Puerto Calero

We have moved onto Puerto Calero in Lanzarote which we are thoroughly enjoying. It is a well run Marina and whilst it is not the cheapest the internet is quite good and free and you do not have to pay for water or electricity. It was also a safe place to leave the boat and catch the ferry to Tenerife to meet some old friends of Johns.... Bill and Margy. The marina has brass bollards which are shined with love and care each week and takes recycling very seriously. It is owned as I understand by Mr. Calero who also owns a couple of hotels in the town. When we arrived there was a lot of racing going on and in this coming week there is also some sort of world championships going on. There are also lots of boats preparing for the Arc and to cross the pond like ourselves so lots of like minded people around. We have been doing repairs to our wind generator which got bent in the storm and going through the endless lists of jobs to do! Our trip to Tenerife came as a relaxing few days when we stayed in the luxury of a beautiful villa owned by Bill's son. It really was such a complete change to the boat and we had a really good time.

Puerto Calero is currently hosting the LR 44 World Championships so it has been quite interesting watching the scrutineers check over the boats and sails. Today is the first day and there is limited wind but these boats are so light I'm sure that they will still get quite a speed. 

We have been impressed by the yard here. John went to enquire about some new Jack Stays yesterday and within 2 hours they had been made up and fitted! No Greek maybe time here it would seem!!

Graciocsa

We left Gibraltar on the 26th October... we had been there seven weeks by the time we left and would have left earlier but were waiting for the right weather window. When it arrived there was a mass exodus of yachts leaving on the same day. You have to get the time just right or the current will slow you down ....get it right and it's in your favour for 4/5 hours. We stopped off at the fuel quay having decided to fill up in Gib ... a good price 70p a litre! You get a better deal if you put over 100 litres in ..... we put 410 litres in so it was a good saving.

The wind was as predicted once we got out the Straits from the NE from behind us and good downwind sailing practice. No my favourite point of sail I have to say but John got the pole out and over the first two days we sailed for a good two thirds of the time. However the wind got up and as we got past Casablanca making our way South we put a reef in the main. The wind continued to increase and the 25 knots forecast turned into 45 knots ... we had to get the main down .... not an easy task in that wind and to be honest we left it too late really we struggled to get it down but finally succeeded. By this time we were tired, wet and not relishing the thought of carrying on with a reefed headsail in the heavy seas. John decided to deploy the sea anchor which we did no problem. By the time we had done this we both just zonked out asleep regardless of the rocking and rolling motion we had to contend with. We were perfectly safe and we got a passing ship to contact Tarifa traffic to warn other vessels in the area. One thing we did not think about when deploying the sea anchor was when the sea state would be calm enough for us to retrieve it. The wind was a consistent 35-45 knots for two days we could have sailed but with just the two of us we really did not think that we could safely get back our sea anchor. 54 hours passed before we decided to go for it and we got the parachute safely back on the boat. We had just one one minor problem... we cut through one of the lines... but we have learnt from the experience. We sailed onto Playa Francesca a nice anchorage on Graciocsa, north of Lanzarote. There are no roads on Graciocsa and just one town which is around 3kms from the anchorage. The wind was still strong, the predominantly NE wind whips down the channel to the anchorage and we were there three nights and the wind did not let up one night we had 45 knots! We put on a new anchor in GreecG .....the Manson Supreme... this was rock solid and we had no problems. It was just a shame really that we could not explore the island as much as we would have liked. 
We met First Lady a German flagged yacht who were next to us in Marina Bay in the anchorage which was good as we had both been concerned about the whereabouts of Frank, a Swiss guy on Kyory who had also been with us in Marina Bay. We had been trying to call him on VHF for a while and had no response so we were both hoping that perhaps he had gone into one of the Morrocan ports on the way over as the wind got a bit lively.

                                             Playa Francesca on Graciosa

Gibraltar

We are now nearly ready to set sail for the Canaries. Everyone we have met here in Gibraltar seems to be doing the same! We have set about working our way down the endless lists of work to be done and we are nearly at the bottom with most of the jobs ticked off….yippee!! The bottom of the boat has been checked over, the sails repaired, the window leak we had repaired and we have managed to source a few spare parts… to name just a few of the jobs sorted. Marina Bay can hardly be called a quiet marina at the moment with the runway on one side and some major works going on on the other. They are putting in extensions to the pontoons in order that a boat hotel… a very large boat hotel can be moored and we have been woken today to the sound of them pounding in the piles! However it is a friendly place and our time here has been productive.

We have also popped over the border to La Linea to source a new mattress for our bunk and it is sad to see so many empty shops and buildings due to Spain’s current economic problems. It took a long while to find the shop but we refused to be beaten asking in various shops in a good version of Spanglish for its location and finally coming up trumps in a hardware store where the proprietor pointed to a garage about 4 shops down! John went back to collect the mattress the following week armed with a couple of ropes to make it easier to transport. He then made his way back to Gibraltar doing an admiral impression of Sherpa Tensing. The journey back was particularly testing when he came to cross the runway after trying to explain to Gibraltar customs exactly what he was carrying. The wind got up on the runway and…. he very nearly took off!!

We have also had an excursion to Algerceras to see our good friend Peter who we met the very first time we came to Gibraltar. Peter is currently doing major works to his yacht in preparation for a trip to Brazil. We took the bus which was very good value and having arrived at the bus station John was gagging for a pint. It was a hot day. He strode into a café not able to hear me say as I looked round ‘ don’t think you’ll get one here’. There was a look of surprise on his face when he realised that the majority of café’s were run by Moslems so no alcohol there!! However we did manage to eventually find one where we could get a beer so panic over!