they are off again!  They will head southwest to a waypoint west of Cape Verde.  John says "We will sail the wind! So as long as we are heading about SW for the next 900 nm then we will get to where the wind takes us!"

They will ultimately head to St Martin which is approximately an eighteen to twenty day passage.  We will stay in touch by texts through the Zoleo and InReach satellite communicators.  The forecast is for northeast winds 20 to 30 knots through Friday, a sailor’s dream.

Here are some photos taken by our German friend, Jessie Schoeller, when Adventuress was leaving Marina Rubican in the Canaries.

 

Werner is keeping close watch at the bow

Jim at amidships  

 Dan handling the stern line and the Happy Cappy is at the helm.

.........and they are off!

Praying for a safe, enjoyable passage,

Nancy

Rejuvenation and Recuperation.

Adventuress has been 95% rejuvenated after her forced 26 month hibernation; we have been quite busy, and there is not much left to be done before we set sail Transatlantic. So we have been enjoying biking, dining, and relaxing in Estepona.

After biking about three miles from the Marina, Nancy is resting on the promenade seats - at the far end of Estepona.

We had a good berth at Estepona, near the office and the restaurants, and that worked well until Friday and Saturday nights, when the parties stopped at dawn.

Estepona Marina is a well-designed and managed marina, with kempt gardens and clean paths.

After a good lunch in the Old Town.

                             

                                                Jan and Jessie are young sailors from Germany...........

........enjoying a dream year or two on a Contest 48,  built in Medemblik, Netherlands. They found her for sale in England.

And here goes Adventuress onto the hard: this travel lift is huge - built to haul out fishing trawlers.

This was the primary reason we hauled her out for three hours: her keel was covered with barnacles and gunk......

.....which the boatyard's power washer soon removed.

All cleaned up, Maxprop greased, zincs changed, and ready to splash:

Here she goes: the tall chap is working the travel lift with a remote control gismo: hope it has a failsafe feature!

Two days later we sailed 30nm along to Gibraltar: and boy what a difference! All that gunk was costing us about one and a half knots of speed.

Back at Alcaidesa Marina in La Linea, Spain, just over the border from Gib.

In Gib we put in 500 litres of clean diesel at Gib Oil: UK pounds 0.75 a litre. (There are about 3.8 litres to a US gallon.) Also we picked up an important item that we had better never use..........

.......a new Life Raft.

These young sailors are from Geneva, Switzerland: Laurent is French, and Nathalie is Scottish. But all three - the Chichuahua "Mistrale" included - speak French and English.

Laurent had the most beautiful coffee machine I have ever seen: this work of art and science makes wonderful Expresso: it works by pressing down the two levers and forcing hot water through the grinds.

Of course our Corgi The Empress Cleo-patra must never see this photo! (Cleo is on vacation right now in Brentwood, Tennessee with her brother Cosmo, and Ralph and Laura.)

And here's another fun couple: the other new sailing friends we made in Estepona are Klaus and Yvonne from Stuttgart, also sailing a Contest 48.

And so we end this post with a strongly flying Stars and Stripes: and Nancy will be back soon in Punta Gorda Florida, via Malaga, Frankfurt, Washington DC and Nashville TN.