For the best reading experience, read the chapters in order.

This is a short chapter about our planning to get to the starting point of our trip across the Atlantic, Puerta Calero, Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain.

Sunday, January 2, 2022

Dennis and I booked our flights to Lanzarote. We will fly out of Boston on Monday, January 24 at 9PM, arriving in Lanzarote on Tuesday the 25th at 1:05PM with a short layover in Madrid. The plan is to meet up with John, who will arrive in Lanzarote on the 20th and do whatever needs doing to ready Avocet for departure. Avocet is on the hard awaiting John’s arrival. He has an insurance survey scheduled, he wants to test out the autopilot and the watermaker, I’m not sure if they are new, re-built or he just wants to test them after sitting on the hard for a few months. We also will use the time to provision the boat.

Saturday, January 8, 2022

Our Brother Steve and his son Victor are meeting us in Lanzarote. Steve and Victor live in Madrid and are making the trip to see us off. Because of COVID, I haven’t seen Victor in almost 3 years. Steve, I saw in October for the unfortunate occasion of our father’s funeral. Steve booked us a 3 bedroom villa in Puerto Calero, Lanzarote, a short walk from the marina where Avocet will be moored. Steve and Victor will be arriving on Wednesday the 26th and departing the following Sunday. So, we should be able to help provision AVOCET and have some quality family time.

Sunday, January 9, 2022

I am having my daughter, Caitlin, set up a Zoom meeting for tonight to go through any questions, concerns and expectations that we may have for our upcoming trip. I hope to get a grip on what we need to pack, answer questions on expected weather, ascertain what gear and safety equipment we may need as well as get John’s opinion on whether or not I should buy an In-Reach personal SOS communication device.

Monday, January 10, 2022

Dennis, John and I had a ZOOM meeting last night and reviewed the trip.  It was a productive meeting, we talked about provisioning, gear, packing and other expectations. John informed us that he has tested positive for COVID. Jens did not take part in the Zoom meeting, John said he was unsure of his status, and he wanted to be sure that Dennis and I were okay with just the three of us doing the crossing. We are.

Update: John texted that Jens is a go, which is great.

2 weeks until our flights to the Canary Islands. The countdown has begun.

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

I am thinking about using the trip as an excuse to get a small laptop. I can use it to write this journal as well as storing movies and music for the trip. I first thought that I would look into a Chromebook, but my son Shane shut me down on that- “they suck, they are like a large tablet with a keyboard”. I thought, well that seems like exactly what I want. After a bit more thought, I do want something with a Windows operating system, not google OS. So the search begins.

12 days until departure.

Tuesday, January 18, 2022

Less than a week until we head out. I am now writing this on my new Lenovo 14” laptop. I’ve downloaded a couple of movies and plan on doing a few more. Music will follow. 

I started a list of stuff to bring with me, it’s not too bad, about 70 items, including everything from socks, underwear, foul weather gear, Man Overboard (MOB) device, toiletries, medications, passport, towel, sunblock to proof of vaccination. It all has to fit into a medium sized duffle bag and a large-ish waterproof backpack, I think it will.

I also bought a vacuum sealer. The first couple of days in Lanzarote we are planning on making and freezing as much food as possible. A vacuum sealer will be great, we make, chill, bag, vacuum seal and freeze the food. The sealed bags will take up a lot less space than foil pans, and, unlike the foil pans they won’t leak all over the cooler as they slowly thaw; hopefully this plan works out.

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Earlier this week John sent a link to us about how the Canary Islands are suffering through clouds of dust from the Sahara Desert, looks like air quality and visibility might suck a bit, here’s the link:  https://www.guidetocanaryislands.com/intense-calima-historic-proportions-affects-canary-islands-moment/?utm_medium=website&utm_source=mail&utm_campaign=bottom

Yesterday I took a Personal Float Plan that Chip Gavin, a longtime sailor friend, sent me to use as a template, and I made it my own. I also sent it to Dennis to do the same. It was a great help, all that information in one easy to read and understand place. Thanks Chip, it was extremely helpful. I printed a copy and emailed Colleen a copy of mine. 

6 days until departure and counting.

Thursday, January 20, 2022

John is in Lanzarote, I saw a Facebook post that he has already befriended a couple from another boat. It looks like they are going to delay their departure a couple of days so that we can sail in tandem.

I rented a car that I will pick up at the airport in Lanzarote on Tuesday afternoon and Steve will return it on Sunday morning. 

4 days until departure.

Monday, January 24, 2022

The day is here. I’m meeting Dennis at the airport at around 7PM for our 9PM flight. 

I’m almost packed, I still have to put my clothes together and put them into my, not so fancy, new, quite large L.L. Bean duffle bag that I bought yesterday. The medium one I was planning on using may have worked, but it would be like putting 50 lbs of stuff into a 30lb bag.

Hopefully the day goes without a hitch. I spent way too much time last night getting the needed COVID QR code from the airline. Just a couple of words on Iberia Airlines’ website, it sucks. There is no excuse for how bad it is. This is not a new revelation, I have been traveling to Spain regularly for 30 years, my brother Steve and his family live there and we have been fortunate enough to have visited him often. Their website is very difficult to manage, I was allowed to go on their site to pick my seats, and do an online check in. After spending 20 minutes filling out all of the forms, passport info etc, you are then told that you have to check in at the airport. This pisses me off, not only because of time lost, but, I paid extra to be able to choose my seats ahead of time. In addition to that, some of the online forms, though translated to English, the drop down multiple choice answers were in Spanish. Fortunately, after many years of DuoLingo, I could muddle through with my rudimentary Spanish.

Okay, back to getting my shit together.