25/12/11 - Tenacious

At anchor off Puerto Vueltas, Gomera, the evening of 23rd, we had a BBQ on deck. The setting was stunning, close to the almost vertical cliffs and dramatic skyline of Gomera. We had marinated jerk pork, salmon, hamburgers and salads.

On the 24th we were aweigh shortly after 0730. We were soon in a good NE wind and set sail before smoko. We had a cracking sail, making 6 knots at times. 'Lord Nelson' hove into view early afternoon, after her voyage south from Lisbon. At 1500 we called all hands to clew up sail and motored the last few miles to Santa Cruz de La Palma. Roald Amundsen, Alexander Von Humboldt and Lord Nelson were all alongside as we entered the harbour at
1612 and made our turn to moor between Roald Amundsen and Lord Nelson. As soon as the gangway was rigged, we carried out assisted climbs. The galley was busy as the crew of 'Lord Nelson' were coming to join us for a buffet on deck. This merged into singing, with Ronan on the guitar and Barry playing the fiddle. At 2115 we started our Christmas Carol singing, which was really popular. Luckily we had some great voices amongst the voyage crew, notably Kathryn, Diana, Richard and Vincent. The mulled wine no doubt helped the more moderate singers. Many of the 'Lord Nelson' crew were onboard for this and we even had a few crew from Alexander Von Humboldt. Finally, a few of us made it to midnight mass.

Sunday 25 December - Scrambled eggs and smoked salmon on deck followed the traditional bucks fizz. At 0930 23 Voyage Crew went on the half day coach tour of the island and the magnificent caldera, which they really enjoyed.
Meanwhile the ship was open to the public from 1000 to 1300 and there was plenty of action from Ali and her team in the galley. We had a brief respite at 1330 and then geared up for the home made raft race. Our raft consisted of 4 fuel drums given to us by Stavros Niarchos last week, 2 blue drums and
4 lashed lengths of wood. Our team did really well, leading for most of the way until the crew of Alexander Von Humboldt cheated. They crossed the line a metre ahead of our raft but as they had contravened the instruction of 4 crew members on the raft (they only had 3), we felt that morally we had won.
No sooner were our fearless paddlers back on board than the Permanent Crew set to serving dinner in the lower mess. Turkey with all the trimmings and more besides, followed by home made Xmas pudding and then cranachan, for those with any space - well we didn't have any space but we still managed it. To top it all, we had Christmas cake on deck at 2100. Phew!!

We plan to set sail tomorrow at 1100 for Tenerife.

Captain Barbara