Tuesday 3 November
Marina Rubicon, Lanzarote to Puerto del Rosario Fuerteventura, 23 nms
Sunny with light airs today, but enough to sail with, so off we go South to Fuerteventura.
First we filled up with diesel at the Rubicon marina before we left, including our 3 x 10L jerry cans for the crossing – we figure that if they are going to leak we’d rather know now before we set off.
We went inside the island of Lobos and found a wind hole so we had to motor briefly, but with the wind mostly against us we had enough to sail on and made 5 knots in around 6 knots of wind. That’s what’s so special about La Bamba, she doesn’t need a lot to have fun.
It was lovely to be back on the water and although I still feel rubbish I am a lot happier and was able to be useful for a change.
We had the stay sail up as well at first but as the wind swung round ahead of us we just sailed on main and Yankee.
Flying fish whizzed out of our way and we enjoyed the shearwaters’ graceful flight.
We glimpsed some dolphins but they were far too busy fishing to come and play with us.
The wind was dying and there was a bit too much swell to anchor in so we pulled into the somewhat industrial harbour of Puerto del Rosario. There was a strange cloud that dropped about 2 drops of rain:
There was no reply from the marina office so we tied up to the free hammerhead and the boys had a beer followed by a swim.
I noticed a crab and lots of fish in the harbour.
I tried to go to the office to pay and do paperwork, but a friendly policeman spotted me and told me the office was closed, so that saved me a half hour trek! He then used his card to let me back onto the dock – I asked him how we are going to get back in if we go out to dinner & he said we can just call the police and they’ll let us in! That’s a first!
We found a very good restaurant, Luma, and drank some very good Lanzarote wine. We spoke French to the waiter, which made things a lot easier!
I paid the next morning (took a while) and noticed the quantity of public art on display.
Another enormous cruise ship replaced the one that was here yesterday. We’re not sure what they do here and they did look a bit dazed drifting through the town.