Date: 11. 11. 2019
Author: Ruben
Position: Off the Coast of Tenerife
Geographical Position: 28°19.7N 18°15.8W
Etmal: 5 miles

Today we sailed off the Quay this means we sailed of the Quayside without touching the engines once. We made everything ready to leave by getting the Fenders and the Gangway back in.

All the crew were cheerful as we waved goodbye to Tenerife and Santa Cruz. To get away from the Pier big Ben had a plan. First we needed to turn 90 degrees to the right.

So we hauled all the mooring lines back in except for the one at the stern. While this line was holding us back the front of the pelican turned about 70 degrees.

Parallel to this we set a jib and two of the square sails. We weren’t able to turn a proper ninety degrees so our new crew member Sam had to push the stern with the Dinghy to give us an extra nudge in the right direction.

Now with the wind on our back we were able to sail out of the Harbor with ease. The last thing left to do was bring the Dinghy back in.

In total it was a well executed maneuver conducted in a safe and clear manner, Captain Ben said he was “well chuffed!”

The Problems of being on Sea

We were greeted by a fresh 25 Knot breeze as we left the relative safety of the harbour.

In no time the ship’s speed went up to about half a dozen Knots. A little later we added some speed by setting the Fore gaff and the outer jib.

We hit a little bit of a swell and the Pelican started rolling from side to side which resulted in stuff getting thrown through the mess room.

What we did next:

After eating a lovely soup with Garlic bread we had a meeting about the Pelican Monkey (allowance to climb on your own) in which we discussed the contract bound to the task of climbing to the top of the mast and back again (this is the final challenge to receive the Monkey certificate).

We were also informed of the swap of A and B watches.

The afternoon

In the afternoon the wind grew stronger and hit 35 Knots with most of the Sails set we reached a new record-speed of 11.0 Knots. Though nobody noticed because everybody was sleeping. This also meant that we had waves crashing over the side.

After quite a big one rushed over deck, Mara slipped, fell and got absolutely soaked. Luckily she wasn’t injured so everybody awake could have a good laugh.

The rest of the afternoon was quite boring except for the part where the outer jib jammed and now had to be fixed. For Dinner we had Spaghetti Carbonara and some delicious Brownies for desert.

P.S. Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag, Lucky, ich hoffe du wirst heute besonders viel geknuddelt! Deine Angi