As we had existed on snacks during the race, we thought we would now go ashore, have a look round, and get a meal. According to Hugh, boats to and from the beach were suppose to be laid on, but after 10 minutes spent shouting “ mariniero” and “ bote” with no response, we became discouraged and were just about to inflate our Avon (dinghy), when a dark shape loomed up out of the darkness. It turned out to be the dinghy of a powerboat which was usually moored next to Hugh’s Tiburon back in Las Palmas, and whose hired hand had recognized his voice. We all piled in and soon landed through fairly heavy surf, on a steep beach. About a mile further along the beach, so we had been told, was a hotel.
The wind now began to freshen. We put two rolls in our main but kept our genoa flying. Coronado also reefed at this time. Carmelo was now in the best position, instead of reefing, he was able to free his sheets a little, and head downwind. He slowly drew ahead. The position when we passed the lighthouse was: Esperanza a quarter mile in front of us, with Coronado behind Carmelo but well downwind. The only other boats in sight were Ramon about 250 yards in front of Carmelo and Atlantis on the horizon downwind. (She had broken a stay and was later towed to Morro Jable.) Beyond the lighthouse in the lee of land, the sea was almost flat.
Sim's account of the Great International Race to Jandia
Jandia (pronounced Handia) is a lighthouse on the southwestern tip of the island Fuertoventura. It is on a bearing of 107 Degrees Magnetic from Las Palmas and said to be 60 miles. We were asked by the Real Club Nautico de Gran Canaria to enter for the race, as were all the other visiting yachts. We understood that this was the first of what was to be an annual race there. The start was scheduled to be at 7.30 in the morning. On the night before, all the crews were asked to attend a meeting for briefing. There were 14 boats entered, of which 8 were club boats and the visitors. Las Palmas British Yacht “Stella Mira”
C/O Real Club Nautico De Gran Canario, Las Palmas, Canary Isles. Dear Phyl, I hope that you are all well and that you are all settling down and still like Perth. Though it’s a bit late now if you don’t. Forgive me if I don’t write any details of our trip to Las Palmas in this letter. We are rushed off our feet trying to prepare the boat for our next step. I have had your letter for several days now but this is the first time I have had a chance to answer it. It is a dull day, otherwise we would be continually interrupted by visitors. Dear Phyl, I hope you are as well as this leaves us. This is just a short letter which I will put in with Len’s. We have had a good trip so far with nothing worse than force seven. The next leg of our journey, although one of the longest, should be sunshine with fair winds behind us. The boat, except for the self steering, which still does not work, is proving to be very satisfactory, and we are becoming more and more proficient at handling her. Your fears of a jinx were groundless. Several other boats are here waiting to cross the Atlantic, ours is amongst the largest, and our equipment and stores superior to most. The yacht club, here has offered us all their facilities and we have been adopted by two English members, a retired Lt Colonel and his wife. We will write in detail, giving you all the tale of our trip, when we have had time to see to our immediate needs, so this will only be a short letter. Write and let us know what kind of voyage you had. We missed you by a week, and I can imagine how disappointed you must have been. I hope that you and Lesley like Perth and that you and Queen enjoy your holiday together. I wish you were here, everyone we meet expresses friendship towards us and the other boats ask us aboard for drinks and a good old natter. You’d love it. I’ll stop now, because I want to write a nasty letter to Tillerman. All my love Sim Las Palmas British Yacht “Stella Mira”
C/O REAL CLUB NAUTICO De GRAN CANARIO, Las Palmas. Dear Len, You will no doubt be surprised to get a letter from me after all this time. My literary short comings are not from lack of intention but from sheer laziness. At the moment we are lying about 200 yards from the yacht club at Las Palmas. Penny has come back from shopping and keeps distracting my attention by talking to me, which gives me a good excuse to stop writing, but I must not be tempted. Comment on our trip from Vigo to Las Palmas from Penny
We started off taking 4 hour turns at the tiller, but at night, after a couple of nights, we discovered how hard that was. Sitting there in the dark, hanging onto the tiller and steering, watching the compass, time passes extremely slowly, it was cold as well. The only way I could get through it was by having one of the packets of sweets we had taken with us, (fruit gums or blackcurrant pastilles usually) rationing myself to one sweet every 15 minutes, so that the time passed in 15 minute blocks. Vigo to Las Palmas
British Yacht “Stella Mira" C/O Real Club Nautico De Gran Canaria Las Palmas, Canary Islands. Dear Phyl, This is to let you know that we are still at Las Palmas, & why. When we arrived from Vigo, we were, as you know, later than we thought. We arrived here after dark, and not knowing our way in, we were about 6 miles down the coast and had to motor sail up against a force 6 wind. In the morning we found we were taking water through our prop shaft, the bearings of which, proved to be slack. The following 2 posts are letters Sim wrote from Las Palmas in the Canary Isles.
This letter was to Sim's brother in law in Australia Dear Len, No doubt Phyl has shown you the letter in which I told her of our trip to Vigo, so I will carry on from where we left there. So now we were finally free, but with no idea where we were going to tie up our boat. We managed to get the engine started again (always a miracle when it did!) and motored around the buoy and back towards where the yacht club was supposed to be, hopeful we might find it this time and taking great care not to go between any large buoys and large ships after our last fiasco. It was still pitch black where we thought the yacht club was, so this time we motored in a slightly different direction and saw another large buoy, this time a round flat one about eight feet in diameter with bars all the way around the outside that would allow you to tie something to it.
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Penny at 19
Sim at 52
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