Thursday 8 oktober 2004.
Hola amigos!!
We left you in Graciosa in our last letter and since then we have had some frightening events. We had 2 wonderful weeks in Playa Francesca when one night we experienced a storm at the anchorage. At 11pm everything was calm, a light wind from the north and no change on the barometer. Chaos entered one hour later when all of a sudden the wind changed to the SE with a strength of 45 knots. We woke up as we felt the boat moving differently and came out just in time to see two boats anchored 220 ft in front of us, bump into each other. We were afraid they were going to drag down on us but they eventually broke loose and both left the anchorage. We realized the gravity of the situation and put on our anchorwatch which will show if we start to drag our anchor. We had good holding and made the decision it would be safer to stay put than try to leave. We prepared ourselves for a long night. Eight boats left the anchorage and went out to deeper water. It took one of them 4 hours to do 2―Nm against wind and sea...
At the same time as a big 60ft yacht sent out flares because they were heading for the rocks, we saw a boat to our stern having problems in going out. The boat couldnīt face the sea and wind but kept falling off the track as it came closer to us... Then everything happend very fast. All of a sudden the boat was going between us and an Australian catamaran, Magic Carpet and the second after he hit them on their bow, he went on our bow. His dinghy rope got caught in our chain and before we got loose heīd not only bent our bowsprit but also crashed into our toerail on the Stb side several times. It was a nightmare, having a 12 ton steelboat on Elvina was not fun! Experience is what you get when you donīt get what you want! He went up on the rocks soon after and we observed our anchor was still holding and luckily he didnīt drag us with him to the beach. The wind decreased around 5 am and when it got light we inspected our damage. The bowsprit and bobstay were bent, the toerail splintered in several places along the Stb side, the lantern gone, etc.
 The damaged bowsprit. |
 The two stranded boats |
Elvina stands on the hard in Marina Rubicon, a new bowsprit is under construction and a new toerail likewise. We are taking the opportunity to raise the waterline as we have realized we are not losing weight in the near future...
 The toerail is being repaired. |
The list of boat jobs to do is marked off day by day but we are also taking time to do other things. The marina has a pool for all the guests for instance!
 Few marinas offer a pool like this. |
Lanzarote has more than sun and beaches to offer and we have rented a car for a day to look around. Itīs a lot of stonedesert but one person who has used the lava is César Manrique who's art is imprinted all over the island. Weīre not very keen on his art but his design has class. His house is a museum now and thatīs a fantastic creation. He has used the lava in a way we have never seen before. Maybe not so strange as we donīt have a lot of lava in Sweden, do we?!
 The lava stream comming into César Marique's house. |
A few weeks ago there was a Blue Marlin Contest here and 65 boats participated with a lot of fancy equipment onboard! The fish they catch are supposed to go back in the water after being weighed, marked and photographed but 2 boats came in with their fish. No Blue Marlin were caught but a huge swordfish looked small when a Yellowfin Tuna entered the stage. We canīt bring up fish like that but a small Bonito would be nice.
 Yellowfish Tuna at 108 kg. |
In the near future we will get a visit from Gunillaīs family on Fuerteventura and thereafter preparations for a loooong sail is taking place...
Have a nice fall!
Gunilla och Krister Bewert
 Gunilla's birth day was celebrated onboard Water Music. |
