Animals

Location: Marina Lanzarote

Blogger: Jenny

Following a discussion between mum and Fizzy of Carpe Diem, there has been much talk over the festive period about which animal’s characteristics each of the crew members shares. Jack – do you know which animal you were likened to??!!

This discussion has gone international as Marcus took it back to the UK with him for Christmas. Below is a summary of the conclusions to date (yes we’re starting to crack up and we haven’t even left yet).

Dad (John)

Mum initially said she thought dad was a cart horse – dependable, not too flashy, solid and strong – but we felt that this was a bit boring and I don’t think dad was too pleased, although the idea did seem to grow on him! His real animal was discovered during a nice Tapas meal, when Marcus said “I’m not sure you’re going to like this, but I think you’re a pig, John”, followed closely by “I can’t believe I just called my girlfriend’s dad a pig”. After the laughter had died down we agreed that this was actually a really good fit. Clever, doesn’t mind getting dirty, reliable, strong and resourceful.

Dad – Gloucester Old Spot

Mum (Gill)

Mum’s took some discussion. We needed an animal which was protective of her young, a sociable pack animal, clever and a good provider. Many different species were discussed before we settled on a final two: a lioness or a blue whale. Mum was definitely in favour of being a lioness but we thought that this was too fierce so in the end we decided that she was a blue whale. (It must be noted here that we don’t think this is a very good visual fit)!

Mum – blue whale

Marcus

This was quite a tricky one. Marcus is independent and he’s happy on his own, he’s a thinker and planner and always chooses who he gives his time to carefully. It was quickly decided he should be some kind of cat, but which species? A domestic cat seemed too unadventurous but a big cat too flashy and in your face. Eventually, Marcus suggested that he should be a crap wild cat. A wild cat in characteristics but without the benefit of being exciting to spot in the wild! Perhaps a little harsh but a good fit.

Marcus – crap wild cat

Me (Jenny)

There is still ongoing debate about this one (suggestions on a postcard please) but the current suggestions are either a small bird – definitely one that has too much energy and is really squarky and fliting – or a kangaroo. The kangaroo was suggested by the Reading contingent as being full of energy and “free-spirited”.

Me - TBC

Wombat (Shore Support)

Emma, the younger Douch daughter already has the nickname of Wombat and this was suggested as quite a good fit, but the best suggestion we had was a ring-tailed lemur. Like Emma, these animals are happy on their own or in a group, can be energetic and excitable or quiet, like sleeping and are pretty awesome. I think of everyone, Wom was most pleased with her animal.

Wombat – ring-tailed lemur

Peter (Marcus’ dad)

This is a tricky one and I understand took quite a lot of discussion. Eventually it was decided that Peter was a buffalo because he’s strong and reliable and a problem solver. We’re not sure, however, if their reputation as one of the most deadly animals in Africa was taken into account….

Peter - buffalo

Angela (Marcus’ mum)

This might be my favourite one. Angela herself suggested that she was a squirrel and the fit is excellent. A really good provider and forward planner, looks after her young brilliantly and makes a very good nest. The only slight downside to this is that Peter regularly (attempts) to shoot squirrels with a BB gun in their garden which hopefully isn’t part of the likeness.

Angela - squirrel

So all sorted then. Feel free to add comments or suggestions below and we’ll look forward to hearing which animals you think we’re all like.

Before and After

Current Location: Still in Marina Lanzarote, Canaries

Aboard: John, Gill, Jenny and Marcus

Visitors: Ali and Mike, Jane and Simon

Jen and Marcus are now into their third and last week of Spanish lessons. They are up by 07.30, sandwiches made and leave by 08.00. Four hours of 1:1, 1:2 or small group work, then back to the boat for lunch and off to the library for homework. My, they are working hard. One of Jenny's exercises last week was about this chap below called Fernando; Before and After.

BEFORE: Fernando worked in an office, was very stressed out, played squash once a week, had a poor diet and was very unhappy, He wore elegant clothes and worked from 07.30-18.00. He had no friends and no time to himself.

NOW: Fernando is happy. He lives on a quiet island. He gets up late and fishes all day. Fernando wears short trousers and has a beard. He fishes, eats fruit and vegetables and has a healthy diet. He has lots of friends and is very interesting.

I was very impressed with how Jenny's Spanish was coming along especially when she then told me that the next part of the conversation in Spanish with her teacher was "That's not Fernando, that's my Dad"!

Jen has had a really nasty cough for 7 or 8 weeks and is struggling to get rid of it. Fizzy, our resident nurse practitioner prescribed tea tree oil steaming and whacking on the back like you do for CF. This is slowly working and the cough is now loose and much better. Good job because Fizzy had her lined up for doctor's appointments, chest X-rays and antibiotics if it hadn't cleared up. Little does she know, Douches don't do antibiotics.

