It was easy sailing to Gran Canaria from Porto Santo. Nomad anchored and cleared in at the ever popular harbor at Las Palmas. This is a great place for connecting with friends and stocking up the boat before moving on to Africa. With marine supplies readily available it is also a good place to do some boat projects. I carried on with the interminable task of recaulking Nomad’s seventeen portholes and purchased enough caulk to finish the job. The dinghy hasn’t had a sailing rig on it since it was on my last boat. I fiber glassed in waterproof seats for flotation. It is now unsinkable even without the fenders under the center seat, so I began building the sailing rig for it. There is a charge for staying at the Las Palmas anchorage, so I moved around the island to the free and very rolly anchorage at Puerto Cementero. I finished building the sailing rig for the dinghy and tested it out. It was great fun to sail it again but the rig is really too tall making it very unstable. It needs to be shortened quite a bit or more likely replaced with a smaller junk rig sail. I once again met up with friends on Fai Tira. They sailed directly for The Gambia the day before I departed, arriving a week before Nomad.
Sailing south from Gran Canaria one can stay in the lee of the island and out out of the acceleration zone for some distance but eventually that ends and you get the big winds with no warning. In retrospect this was not the best course as the wave trains wrap around the sides of Gran Canaria and meet south of it causing very steep waves running into each other and breaking vertically. This made for some uncomfortable sailing into the next day until I was well south of the Canary islands. It’s also one of the few times Nomad has had waves breaking over her stern.
Arriving off the coast of Dakhla Morocco in a near calm the wind became a brisk southerly as I was crossing the shoals into the bay. This south wind also brought with it a nice one meter swell into the fishing boat harbour which is open to the south. Another sailboat rafted off to Nomad using non stretchy halyards to tie up with. This cracked a weld on Nomad’s starboard bulwark. I told him to get his boat off immediately, but he had to get a diver to cut a line off his propeller. The officials agreed that it was too dangerous to stay on the wharf in those conditions so I went to anchor behind the port until the south wind stopped. While waiting for my neighbor to get his prop cleared the tide was coming in and lifting Nomad’s rub rails over the top of the ship sized fenders allowing them to put a few dents in the hull. It’s really good to have a tough steel boat!
When the weather settled I put Nomad back in the fishing harbour rafted off to the same tug that I tied to on my last visit and finished the clearing in process. I enjoyed a few days walking around Dakhla sampling a few restaurants and stocking Nomad’s galley with fresh olive oil and a few kilos on Moroccan olives.
The weather forecast showed the prevailing notherlies had returned so I cleared out for Dakar. Nomad’s departure was as challenging as her arrival. The officials gave me the ok to get underway, then another arrived and wanted to take some paperwork back to his office. By the time he returned the afternoon winds had filled in and I was pinned firmly to the tugboat. Every possible maneuver was tried but Nomad’s little 30hp motor just couldn’t pull her out. The tug need to get out, so he got underway with Nomad still firmly pinned to his side then made a sharp turn to throw my stern clear of the boats behind us. Free of the harbour at last I noticed that the engine cooling water was a mere trickle. The engine had sucked up one of the thousands of pieces plastic garbage floating in the harbour. It was really good to get the sails up and reach the safety of the ocean!
Nomad anchored in Dakar Senegal off the Cercle de la Voile yacht club for a brief rest from the non-stop fishing boat traffic coming down the coast.Clearing into Senegal has become slightly easier since my last visit, only a stamp in the passport instead of a full page visa.
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| TThe anchorage in Las Palmas is used by big and little sailboats. |
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| Nomad's sailing dinghy with an oversized rig. |
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| Brisk sailing down the east coast of Gran Canaria |
Sailing south from Gran Canaria one can stay in the lee of the island and out out of the acceleration zone for some distance but eventually that ends and you get the big winds with no warning. In retrospect this was not the best course as the wave trains wrap around the sides of Gran Canaria and meet south of it causing very steep waves running into each other and breaking vertically. This made for some uncomfortable sailing into the next day until I was well south of the Canary islands. It’s also one of the few times Nomad has had waves breaking over her stern.
Arriving off the coast of Dakhla Morocco in a near calm the wind became a brisk southerly as I was crossing the shoals into the bay. This south wind also brought with it a nice one meter swell into the fishing boat harbour which is open to the south. Another sailboat rafted off to Nomad using non stretchy halyards to tie up with. This cracked a weld on Nomad’s starboard bulwark. I told him to get his boat off immediately, but he had to get a diver to cut a line off his propeller. The officials agreed that it was too dangerous to stay on the wharf in those conditions so I went to anchor behind the port until the south wind stopped. While waiting for my neighbor to get his prop cleared the tide was coming in and lifting Nomad’s rub rails over the top of the ship sized fenders allowing them to put a few dents in the hull. It’s really good to have a tough steel boat!
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| Anchored in the lee of the Dakhla fishing boat harbour. |
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| Rafted up in calmer conditions at Dakhla. |
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| Moroccan fishing boat. |
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| There's space for everyone in Dakhla. |
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| Dakhla |
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| Dakhla mosque. |
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| The fisherman's ddwharf doubles captionas a boatyard. |
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| Sea going hitchhiker. |
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| Fresh sardines |
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| Checking out the local motorcycle shop. |
When the weather settled I put Nomad back in the fishing harbour rafted off to the same tug that I tied to on my last visit and finished the clearing in process. I enjoyed a few days walking around Dakhla sampling a few restaurants and stocking Nomad’s galley with fresh olive oil and a few kilos on Moroccan olives.
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| Fresh Moroccan supplies for the galley. |
The weather forecast showed the prevailing notherlies had returned so I cleared out for Dakar. Nomad’s departure was as challenging as her arrival. The officials gave me the ok to get underway, then another arrived and wanted to take some paperwork back to his office. By the time he returned the afternoon winds had filled in and I was pinned firmly to the tugboat. Every possible maneuver was tried but Nomad’s little 30hp motor just couldn’t pull her out. The tug need to get out, so he got underway with Nomad still firmly pinned to his side then made a sharp turn to throw my stern clear of the boats behind us. Free of the harbour at last I noticed that the engine cooling water was a mere trickle. The engine had sucked up one of the thousands of pieces plastic garbage floating in the harbour. It was really good to get the sails up and reach the safety of the ocean!
Nomad anchored in Dakar Senegal off the Cercle de la Voile yacht club for a brief rest from the non-stop fishing boat traffic coming down the coast.Clearing into Senegal has become slightly easier since my last visit, only a stamp in the passport instead of a full page visa.
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| The wind is so consistent that only one stand is needed on the upwind side on the beach in Dakar. |
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| Dakar bus stop. |
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| The distinctive hotel behind the yacht club. |
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| Fresh fish going to the market. |
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| Dinghy dock at Cercle de la Voile. |
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| The beach at Plage de Hann |
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