With this last post we conclude our reports of the Atlantic crossing today.
Many more reports of our further travels and experiences will follow. Michael and his agency will soon give our website www.atlantic-rose.com a new look – then we can store our travel reports there for you!
After we were towed to the gas station by the fishing boat yesterday, the gas station attendant is breathing down our necks today because we occupy a third of his jetty and a small traffic jam of ships willing to fill up is slowly forming in front of the gas station over the course of the morning. We radio the marina regularly and are assured that the towing to our berth should start “in 10 minutes”. It’s been like this all morning and it’s almost 12 noon. In order to make the best use of the waiting time, we fill the diesel tank and complete the immigration formalities on a computer that is available in the gas station. The result is a printout with the data of the ship and all crew members. The gas station attendant signs the document unseen and demands 5 euros. We also use the space at the wide jetty of the gas station to bring our dinghy (the “rose”) from the deck back into the water.
Thanks to the harness that Franziska tailored on the trip (the “rose panties”), we can hoist the motor, which weighs over 60kg, over the railing with almost no problems (similar to how we did it last May with the 70kg coffee sacks) and attach securely to the dinghy. The rubbish from more than three weeks is also safely packed and taken to the rubbish bins in the port. The waiting ships are surprised that we don’t free up the space at the gas station and instead beat out our cushions and cushions on deck. The gas station attendant finally gave up and when Michael goes to buy an ice cream for us all, he avoids mentioning which ship he belongs to. Shortly after 12:00 p.m., two inflatable boats appear from the marina. We put out a line at the bow and stern, on which we are pulled to our berth with a motor boat at the front and one at the back. Andreas and Franziska are already there at the jetty and take the two stern lines. If you have to pull the ship the last few meters to the jetty with your own strength, you quickly realize what a weight of 37 tons means.
When attaching the mooring lines to the bow, everyone wears gloves to avoid cutting their fingers on the ropes, which are overgrown with shells. Only Thomas is not wearing gloves… After the bleeding finger has been treated and we are safe and secure on the jetty, we drink together the sparkling wine that has been waiting in the fridge for two days before our arrival. Now there is still a lot to organize (for example all the upcoming repairs) and clean up and we will secure the berth by January 30th. From 2:30 p.m. we also have electricity and fresh water. We use this extensively to clean the deck of the traces of the journey (scales of flying fish, for example). When the gas station attendant walks past our berth after the lunch break, we say hello and thank you again for your patience with us. Now he can laugh again! In the afternoon we also buy a shiny stainless steel chain for our dinghy to secure it to the jetty, because we are lying with the stern on the jetty and therefore cannot hang the little rose in its usual place on the ship.
With the water directly at the jetty we fill our water tank with 530 liters and thus come to about 80%. That should be enough for the next few days. We can even get the watermaker technician to take a look today – and he’ll work again in the end! We conclude the last evening with Sonja and Andreas (they are leaving on January 24th) with a joint dinner in a local restaurant. It’s Monday today and just like at home, many restaurants are closed here too. On this and also on the following three days we notice again and again that we have not yet left the marina and have not yet been swimming in the Caribbean Sea. We made up for that yesterday (Thursday) on a beach that we could reach in half an hour by dinghy and we “really” arrived here.
Now it’s time to get the machine running again and then it’s on to new adventures, which we will keep you up to date on on our new website.
Thank you very much for the many lovely feedback on our travel reports, everyone involved was very happy and maybe one or the other writer will emerge from our group…
See you soon and have a good time!