In other news stores are gradually being purchased for the crossing. Here's a picture of the contents of just one of the many lockers. It's amazing how much space we have - and even more amazing the amount of stuff that it stored in that space.

Starboard Locker 2

People news next. We've had Ali, Gill's sister and Mike to see us this week. They are staying in Costa Teguise just along the coast for a week. Even more bizarrely, Gill's cousin Jane and husband Simon spent a morning with us whilst their cruise ship was in Arrecife for a morning. They now all have a better idea of how our lives are led. On a more boaty theme our great friends Jack and Fizzy left the marina a few days ago bound for Tenerife which they reached just over a day and a night later. We provided weather and passage information for them via their satellite phone. This worked pretty well so we will do the same for them during their crossing which starts on Wednesday. They will be at sea with their son and his friend for Christmas and New Year, bound for Martinique (Go, Carpe Diem of Ipswich, Go). Dilek's husband has been here for 10 days too, saying goodbye to her before she sets off for the Cape Verdes and Grenada, also on Wednesday or Thursday. Hobnob has reached Antigua and Exocet Strike are also across. Seems we will be one of the last to be setting off and now that we are just about ready we are itching to get started. First however, we have Emma coming out for Christmas week and then my brother Philip is coming out with Jane before the usual New Year team arrives from our home village of Gleaston. For more than 20 years we've had New Year together, rotating from home to home. They couldn't leave us on our own this year so all six of them are flying out for a Canarian extravaganza. The big question is "will Marmite make it into Room 101 this year?" [No chance!!]

Just had to break off to receive the mounting plate for the new windlass - which sort of fits (and cost an arm and a leg), but I'll leave those pictures for another posting.

The jobs list is decreasing and now looks quite do-able. Here it is as it currently stands - just 16 items remaining. That doesn't mean there won't be new ones to add of course but the list is definitely slowly reducing.

Padlocks
Grab bag rehearsal
* Windlass completion
Put reefing line in
Clean hull
Bleach rust marks on white
Pink rope try
Put Genoa telltales on 
- Diesel
- Engine oil
- Distilled water
- Outboard engine oil
Clean stainless steel
Clean chuffs 
Buy pork leg
Engine checks

Anyway time to finish as it's my turn to cook tonight. It will be my "signature" [read "only"] dish of mushroom and bacon omelette. Yum, yum with salad and small local potatoes.

Dinner and Darüşşafaka

Last night was a bit of a special one. Dinner for eight at our favourite tapas bar, La Bulla. Here we are off the African coast with six friends all with a link back to Turkey. Us, Dilek and her husband Ali who has flown out from Istanbul to be with his intrepid wife, Jack and Fizzy (who we first met in Turkey) on their last meal out before setting off across the Atlantic, and Turkish couple Cengiz and Nili from yacht Vega. The food as usual was fantastic and the company pretty inspirational but it was one particular conversation that stuck in my mind.

We knew that Dilek was sponsoring girls' education in Turkey through a charity called Darüşşafaka but not much more than that. It turns out that Darüşşafaka is one of the oldest charities and educational foundations in Turkey, founded I think in 1863. Turkey was then an integral part of the Ottoman Empire. The aim of the foundation was and still is to give orphans a good educational start in life. Later during the First World War its intake took orphans from the Turkish conflicts with britain at Canakkale and Gallipoli. Although things have changed now, at that time and considerably later, orphans were defined as children who had lost their fathers, as mothers would be unable to support their children on their own. 80% of the teaching was in English, education was top class and the foundation was well regarded by the new regime installed by Ataturk in 1923.

It was about this time in the evening that we discovered that Cengis, sitting opposite me, was one of these very orphans! By the time he was accepted, competition for places was very fierce and the year he gained entry he was one of only 53 pupils to gain a place. Fail one exam during schooling and you were out. No re-sits, no second chances. Only 36 students made it to completion.  Nowadays the entry exams attract around 10,000 applicants for just 100 places each year. Eventually girls were admitted and that is where Dilek comes back into the story.

Her aim is to raise funds for Darüşşafaka by way of her solo trans Atlantic crossing which will be the first for a Turkish woman. Darüşşafaka Foundation has committed to increase the number of entrants they admit by the number of girls that Dilek raises sponsorship for! £25,000 will support one girl from aged 11 to completion of their university education. Her aim is to raise sufficient money to support 10 girls. Companies and individuals throughout Turkey are sponsoring the initiative and she is famous in the Turkish media by way of television interviews and newspaper articles. In fact even before Cengis and Nili had even met them Nili was a social media friend of Dilek's.

