Daniel organized our next regatta in Canary Islands, he invited us, paid almost all expenses and flew to Palma to help us assemble our cradles, drive us around and make sure we are happy, sort of superior Peter Craig.
I spent 15 days in Lanzarote waiting for delayed ship on both ends of the regatta and it sizzled me every morning with its moonlike landscape and illumination, but what has impressed me most is the vision few people managed to impose on the place they love.
Cezar Manrique was a native artist who after traveling the word returned here and devoted his life to preserve the island from commercial development turning it into one of the most beautiful places on earth, he found the power to convince people to his way, he imposed strict building codes banning structures taller than the tallest palm tree and obnoxious advertising, all buildings are white and puritan in style in respect to Spanish tradition, the roads cross in symmetrical roundbouts, he got killed by the car on one in front of his house. He was a painter, sculptor, architect, ecologist, construction advisor, planner of urban developments, outliner of landscapes and gardens, I think he was a sailor too; our regatta was named after him.
Calero family have a dream of there own, Daniel’s father started building their town and marina from scratch in mid 80s, it still doesn’t exist on our expensive charts having 500 berths, boat yard, number of luxury hotels, shopping strip with many restaurants, marine life museum, several hundred villas and art everywhere.
You see various members of the family involved in every detail of the operation from polishing the docking brass cleats in the marina to planting cactus gardens in their own paradise. Daniel owns a fleet of thirty six J80s, GP42, TP52 and who knows what else, the boats are plastered with sponsor logos, there is also Ericsson Volvo camp in the marina adding sailing excitement to the picture.
We were staying free of charge in 5 stars Hesperia hotel, example of good humble taste and attention to detail, with 12 swimming pools, Japanese gardens, palm trees, and every paradise flower you can imagine.
Amaryllis, bougainvilleas, hibiscus, mimosas, agaves and palm trees grow in very organized formations since the wild plants list includes 100 species of Lichens, ferns and rachitic olive tree. Desert panoramas with 300 volcanoes and lava fields, with Timanfaya the youngest; preserved as national park, make you speechless. Lava comes in all shades of black, from coal to ash and is still unpulverised and dense, there is very little dust on the island so it is very clean.
You have a full picture; tiny black piece of a moon deepen in the blue waters of Atlantic 65 miles from Maroccan Sahara, white mauretanian oasis surrounded by paradise garden next the pool, shiny racing yachts flying colorful battle flags ready for action.
You could see me there, bored to death sipping a drink, waiting for my friends.
And then they come and we went racing.
VI Trofeo Cesar Manrique-Puerto Calero; 7 Swans 45, TP52, GP42 and sizable IMS fleet.
Our goal was to expose Gosia as a driver to real big boat fleet racing with:
- 1. minimum damage.
- 2. maximum fun.
- 3. finish better than last.
Daniel’s generous offer provided opportunity and Gosia’s hard work was convincing enough to put together mighty team: Elizabeth Kratzig coach, Brit Hughes tactics, Devin Santa main, Jan Maier and David Pavelko jib trim, Chris Qualio spinnaker trim, Chafee Amory pit, Michael Reardon mast, Julie Lowder mid bow and Jahoo Glinski bow.
We practiced for 2 days in light swirling Canary shifts, mixing up with other boats and doing our own routines in order to coordinate all the talents into one team.
Races were set up far away from home in steadier breeze and shallower waters of Arecife bay, with sequence scheduled for 2PM, there were always problems setting the course and we ended sailing into a night. We had good starts on long line with much smaller fleet we are used to, we had moments of very good speed, especially when sailing close to other boats, Gosia held her cool at close crossings and we were rarely last rounding the marks, the shifts were tricky and crew communication poor in many situations but our recoveries were amazing.
We were DSQ with five other boats in the first race after finishing at the wrong mark, but committee admitted that due to huge spectator fleet the marking was inadequate.
On second day we were sent for a costal race that turned into upwind fetch with a shift after short first leg, we held the ground for very long time but lost couple of boats before turning back, Italian boat Taij run the rocky shoal after hoisting the shoot at 9kt; nobody got heart but we got our third goal secured.
On the way back we had a problem peeling to jib top when it pulled out of tuff luff and we lost Finish boat. Last day was much better and we actually led at some point, Jeroboam Canova fouled us at port crossing and we got them tossed!!
Finally.
You should see seniore Codecasa’s face.. unfortunately nobody had a camera.
The won protest did not change the standings but gave us some well-deserved satisfaction and we beat Tea of Blue Nights by 1 point.
The first goal was met with couple insignificant rips in shoots, torn jib top, 2 broken jib sheets.
The second goal, hands down, cheers to you guys!
And thank you Caleros for letting us sleep late and for the greatest parties ever, creativity, taste and effort beyond any expectations, the music, food, champagne, fireworks, the devil show and parade, we are back next year with our friends and families.
After half a day exploration of islands best volcanos and some spelunking for 8 euro a pop most of kids joined devil freak show on the plain to Madrid and one more lovely evening together.
Jan kept me company for another day and left for Nice.
The ship was late again, I finished reading Kapuscinski’s “Travels with Herodot” and got really regretful about my inability to speak languages.
One night I joined other captains for dinner and drink in Tex/Mex steakhouse, lots of Italians, Spaniards from royal GP, Norwegians from royal TP, Portugese, and New Zeeland Tracy from Austrian TP, they had much more fun than I did discussing 19th century German Philosophy in amalgamate of thongs I don’t know, they could as well, talk about Winnie the Pooh, I had nothing to contribute, Fred Nietzsche knocked me out in tenth grade, finally Miguel from Ulika felt in love with bartender and we went home.
After loading I flew to Barcelona with Giuseppe from Jeroboam who speaks some English, there is no way he knows shit past Kant. I have to get myself “Italian for Dummies” for Christmas and French and Spanish.
Barcelona is fancy, I met Nicola and Ryan rigging open 60s for Barcelona World Race, run around town like an Energizer bunny and flew to Palma, to pickup the boat with Kuba and Richard Flaming who wrote the next Mistral story better I could ever do, you can read it on his blog from early November.
http://antarcticiana.blogspot.com/
It didn’t stop blowing for another four days when I took the mast out and after parking Better Than.. in the garage for winter rest and went back home to my Penelope to write this story.
I collected my memories and some pictures to share with you hoping that you would share some of yours, open your hart. I reserve the right to edit obscenities.