At night at anchor in Puerto Vueltas La Gomera I wake up in the middle of the night, anchor alarm. The kathabatic wind howls over the mountain. In the morning the same again and we are almost on top of the catamaran that anchored behind us yesterday, much too close for my taste.
I make a decision: if Columus could sail to the Carribean without engine we can do the same!
Stella stocked up the boat already in Morocco and Gibraltar for a month passage. So right now we only need to buy fresh food, diesel and petrol. A friendly man helps me lowering the six diesel jugs from the dock into the dinghy, 8 meters lower. He asks about my plans and I tell him that we will sail today to the Carribbean. He says: wish I could come with you…
The fuel is in the dinghy and we stack the shopping and ourselves on top of that. The dinghy struggles with the propellor spinning very fast on the way back to the boat. But very slowly we get there. Dinghy onboard. At five the wind blows us offshore so I pull up the anchor and raise the sails. We are off! Next stop Caribbean 2800 nautical miles to the West.
On the ocean the only occasional ship (we saw only 3…) in the distance makes you realise that our modern society still exists. Away from people, cars, the land, skedules, appointments, regulations, internet the feeling of time vanishes quickly and after a few days you come into this wonderfull simple relaxed rythm determined only by sea, wind, sun and an amazing sky at night undisturbed by the lights of our civilisation. The ocean truely connects my soul to the universe, our source.
Stella says: Holding on to our newly repaired boom with hot sun on one side of my bare body the wind cooling, blowing strong into our head sail with thousands of miles actually thousands in every direction shiney white tipped waves all around. The horizon is round. Awesome. Not to mention the constant fairground ride effect, varying from gentle to washing machine effect. Always keep three limbs minimum attached to the boat.
