Gran Canaria

We decide not to stop of at Las Palmas on our way to La Gomera as we have heard from so many people that it was a dive and the water water disgusting. We stop off on the north west of the island in a place called Puerto de las Nieves for a few days.

Well after being in Lanzarote for a month ( which is totally commercialsed ) it was so good to come somewhere quiet and beautiful. Unlike Lanzarote which was Baron, the island was lush and green and the anchorage was really nice. We went diving on the first day and there were loads and loads of wicked fish and the water was so clear. We went on ( what was planned a little walk ) and ended up on a few hour hike in between the valleys. The walk up hill took about two hours, but was probably one of the nicest walks we have ever been on, the scenery was to die for, ramblers would love it!! Anyway we found a secret way down, which got a bit hairy and low and behold it took about three minutes, how can that be possible ?

We decide to head off on the evening of Day Two and do a night sail so we can arrive in La Gomera first thing in the morning.

Last few days in Lanzarote

We all decide to drive up to Volcanic mountains and go on a guided bus tour, which was cool, but I think Chris and Sym loved it a bit more than me and Jo .I think the hour was plenty, as there is really only so much volcanic mountains you can see without getting bored. What I found cool was the bit where they cooked chickens and other food over a huge hole in the ground, and the heat was immense. The chickens looked gorgeous.
We spend the last night in a really nice restaurant where Lili eats her favourite dish spaghetti. They all get ready to leave for their flight home, and we are sad to see them go. Hopefully they can come visit us in the Caribbean. The time Lili actually learnt my name ( calling Sym ssssssssssssss) it was time to leave.

Bad luck day

After a few days we all fancied Chinese. We found a buffet style one, which im really not that keen on but it was cheap so we thought we’d give it a go. Well everything on our plate was cold, gross!! We complain to the staff and are left waiting for about 10 mins. Not that we mind cos at least we get freshly cooked food. Well at least that’s what we thought. The waitor came back with my plate of mushed up food which he’s just microwaved . We could not believe it, we said we did not want to eat that not to worry and asked for the bill which came to 16euros for three cokes.

Later on, we return to find that our tender and engine has been stolen. Great. It was actually the first time that Sym had locked it up with the padlock in ages. We go and report it to the police who claim that on an average per year 1 boat is stolen. Can you believe our chances. We have to Kayak back to our boat and go to be gutted.

The next day after spending hours sorting out insurance we are walking out of the police station when, I look over to the lake behind the police station and OMG its there. Our boat is moored up to a bloody buoy with all the local fishing boats. We could not believe the cheek of it, about 100 yards from the police station, and they had not even bothered rubbing our name off the side.Well we run down the jetty , wade through the muddy water and steal it back. The b******s had used all the fuel so we row it back a couple of miles back to Quartermoon.
We are so lucky to have found her and am so glad we did not have to fuss around getting quotes for the insurance, it would have been a major pain in the backside.

My sister Joline, her hubby Chris and my beautiful baby niece Lili have booked to fly out to meet us on the 20th November in Puerto de Carmen so we leave Playa Blanca in the morning to sail around to the anchorage.
Well it ends up being a night mare. The supposed anchorages don’t really exist. There are no other boats to be seen and they are completely open to the sea. We ask this dive boat where we can anchor and he tells us to go just in front of the next beach. The water is so clear that when we are dropping the anchor, we see an Angel Fish as clear as day. It was wicked. We settle down, happy that we have finally found somewhere ( only in settled weather, if the wind picked up, we would be totally exposed and have to move ) when the police show up and tell us we have to move. Gutted. The only other option we are left with is to sail up to the capital Affecife where there is a proper anchorage. We get there just before nightfall and drop the hook.

We figure that we will stay anchored here for the week and hire a car or catch the bus to Puerto De Carmen to visit my family. After a bit of a crappy day its all worth it when we get to see our family. Its been 4 months since we’ve seen them in Britain, so we all go out to a restaurant for a nice meal and a good catch up. It was wicked to see Lili , I don’t think she remembered who we were but it did not take long.

We spent the following few days catching the bus in the morning, meeting them in their hotel and lounging around the pool. We were a bit paranoid at the start just in case we got thrown out , which would have been quite embarrassing, but after a few days we chilled out cos all the staff thought we were staying there full time. Ha Ha.
Lili was brilliant in the water, she actually liked being splashed and having her head ducked under the water, which I found nuts, but she has been taken to swimming classes since she was born so I guess she used to it by now. Every time we got out the water and settled down on the loungers she wanted to go back in the pool. It even had a Jacuzzi there which was lush.

