Back at anchor

Nic's back from his dental visit to Ibiza and we are now back at anchor. At the moment we are just outside Puerto de Mogan because we are waiting for some repaired Raymarine instruments to arrive for us here. In the meantime we are enjoying the lovely settled weather. Next stop Tenerife.

Puerto de Mogan, Gran Canaria

London

We are now back in Gran Canaria after our visit to London for Angela's wedding. The day after our return, Nic had a major problem with his teeth and flew to Ibiza yesterday to see his very good German dentist. I am here in Puerto Mogan until he returns next Thursday.


More pictures at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/Ironylondon/AngelaPaulSWedding

On to Gran Canaria

After 2 nights at anchor, we set off yesterday morning for Puerto Mogan in Gran Canaria. We arrived early this morning with a Guardia Civil escort into the marina; they obviously thought we looked dodgy! The passage was uneventful apart from a sunset show from a school of dolphins last night. We are now tucked into our marina berth and concerned about our departure next week as there is no maneovering room at all to get out, we can practically shake hands with the boats on the opposite quay; should be interesting! Our flight to London for Angela's wedding is tomorrow morning.

Canaries at last

We left Rabat for Gran Canaria on 30th September. It was much later in the day than intended but various things conspired to delay us... We went to pay our bill in the office only to be told they didn’t take credit cards, the first we knew of it, which necessitated a long walk into Salé for a cash point machine (the bonus was a final stop at the patisserie shop there for some essential provisions! It was also the first day of operation for the new fuel quay which made for an interesting time but we were eventually following the pilot boat out into the Atlantic about 4pm.

After motor-sailing in light winds for longer than we had hoped, we finally settled into a good downwind sail. We had obviously been in the marina for far too long because it took me almost 48hrs to get used to the Atlantic roll, even Nic felt it a couple of times. With the sliver of the new moon ending Ramadan only briefly appearing, the nights were inky black but stunningly star-studded and the whitecaps were aglow with sparkling phosphorescence. The only downside was the cold which certainly didn’t feel like we were sailing south. I was wearing my ski trousers!
Frequently logging between 7 and 8 knots when I had passage-planned at 5, we made good enough time to make an unscheduled stop off the southern coast of Lanzarote on our 4th morning after covering 530 nautical miles.

We anchored off a series of lovely sandy beaches and coves in a nature reserve. A long walk ashore was very welcome as were a couple of indulgent ice-creams in the picturesque beach bar.