Final rehearsal.

We left Lagos on Friday, January 10th for the marina of Arrecife in Lanzarote, where we are now. It took us 4 days & nights to cover the 500 nM, on a pretty agitated sea, accompanied by dolphins and a flying fish with a death wish. Perfect trip to get salt on my skin again in an effort to try to keep pace with my Captain who has been brined by now.

Between Essaouira and Agadir, the wind dropped to a mere 4 knots and we started up the engines, purring happily along. But just as I got installed at the helm for my nightshift at 11PM, the starboard engine suddenly stopped purring and started to make alarming death rattle noises instead . I shamefully admit that the first thought that popped into my head was: Gilberto ! Wtf !!!! But Gilberto was not to blame. As I was still wondering what to do, my Captain’s head appeared from down below, ordering me to cut the engine, NOW!

It is a good thing that my Captain speaks Volvo Penta and his immediate diagnosis was that “something” got caught in the propeller. But since it was in the dead of night, we had to continue on one motor and manually steer on the compass: 220 degrees. “We” meaning “me”, in this case. It was my shift after all and my Captain in all his wisdom considered it a good steering training. So for 4 hours, I peered at the compass in full concentration, handled the heavy helm which was also being hampered by that “something” and got serious cramps in my arms, neck and shoulders. I am proud to announce though, that at 3 AM when my Captain took over, he complimented me on my “surprisingly” straight track down south. He however continued and managed this straightness by casually steering with his feet.

It is also a good thing that my Captain doesn’t suffer from thalassophobia and that he ALWAYS comes well prepared. And so it happened that at an ocean depth of 2820 meter, we cut the second engine and my Captain bravely took the plunge. In his 4mm semi-dry wetsuit and with his 15 cm long professional blade he dove to the propeller and slashed away at a HUGE mooring line used by moroccan tuna trawlers.

He hauled the thing on board and when we arrived in the marina of Lanzarote , people couldn’t believe their eyes: all the space in the big wide ocean, and we got caught by the damn thing.

I must add that immediate after the mooring line incident, instead of a beautiful blue dorade we hauled an ugly blue plastic bag on board. We consider this to be our humble contribution to the general ocean cleanup which is badly needed.

And here we are, in the marina of Arrecife, Lanzarote. Whereas in Lagos we were in the company of La Vagabonde, the catamaran of the famous Australian vloggers who sailed Greta Thunberg back to Europe, our neighbors here are super yachts. And they turn Lady O all of sudden into a gypsy nomad ship. We love her even more for it.

Our next stop is Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, where Ramses will fly in for a big hug before we hit the waves, direction Carib.