21/01/12 - Lord Nelson

We're on our last day motoring back to Las Palmas. The sun is shining yet again and after 'enthusiastic' happiness and smoko with yet more of Cookie's delicious cake we are getting ready to make Nellie pretty by stowing the sails.
Yesterday was an unforgettable day. We came on watch at 0800 with an amazing sunrise reflected on Tiede which was glowing pink. The sails were set
including the t'gallants and we were flying along. Wonderful sailing
weather - everything we had all come to experience! Five minutes before we came off watch the wind just dropped and from then on it was stowing sails and engines on. We had been promised an anchorage for swimming followed by a BBQ which indeed we got, but the view from Nellie was that of the cement works!! Oh well you cant have everything! Those brave enough to jump in had a bracing swim or so I am told. After the swim Graeme had his sponsored makeover - his hair dyed a kind of gingery blond and styled in a Mohican. This raised over £400 for the JST so congratulations to Graeme for being game and Mia for the idea and the execution. Whilst all this was going on the engineers had been getting the BBQ well underway and Cookie, Rosie and the team doing their usual astounding spread of food. A mighty feast enjoyed by all. Then the fun began. The singing in the bar was of such a high standard and the repertoire was wideranging, including of course some sea shanties, folksongs, popular singalong songs and just about anything which anyone could remember the words for. Linda leading the singing especially of the Irish songs accompanied by Chris on the bodrain, and eventually Marco on the guitar after he had tuned it to his satisfaction (about 9/10ths of the way through the evening!!). This seemed like the climax to our voyage, but of course day broke with the usual routines and instructions for the last day of chores etc, Back in port by 1500hrs and our watch have the privilege of taking her into harbour - hopefully safely.
It's been a simply fantastic week and I can't wait to come back for another voyage in the sunshine.
Christine - FS watch