Lanzarote Part Two

Anchored up in Playa Blanca outside Marina Rubicon – Me and Sym quite smoking!!!!

After Menna leaving we decided to stay put for a few days to wait for my family to arrive. In the mean time Sym went to see the dive centre and booked in to do his first aid response course aswell as his rescue diver ( in order to complete his dive master to find work in the Caribbean )

During this week we met solo sailor Simon “Boo” from Yacht Doris from Brighton who introduced us to Lauri (Australia )and Annina (Finland) from Aliisa, and Marcus and Jess from Veracity from somewhere in England (sorry cant remember), and Simon’s mate Cool Crewey who came to stay aboard Doris. As you can imagine the next few days involved a lot of drinking and partying aboard everyones boats which ended up being great fun. We took in turns cooking food on boats, Tapas on Quartemoon and pancakes and fried rum bananas on Veracity and the famous Tuc biscuits and laughing cow on Doris ( Simon tried his best bless him but his cupboards only consisted of chocolate , biscuits and crackers ) so we did not get much choice. After chatting to everyone we decide to go to Cape Verdes and cut the Atlantic crossing into two parts instead of leaving staright from La Gomera.

Sym completed his course over the next four days and I made my self busy, cooking, shopping, sunbathing and snorkelling etc. We then decided to go into Marina Rubicon(which Sym really did not want to have to do cos the staff were so rude) to fill our tanks up with water.

While I was lifting up the anchor Sym decides to come up front to give me some advice of a different “ better” method of bringing up the anchor. Even though I was doing just fine!! One second later, oops blood everywhere, he had only go and crushed his finger under the chain and his finger basically exploded – it was gross. He was in so much pain, I surprisingly very cooley drove Quartermoon onto the fuel pontoon . Then Sym caught a taxi to hospital while I stayed aboard Quartermoon. Half an hour later he was back, fully stiched up and bandaged. The doc said he had to go back everyday for a week to have it dressed!!!! Nightmare!!!!

Arrival in Ile De Graciosa

After our two day crossing we stop off at this tiny island for a day or so before heading to Lanzarote. We arrive third out of the three of three boats ( including Starblazer and Ayesha )and Sym goes on and on and on forever about how he did not trim the sails that’s how we lost!!

We arrive in the calm secluded anchorage, dive in the water and Me, Sym and Menna swim to Ayesha and have a liquid breakfast. After celebrating our crossing we go back to Quartermoon eat some Tapas and go and sun bathe on the beach. Poor Menna all she’s been wanting is a bit of Sun so she does not have to return to England white and we arrive and it’s overcast and drizzly. We came to the conclusion that Menna was jinked with bad weather because as soon as her plane arrived in Madeira it starting to rain and did not stop. This was the first rain we had since leaving England.
Anyways we decided to take the tender ashore and go and have a nice meal. Well in Menna’s opinion this was the worst night of the whole trip (even including the two days crossing she had just done). We had a shower and dressed up in our glad rags, and Sym takes us on the two minute tender ride. Ha Ha,It ends up taking 45 minutes, into the current and wind; the waves are crashing over our boat. Well Menna may as well of jumped in she was that wet and cold. We spend the next half an hour in the toilets drying off, thank god for the hand dryer. It ended up being a wicked night, had some really good food washed down with some lovely Rioja and the tender ride home was fine.

The following morning Menna decides we should leave for Playa Blanca as she is desperate for sun and the beach as she only had three days of her holiday left. We sail the 35 miles and drop our anchor in Playa Blanca.

We all spend the next few days chilling on the beach, and the weather is perfect. The beach is beautiful as well but by god it’s definitely the touristiest place we have been to in a while. We ended up craving for a fry up and there was so much choice. We sit in this place for breakfast next to a man with a pint in his hand covered in lovely tattoos; it was honestly like a scene out of the series “Benidorm”.

We went out for a wicked Chinese where we were given free shots at the end with porn in the bottom of the glasses. Classy I know, we were so surprised cos it was a family restaurant. I’m gutted I did not think of nicking them like our friends Aliisa.

We had a awesome time with Menna and we were gutted she was going, she adapted to the boating life really easily even though the sailing trip was not very nice at all she was brilliant.!! Menna left on the 9th and the day after we both decided to quit smoking. Firstly cos we’ve been wanting to for ages and also because we figured out that to do the Atlantic crossing we would have to go into a shop and buy over 3000 fags. How embarrassing!! So we are not officially non smokers!