POSITION : same as before
DATE : 24.11.2012 , TIME : 18:00 UTC
MOOD : EXHAUSTED, BUT ANXIOUS

"So , one more day , and the weather forecast is no good. WInd on the nose, as they say." 
This was my prepared first line a couple of hours ago, But we had a Skipper's meeting today with 400 attendants and here comes the latest news:
ONLY THE RACING DIVISION WILL START TOMORROW. THE REST OF THE FLEET WILL ONLY LEAVE ON TUESDAY THE 27TH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is only the second time in the history of this event, that a delay has happened. But for good reasons, and we have no problem with this decision. There is going to be a lot of wind out there, with 6m high waves forecasted. So who needs that, we are here for the fun. Only the racers will start tomorrow. Let's just hope that , as the option was given, not too many cruisers leave tomorrw, but I guess we all stay together.
Of course we are all excited to finally leave. And we were so busy over the last few days.
Repairs had to be done. good friends had to be waved Good-Bye, shopping still was ongoing, Safety briefings and demonstrations to be attended, wall paintings to be finished, and on and on and on. Unbelievable. It seems to be like an endless story, but no return now, we are ready to go !

Again if you want to follow the rally pls go to www.worldcruisingclub.com. Last night at the farewell party of the Tourist Board of Gran Canaria, I heard the latest statistics:
228 boats of various sizes and designs, 25 different boat nationalities, about 1200 crew on board of which 35 are children under the age of 16. 
So quite a crowd.
If you want to see latest pictures , look under Gallery on the above mentioned web page. 
Also go to  YOU TUBE , where you will find plenty of films from last year, and if you are patient enough, later on from this year's rally, you will hopefully find our's. 
So tomorrow is the small 'grande spectacle' now, There will be thousands of people in the harbour and beyond to watch the start of the rally, even if it is just the racing division tomorrow.
Waving good-bye has a long tradition at sea, and there will be plenty of it. 
So again, I am sure there will be shortly a film released either on the ARC page or on YOU TUBE. 
For us however it will be "full concentration". No accidents hopefully with all these boats around squeezing across the starting line. Although is is a rally and not a race, some guys take it very seriously. So let's hope for the better.

Unfortunatley our technical equipment on board is not fast enough, so I can not send any more blogs onto this web page until 
our arrival in S. Lucia which is expected now to be around the 17th of December. 
However we might be able to send text to the ARC page, so check for us there in the meantime.At the end of this journey I will copy those on to here.

Which gives you a nice brake, me as well of course.  I will then also follow up on the second part of the Islands of Dogs story, where world attention due to the events in the East , turned to the Atlantic. So if you haven't read that Blog yet, use your time now ! In order to prepare you for that excitement, 

I have a question for you:

All ARC boats are more or less of a modern design, some younger , some older, but the sail plan and hull shape with most is of the modern aera with 3D design and 'model tank' trial runs. For the racing division the crossing from Gran Canaria for the 2800 nautical miles to the West will be 14 days roughly, but for the majority of the cruiser division, which we are in as well, will be between 18 to 24 days. 

Now how long do you think it took Christopher Columbus to do a similar voyage, actually his first one in the year 1492 ?
 
Now, don't look it up, just have a guess, and when I have arrived in S Lucia, I will release the second part of my previous blog, and reveal the information. 

You will be surprised.

Best, Master Mike.

p.s.
SUNDAY 25th OF NOVEMBER

As said above the start of the Racing division was today. And some other boats left as well,
 all in all 34 boats in total . So the main body of the fleet is really still in port.
And we are some of the very few people who will ever participate in a start twice for the same rally: 
Once as spectators, and once as participants. 
HISTORY IS IN THE MAKING ! 
And the wind today played funny games .
In the early morning it stated blowing from the SW as forecasted. The morning then saw no clouds, 
very hot, and humid. 
Shortly after the start at 13:00 UTC the wind was gone, and started half an hour later with equal strength from the NE. And now, at 14:00 UTC, no wind at all.
Anyway, we have a new pump problem, so we are happy to stay for two more days. 
But the PARTY DEFINITELY HAS STARTED. 
As I said before, saying farewell has a long tradition with sailors !
And for the first time I have downloaded a Video. Let's hope it works.

POSITION :  28°07'7 N , 015°25'•5 W
DATE : 20/11/2012 ,  13:00 UTC
MOOD : ONLY 5 MORE DAYS !!!!!!

On Sunday the 18th of November was the official opening of the ARC 2012, the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers 
( see also www.worldcruisingclub.com) which will start on the 25th of November at 14:00h UTC.  And what an event it was. All the national flags from all the participating boats and people, so of course I had the venetian flag waving and cheering. 
My sailing club in Venice, Compagnia della Vela, should be proud !

