Morro Jable to Las Palmas, 60nm
Saturday 9 November
We left the dock at 8, proving we can get organised when we need to, and waved goodbye to rocky Fuerteventura.
Today is a perfect day for sailing: sunny, a bright breeze and flat seas. The wind was behind to start with and we goose-winged down to the very end of the island.
As predicted the wind veered round to a more Southerly direction which gave us a beautiful broad reach in 16-18 knots and we stormed along at 8-10 knots, I even touched 12. There was sadly no need for Lily.
Mostly we took it in turns to enjoy the helming, with Greta only getting a short shift.
We had bananas for breakfast and I made sandwiches for lunch in a very flat galley. Down wind food prep is a lot easier than upwind!
We kept our eyes peeled for any whales or dolphins in a bid to keep Kevin’s son Oscar happy – apparently he’s bored of flying fish photos (!?) – but we only saw leaping dolphins right at the end nearing Gran Canaria.
We did see flying fish, lovely sheer waters and, close by, a petrel with a white band by its tail – which makes it the rarer Madeiran storm petrel. No photo of this.
There were some very fast ferries, zooming along at 30 knots – very close to our transit and definitely a reason to check behind as well as looking where you’re going! We thought how useful these would be in the Channel Islands, remembering how Sam had got stuck on Alderney when he was supposed to join us in Madeira.
Fuerteventura gradually got smaller and Gran Canaria got bigger as we stormed along.
The wind picked up to gusts of 23 knots before we were done and veered even more so we were on a beam reach in more bouncy seas as we approached Las Palmas.
Outside Las Palmas, a big port, was the usual ship park of huge boats waiting to load and unload. This is the key trade hub for all the Canary Islands.
Because of our swift passage we arrived at the reception dock at 3.30 – about an hour and a half earlier than we expected. We averaged 8 knots including all the slow faffing at each end.
I patiently waited while they filled out the endless forms (despite us booking in advance and sending them all our documents) and we saw a very beautiful crab by the visitor dock.
We were very happy to get our berth: when we came into the marina there were lots of unhappy yachts outside at anchor in choppy seas waiting for a berth – the first ARC rally to Grenada via Cape Verde has been postponed and won’t be leaving tomorrow as planned, so space is at a premium as they try to accommodate 2 fleets at the same time!
We soon got onto our berth – here you park backwards and pick up muddy line from the depths of the marina and tie it onto your bow – one of them was stuck under something and weighed a ton but we had success when we found the other one.
Everyone is very friendly, many of our neighbours are those ARC+ boats who were supposed to be leaving tomorrow and now think they won’t be leaving until Thursday: there’s a squally weather event coming through on Wednesday. Very frustrating for the food preppers!
All the winds are wrong right now, whether that’s El Niño or climate change we don’t know, but basically there should be Northerlies here (we have southerlies) and the Trade winds should be chugging along East at around 25 knots, right now there’s an eerie wind hole. Let’s hope they settle down by the 22nd!
We enjoyed a meal nearby and chatted to lots of happy sailors. We are happy too! Goodbye for now.
