Greetings from the Rocinante in La Gomera

[SteveAtSea]

Hello everyone! Let me introduce myself ...

In December I moved to La Gomera in the Canaries (I was living in Budapest, long story). A month ago (April 2014) I joined the crew of the Rocinante.

The Rocinante is a 16 meter ketch crewed by a group of Russian friends, most of them from St. Pete. Our skipper is a cat named Ulysses. The Rocinante has been traveling three years out of Stockholm to reach the Canaries. My friends are not wealthy oligarchs, which means they're ordinary Russians on a tight budget. (In other words: flat broke.)

After three years at sea, the Rocinante now needs a fair bit of repair, including fixing the rudder's hydraulics, a new mainsail, and a new bilge pump. We also intend to install solar panels and a wind generator.

We're currently based out of Vueltas in Valle Gran Rey, where we plan to spend the next year or so fixing up the Rocinante and establishing a base from which we can explore the vastness of the Seven Seas. We're already making many friends on La Gomera.

We've been earning a bit of coin by holding parties onboard the ship for groups of friends. We have a great sound system as well as two DJs onboard. Summers in the Canaries are slow but this could be a nice gig for the Rocinante once the winter Snowbirds begin arriving in the Fall.

We're preparing to set up a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to finance our first round of improvements and begin a regular Internet radio show. (Does anybody have any experience with crowdfunding?)

I've been trawling the interwebs to teach myself everything I can about sailing and repairing the Rocinante. These forums (and the wiki) look like an excellent place to learn and connect with people.

Just noticed I can include a video with this post. So I did. Enjoy!