We are here in Gran Canaria now for one week. And it was a busy week indeed. Checking the boat and preparing it for the long journey to the Caribbean, in our case to Saint Lucia, is quite an undertaking. 2800 nautical miles are ahead of us, without stoppage. So we have to take all provisions, food , water, whatever, and find storage space on the boat. But Fati, our "Food Manager" has everything under control ! 
The least we will do on this trip is starving, I can assure you of that.

On top of that the boat has to be in prime condition for the journey, so checks on the safety equipment, the rig, the sails, and others is a necessity one has to go through with. And I start wondering how those guys way back in time coped with all of this, was health and safety on top of their list whilst discovering the most common sailing routes available by season and favourable wind direction, not only in the Med, but 
worldwide ? 

Because sailing is as old as mankind, in one way or the other. 
But let's go about it step by step, ie let's start with our current location.

The Canary Islands are a tourism centre of great proportions, with more than 12 million yearly visitors . It also celebrates a daily 
"Reincarnation of the battles of the Bulge, Dunkirchen and El Alamein together" :
 "The war of towels",
 the means to stake one's territory for the best places at the pools of all the resorts on the 12 islands in this famous archipelago. But I don't want to bore you too much with 'post-war' rivalries,  most of you know the islands anyway, and let's not get involved into the bad habits of "binge drinking" at the beaches of Maspalomas either.

So I thought in length about what to write this time, and have come to the conclusion that most of the hard facts about the islands can be read in tourist guides or on the web. I would therefore like to do 2 things:
 I will concentrate a little bit indeed on the history of the Canary Islands and Gran Canaria in particular - just to warm up - but also put the story of these islands into the greater context of a period in our history, that finally led to the discovery of a new world. 
In order to do that we have to include as well the islands of the Azores as much as Madeira - or better the neighbouring island Porto Santo - , and whilst I keep it to historical facts , I would also like to explore the possible connections from a sailing perspective, without claiming that what I describe has actually happened . 
But then it might have, who knows ? As this could turn out to be a long story, I will also cut it into 2 blogs, so it is still easy reading.

The Canary Islands is a spanish archipelago off the north western coast of Africa.   It consists of 13 islands of various shape and size , with Mount Teide on Tenerife as the highest mountain in Spain, actually it is the third tallest volcano in the world measured from the seabed.

It remains active and is constantly monitored as a major eruption would not only create a disaster for the immediate surroundings, but due to its seabed connection can create a tsunami that would basically overrun Florida. Did you see the film "The Apocalypse", at the end when this big wave arrives before New York ? That's what I call the "Mother of all Tsunamis" ! Seriously, it would be very very bad, and it is not a futuristic Hollywood based block-buster script either. 
Dear Mount Teide, remain calm for the next 6 months. 
I don't want to be interrupted and overtaken by a tsunami on the Atlantic. I have better things to do.

We know that the islands were visited by the Phoenicians, the Greeks, and the Carthaginians, but the first full discovery for the western world happened under Cesar Augustus via one of his proteges, King Juba of Numidia. 
When he landed on what today is Gran Canaria, he found a large amount of wild and large dogs roaming it, so he called the island 
'Canariae Insulae' ,
 or for all of you who only speak "classical Greek", the " Island of Dogs ". 
I don't know whether four legged dogs were meant or 'canis marinus' , the equivalent for seals,  but the name stuck and was later used for all the other islands as well.

However the beginning of this story has all to do with.......... 
Venice 
of course, you ......lot !!!!!!!!!!  
Do you see the pattern of my brain ? 
Sailing and Venice. nothing else ! 

                                                                       
But for good reasons ! So let's get started.

The first people who recorded prevailing winds and resulting sailing routes were the Phoenician traders 
( 1500-300 BC ) in the Mediterranean , both in the very East as much as to the West. In those days rowing supplemented sailing, as much as the engine does today on a sailing boat. 
But the prevailing winds according to the seasons of the year were recorded,
 and helped all other sailors thereafter to find the best conditions and to avoid the often much more hazardous and enduring land travel. 

This knowledge , extended by the Romans even further East ( west and east coasts of India ) 
created the basis for the Venetian success story. Whilst this knowledge had been previously accessed  by all the appointed "Repubbliche Marinare" ( Maritime Republics) of which there were initially 4 : 
Venice, Genoa, Amalfi and......Pisa ! ,
 (Pisa ? Yes, Pisa !)

And Pisa ? 
Well , have a look at their tower, they have never been able to straighten things out. 
And you can't have that at sea !
( Folks, I am joking, I am joking ! )

As the connection between the East ( Byzantine ) and the West , 
the Venetians were definitely in the right place at the right time. 
And their trade extended by land routes far into the East of what was loosely called in those days "the Indies", ie India, China and South-East Asia. In contrast, 
Genoa 
played more on the military side, participated in the Crusades ,and established a 
shady image 
for being the centre of the slave trade in those years. 
But its mariners were well respected as I will come to tell later. 
Any difference to modern times ? 

