FAMILY LIVING AND TRAVELING OF SY GRAIN DE SABLE

HOME SWEET HOME!

12/29/2015

Silent is Ok, but too much silent maybe not, no? Specially when there is a lot to tell. Just like always we could not find the moment (or inspiration?) to start writing .. Making photos it was never a problem, but to start computer and fill the white page with letters ..YES. But we will improve....now that we arrived to the last Canary island and in front have so much miles and open sea to sail- the inspiration will come more often. H o p e so:)

So how about some more photos?

Ok. Stop. Lets write.

After leaving our Grain alone and sad in Lanzarote we both flew to the mainland and spend all summer trying our accounts to grow - in other words, we went to work:) And of course, on sailing boats again. Just this time not on the same one. Egoi spend all summer in Barcelona working on beautiful Sparkman and Stephens classic sailing yacht...and me in Corfu enjoying greek waters and Greece on South African Catamaran Francis 50. All perfect. But really perfect. We call it to be lucky, because same me as Egoi we could not imagine finding a better job.

But job is job ...and sailing on your own boat is another story:)

So after finishing the season in October we came back to our home- sweet home- Grain:) Full of dust, sand and grease (some stupid guy decided to paint our cockpit in black and throw in old diesel filter) but still HOME.

Preparations, cleaning, more cleaning and sailing !!!!!!!!! This time our goal was to reach El Hierro. Everyone we met before and knew Hierro told us it will become our favorite...so it was time to check it (and they didnt lie!!!)

Little by little......if there are islands on the way, why not to stop and visit them again. First we sailed down all Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. Stopped in a cosy village Gran Tarajal, where we hauled up the Grain for cleaning and painting the bottom with antifoulling paints. Here we also found that our forestay is not safe to use any more.. It was starting to be difficult to un roll and roll in the genoa so after inspecting all furling system we discoveder that the problem was in the forestay. In some places the wires were dangerously damaged (in this moment you understand how good is to have extra stay (jib stay) and extra sail. Otherwise we were not able to sail to Gran Canaria where we could order a new stay and replace the old one with new.
But not all is so bad. For example in Gran Tarajal we had a super nice visit of our friend Amaya!!!!

So next - relaxed and beautiful night sailing to south of Gran Canaria. Few nights in Pasito Blanco ( where another great friend Jullita came on board!!!)and then Puerto Mogan. We wanted to sail to Las Palmas, but because of Arc 2015 it was totally full and no way to find a place neither in marina neither in the bay on anchor!!!.
In Mogan we had a visit of parents of Egoi and after installing new stay sailed with them all the way with short stops in Tenerife and La Gomera till Hierro!

And here we are!!! In the end of the world. Thats how we felt when after night sailing from la Gomera early morning we entered small but well protected harbor of La Restinga. In the very south of the island and the very south of all Canary islands this harbor is perfect for those who want to relax and make the last small preparations before sailing south to Cabo Verde or crossing Atlantic. Is little, but here you have small but good supermarket, some restaurants, bars, lot of diving schools, friendly people and everyday guaga,s service to the island capital Valverde.

And the island itself is great- wIld, so natural, diverse and impressive, clean, friendly, energetically auto sufficient, serviced by free wifi in all parts, perfect for snorkeling and diving and so so nice. Our original idea was to stay here all December and after leave towards Cabo Verde , after Gambia...and than Brazil. But after realizing how special this place is now our idea is to stay here some days longer...Somehow after sailing around the World in just two years now that we have all time we want to enjoy all places on our way and try to leave as little as possible unseen. Even if is still so hard to realize that there is no hurry to run....

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SEE YOU LATER GRAIN........

4/20/2015

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Somehow its really sad to write, but it is what is it is- we are leaving our lady Grain for few months and we are moving to sail on other boats.
What a “cabrones” (sorry but its hard to translate) owners we are…We give her love, caress and joy and than one day we just pack our bags and go sailing on others.

But not everything is so bad. Believe, we would not change our Grain for nothing….too much work, love and passion comes with here… But for being able to continue sailing the world futher south and west next winter...we need some incomes…So …we need to work. Unfortunately we didn’t find any treasure in the Sea around …so job is waiting for us.

We will be working separately on different sailing yachts next months meanwhile our Grain will be waiting us here in Lanzarote Marina in Arrecife.. It was really too expensive to leave her out of water for all that time, so she is staying in water ( we don’t want to imagine what a “rainforest “ we will find on the haul when we will be back:)
We spent almost a week preparing her to whistand hot Canary sun and wind, cleaned all what is possible to clean outside and inside and tied her with triple ropes so that any wind could make her damage.

And tomorrow the three of us (Kataryte is traveling to Lithuania to have a real cat life on land with a company of my parents dog Sailas, which we hope will take care of her:)) will leave the Island……