What the future holds for Darüşşafaka is less certain. The current government in Turkey seems to be pushing for an increasingly Islamic education system. An independent, free-thinking, western-oriented foundation such as Darüşşafaka is likely to have a difficult time ahead of it I fear.

Dilek on Symina her 8m yacht, passing the Rock of Gibraltar on departure for the Canaries on a bleak morning in September

Dilek, high as a kite! With me and Jack (Carpe Diem) on arrival in Lanzarote after her longest solo passage to date

Random Things

Current Location: Marina Lanzarote, Arrecife, Lanzarote.

So, after a couple of weeks it’s time for an update of sorts.

The UK seems a distant memory now but it feels as though we saw just about everyone we have every met. Happy times with Gill’s sisters and families and Stu and Julie in Hull, daughter Emma (the Wombat) in London, brother Philip, wife Jane and Sam in Stroud, Dave, Vera, Chris, Audrey, (are you really coming out to Lanzarote?), Lynda, Jo and Helen in Cumbria, cousins Jane (see you in Arrecife) and John with partners Simon and Julie, and Uncle Sid in Cheltenham, Peter and Katie of Firemoose in Cambridge (thanks for the charts), Wendy and Barrie in Christchurch and of course Hugh and Linda (thanks for the offer of a 5 bedroomed house to stay in at any time).  But most of the time we were with Mum and Dad in Southampton. Finally we have found carers for them so thanks also to Katherine and Erin of Nurse+. Meanwhile the Saints started to slide down the Premier league table again as injuries took their toll.

The Hull Tribe

Grey and overcast drizzly days when it seemed never to get light with the occasional lovely autumn day were the norm during our time in England.

Urswick Tarn in winter from Lynda and Martin's front room

The Nightmare that is the M3

Finally we said an emotional farewell to my Mum and Dad in Southampton and then, gathering up the last batch of boatie bits, we set off for Reading to see Hugh and Linda and my godson Luke just back from 3 years in Australia. Final repacking (including the 18.5kg windlass) and the following morning to Gatwick where Linda left us to take our car back to Sonning. They will use it as theirs while we are away in a tit for tat, “car for house” arrangement.

We arrived back to the marina late in the evening to a chorizo and bean stew cooked by Jenny and Marcus. It was great to see them again and catch up with their final few days in England and the first week of their Spanish lessons. They were exhausted with closing their UK affairs down and then 2-4 hours of concentrated Spanish lessons a day followed by 3 hours in the library. I think they must be learning stuff though because I couldn’t understand a thing they and Gill jabbered on about for the next hour or so. It was taking its toll though and Jen has had a nasty cough for the past seven weeks.

Next morning we were woken by a shoal of kami-kazi fish hurling themselves at our steel hull. Bang, bang, crash, crash as they tried to eat bits of vegetation that have taken hold along the waterline. Even though it was weekend Jen and Marcus were still off to the library for more Spanish whilst we caught up with Jack and Fizzy and Dilek. Over the next couple of days Gill’s restocked the lockers, had her second “thank you” manicure from Dilek, we’ve climbed the mast to check out the spreaders, stays and other rigging and I have started to make a template for the new windlass support. Plus, of course, numerous social occasions – meals, patisseries and general chit chat.

New boats have been arriving at present as a brief weather window opened from La Linea/Gibraltar down to the Canaries. However, it was a very narrow window and most of these boats got whacked by a southwesterly half way across. A couple of boats arrived today bruised and battered during their passages. On the other hand our friends on the Atlantic Odyssey who are within spitting distance of the Caribbean are faced with near calms and are struggling to cover the last couple of hundred miles. We sit here smugly – blissfully unaware of what the ocean has in store for us during January!

I’ve noticed from reading other peoples’ ocean blogs that the isolation, cut off from outside stimulation, often results in humour and in-jokes only really understood by those undergoing the ordeal. Hence “mine’s a liccorice” and “feed the dolphins” from our short passage to the Canaries. Worryingly, with four weeks still to go, this tendency already seems to be developing aboard Petronella – but this time it hinges around a small, squishy plastic Freisian cow. Donated by Jenny’s ex work colleagues, “La Vaca” first appeared in the cockpit sitting demurely across the teak slats. Subsequently chastened by the Elfin Safety brigade he/she now never ventures forth without his harness attached. Since then he has been spotted adjusting the tiller, steering and then, amazingly, hanging on for dear life at the top of the mast. I understand that his growing band of followers has even set up his own Twitter hashtag at “#on the moooove”.

Selfie at masthead by La Vaca (looking white with fear)

Jen checking the mast top rigging

The jobs remaining list has 27 items on it, not including normal provisioning.