So for the 'Merchants of Venice' it was all "merry go around for ever and ever and..." , 
until a major disturbance caused an uproar in the East. 
The rise of the Ottomans Empire at the beginning of the 15th century. 
And with it war,  although at the beginning I think it was probably more piracy than all out war. 
Daylight robberies of caravans , like today's pirates off Somalia and Yemen, 
stealing the riches of a spoilt western world and demanding hefty ransoms for their return. 
Piracy that suddenly interrupted the well established trading routes over land to the main ports 
where Venetian boats were waiting to bring the load back to the West. 
And the West and its rich families, being used to the delivery of spices, jewels, silks and other fashion items of those days, became gruntled. 
"What to do, where do we get our "goodies" from ?" ,  
was probably the most asked question of those years . 
And the call for new trading routes to be discovered 
both overland as much as over seas became 
louder  
louder
louder. 

The Venetians must have shuddered. 
Their trading world trembled. Things were about to change. 
They saw it coming, I am convinced. 
They tried as many other before and after to hold on to their world, Do you know the book 
" Who moved my cheese ? " 
by Spencer Johnson, written in 1998. 
Same thing.  

Instead of adapting and re-focusing, they tried to hold on.
But the world turned west, to the Atlantic, 
and venetian boats 
were both by general design as much as by their latin sail plan, 
not capable 
to sail in these ocean waters.  
The most serene Republic had no answer, it was 
THE BEGINNING OF THE END.

But like many other things, as a result, it created a new power, a new beginning :
Out of Ashes 
there is always something new that follows. 

But this dear reader, I will talk about in my next blog. Hope you will join me. 
Master Mike

The boat was in Madeira for 4 weeks, and not moving. To cross the Atlantic , you have a certain time window to wait for, which starts at the beginning of November. By that time the Hurricane Season in the Caribbean should be over, and boats start to travel across the Atlantic. This year we will be joining the ARC 2012 , the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, with roughly 250 boats joining. and it will start on the 25th of November. At the same time one needs to get out of the Mediterranean by the end of September, beginning of October, otherwise bad weather like strong westerly winds will make a passage to Gran Canaria from Gibraltar almost impossible, or at least say very very unpleasant. So that is one reason why we left Gibraltar, but stayed in Madeira. 

However, during our stay of roughly 4 weeks , this island faced one of its worst autumns since records were taken. We had not only rain, but torrential rain, and not wind, but storms almost every day. Guys, climate change or not, all I can say is that 
the weather and its pattern is changing, regardless of where you are. 
On Madeira it led to landslides, fallen trees and the closure of the airport, in Venice in led to the 6th highest Acqua Alta ( Highwater ) since records, and Hurricane Sandy in the western Atlantic moving north !!!!!!, meaning moving into cold water, and still not loosing its power. I am sure you have seen it on the news. 

But it is not only the weather, it is nature as a whole that is changing as a consequence. I was told in Madeira that in the past Tuna was caught by local fishermen maximum north of Madeira, now they can go as far north as the Azores. Not only that, as the water gets warmer, new fish species are being caught as well in these waters, which were previously more part of the South Atlantic. The migration of birds is changing too, and it goes on and on and on. 

 So it is not one single item that is changing , 
it is the whole eco system. 
But who do I talk to. As if you didn't know.

So we left on Thursday the 8th of November, and we left leaving fond memories behind. Not only that. We also left our ship-papers behind, in the office of the marina. Probably I looked too much into Catia's eyes whilst checking out. 
Lost in memories, or lost memories ? 
Whatever. Whilst writing this blog, we got them back via another boat that left after us.

The trip to Gran Canaria was for the first time good sailing. With the mentioned strong winds it was also fast. 47 hours for 300 nautical miles. Not bad. But in the excitement I had an accident, hit my head with a piece of stainless steel. Ghee, was I bleeding ! 
AND I LOST MY MEMORY. 
 (at least for some seconds)

We arrived in the marina of Gran Canaria on Saturday the 10th. Again with so much wind, and rain, etc, nothing had changed. But what a beautiful sight . So many ARC participants, a whole sea of boats dressed with all kind of different flags, I cannot express how a sailor's heart starts beating with joy seeing this.
 Please feel free to join in.

And then it happened. The second disaster struck. I tried to connect my computer in the first bar I went to after having checked in , and guess what.........

- MY WHOLE MAIL BOX WAS WIPED OUT -

And with it all the research I had done for future blogs and home pages. The whole computer memory gone. 
A catastrophe . I spent on Sunday 10 hours to recover the basics, including links to the satellite phone etc. 
But what a waste. What an effort. And why , I wonder.

A bug ? A memory destroyer bug ?

Last time at home the sister of my daughter's girlfriend Amber was with us at the dinner table. We talked about food, and what people in the world ate, such as  sheep brain to mention only one example. And this little monster of 8 years of age, Mia is her name , stated firmly : 

I don't want to eat brain, I don't want to eat all the memories.

Here you have it. Sometimes I wish I could eat my computer's memory....... so in case it brakes down I have it all stored safely away. 

Yours, Master Mike.