Well here we are in Gran Canaria - and suddenly realised that we haven't sent you an update for a few days, and the voyage crew have nearly all gone home, so it looks like Nursie will be doing it.( I think I may have sent it, so this may be a bit of a repeat!) On 11th November, we had a short service of Remembrance, conducted by Geoff, which the majority of the crew attended, although a few had to deal with the day to day business of sailing the ship. The service was well received and much appreciated by all who attended.
Later that day we sailed into Santa cruz de Tenerife, and spent an evening there, before spending the following morning doing assisted climbs( for Gordon, Anne, Sarah and Ted) and then sailing during the afternoon towards our final destination of Santa Cruz de Gran Canaria.
The plan was to anchor off Gran Canaria on Thursday night and have a BBQ, but the weather Gods were against us. To achieve our aim in a safe anchorage would have meant a long and miserable slog into Las Palmas the following day, so the decision was made to go into harbour a day early. We still had our BBQ courtesy of the engineers and Graham though, and finished with Grahams famous chocolate squidgys! ( that is just to make you all jealous at home).
On Friday we had a number of jobs to do during the morning, but most people then spent the afternoon ashore, with a lot visiting the beach, then we all met up for a group meal in El Cids.
The following morning there were a few sore heads which was a bit unfortunate as we had a 7 a.m. call for an early happy hour, but I was kind over happy hour as people had done such a good job the previous day. By 9 a.m. bacon butties were being consumed and passports handed back, with the first travellers departing by about 0930. By lunchtime almost everyone had gone, although a couple of people are staying on for the next voyage, and the ship seems strangely empty.
However, the work goes on. As I write this we have crew in the rigging, we have sails all over the deck for various reasons, the laundry is going full speed ahead and the galley is as usual working hard. We've even managed to get some painting done.
Tomorrow a few of the permanent crew go home for a couple of weeks leave and some of the reliefs have already arrived, and we are getting the ship ready for the crew of TNS234 who join tomorrow Sue MP