Lanzarote

Last Post for Now!

Sunday September 13

Safe in port

We are leaving La Bamba in the lovely sheltered marina Rubicon on the Southern end of Lanzarote.

I washed everything in sight
Everything gets a hose down!

We spent a few days doing the washing, scrubbing the decks and sorting some of the issues that have come up on the journey down.

Scrubbing the decks!
The vang tied onto the (clean) deck

David took the vang off so he can take back the bit that has worn for sorting in Lymington.

This bit is worn and needs brass flushings

And we have ordered a new strop for Lily that we will bring out when we come back.

Clean table too!

David has mended the worn Yankee sheet and reef 1.

Chafed yankee sheet
Protective sheath sewed on

We have some wear to the mainsail when a bit got caught during reefing which can hopefully be patched. David has also stitched up the Bimini where the zip has failed:

Excellent repair by the Captain
Out to see where we are

After seeing very few compatriots on the way down, Lanzarote is full of hundreds of English people! We are in a holiday village here that lacks any authenticity or local flavour – a contrast to all the charming ports on the way down. Yes they had tourists, but they also had locals! There are only tourists here and service staff.

Night life!
Board walks…
Lots of non streets

The waiters were delighted that we tried to speak Spanish. There are a lot of good restaurants including a great sushi place. And there are lots of clothes shops.

Very good sashimi
You know when you’re in tourist land when you see this

Most people here were eating, shopping or getting very red or brown in the sun. 

Holiday lets above the marina

On the positive side our marina has a pool which was big and mostly empty – a wonderful luxury after sweating in the sun on the boat!

Dramatic rocks
18th century tower, all that’s left of the fort defending the South coast

And we found some history in this fort above the marina, built to defend against bandits.

The marina is behind us

We go home for 6 weeks to see family until we return at the end of October for the biggest adventure of all – crossing the great Atlantic Ocean!

Very volcanic landscape

We have both really enjoyed the way down and I am still apprehensive of the mega crossing, but I am very much looking forward to the Caribbean when hopefully we will have time to pause, snorkel and get Zigzags out with less of a ‘need to get there’ agenda.

And a pretend volcano built for the Voclano Hotel!

Goodbye for now, thanks again to all our lovely crew and thank you all so much for following our great adventure, and for the comments, and contributions to poetry! We will be back in November…adios!

Much quicker flying back!!

¡Hasta luego!

David is now the same colour as La Bamba!