Fuerteventura to Las Palmas

Geir managed to get a bad cold while in Gran Tarajal. 

Our sail to Las Palmas therefore got postponed a few days. 

The past week things was pretty dramatic at times here. Just accross from our berth the local coastguard has their station. They have been out 3 times this week resquing migrants coming over on overloaded boats from Morocco. The weather has been nice with calm winds and thats when the migrants come. 

 

Migrants at the Red Cross station

When they arrive they are met by Red Cross on the quay for registration and heslth checks.  They get bussed off to camps where their requests for assylum will be processed.

Most of them are sent to Spanish mainland or returned to their homeland.

We finally got underway to Las Palmas. We departed from Gran Tarajal late friday (19.11) and sailed over night the 78 NM to Las Palmas. We arrived saturday at sunrise. 

We anchored just north of the marina. We were promissed a berth in the marina from monday - as by then the fleet of 150+ sailboats taking part of the ARC race had departed.  At one point wind picked up and we and a few other boats dragged the anchor. We did a couple of new anchoring attempts in a less  exposed part of the anchorage and found good holding. We slept peacefully the next two nights. 

 

Alcaravaneras - anchorage, Las Palmas

No - that’s not Santa

 

Monday morning Geir went into the marina office where a long queue already had developed.

After 45 minutes we had received a berth and paid to stay for the next 8 days.

Back out to the boat, dinghy & motor up on deck and we sailed into our berth.

We will stay here the next days and sail straight from here to our "winter-berth" in Puerto Mogan.

Our berth is located right by Sailors bar, toiletts/showers and a coin laundrette.

So were finally couldhave all our clothes washed. 

 

 

We have had visits from our friend Per - LA7FAA - who is visiting Las Palmas to survey a boat 

he is interrested in buying. It looks like the deal might come through for him, but he says there is lots of "Red tape" when buying a boat with a Spanish flag.

Great meeting Per, LA7FAA, here at Sailors Bar

Have had a few radio skeds up to Norway around 0930Z on 18.141. Very variable conditions.

While we are in the marina even worse conditions.

Lanzarote to Furteventura

 After 7 days in Marina Rubicon we filled up water and diesel tanks left the the 8. November.
We motored just a short distance over to Playa Papagayo where we anchored for a few days.

Playa Papagayo

After a week at anchor we set sail southwards to the "capital" of the island of Fuerteventura,
Puerto Del Rosario. We had tried to book a berth in the marina by email and phone, but had no response at all. When we arrived we were welcomed by the harbour police and they offered us several vacant berths in the marina.

Approach Puert Del Rosario

Well moored in the marina

 We spent 2 days in the marina and did some shopping and filled up our water tanks.

The port was nice and resonably quiet, being in the town center. We paid 20 Euros a night
for the berth incl water and electricity. There was no WiFi and no showers.
But we are lucky to have a boat with a good shower both indoor and at the bathing platform on the stern. As we left Rosiario we passed this nice sailing cruise vessel.

Sailing cruice vessel

Departing Puerto Del Rosario

From Rosario we sailed 4 hours sothwards to the town of Gran Tarajal where we anchored the first night. The anchorage turned out to be pretty rolly and we didn't get much sleep through the night.
So the next day we went into the harbour marina. Again we were offered several berths and we found one well sheltered and a place very quiet, we slept like loggs the next nights.

Gran Tarajal anchorage

Gran Tarajal marina

 

The rates here at Gran Tarajal is very low. 13 Euros a night for our 12m long boat. And thats incl.
water and electricity. There are toilets and showers here, but no WiFi. But 4G signal is good.
Our intention was to sail onwards to the next port of Morro Jable, but again we have had no response
when trying to book a berth. So we decided to remain here until monday afternoon.

The plan is then to depart for Las Palmas. It's a 15 hour sail.
We have to anchor there, as the marina will be open only for the boats participating in the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers).
We are stopping there to meet our friend Lars Hedman who is there with his boat Sandvita.

 

Maderia to Canary islands

Our first destination at the Canary islands was ment to be the Island of Graciosa. The island is located to the north of Lazarote and has a very nice anchorage on the south side. Again Richardo "came to our rescue" telling us we need to have a permisson to anchor there and that you needed minimum 10 days of handling time. So Graciosa was "out" for our part this time. We might try to go back up there later.

 

We then tried to book berths in alternative marinas, but they were all full. We phoned Marina Rubicon located in south Lanzarote. Initiately they were full. We said that was too bad, as we had been there before and would love to come back. Well, a few hours later we had an email saying we were welcome to come and stay for a week. 

We left QuitaDoLorde just before noon 22nd October for 280nm sail to Lanzarote. We had a good berth from ENE mostly 15-20 knots. Waveheight from 1.5 to 3 meters into our port side. We motorsailed with reefed sails and the electronic autopilot during the night in order toa get some sleep and using more sails and the Hydrovane during daytime. 

Being one day early we anchored at Playa Mujeres in the afternoon the 24th, just east of Marina Rubicon. It was a very nice anchorage that we want to return to after a week at the marina. 

We had a great welcome in Rubicon and were directed to a good berth at the L-Pontoon. We might have to switch to another one in a few days as this one is mainly used for catamarans. 

Marina Rubicon, Lanzarote

Another picture from Marina Rubicon

 

Happy boaters  😉

Leaving Porto Santo for Madeira - complications

After a month in Porto Santo we got ready to leave. Visited the marina office and paid 122 Euro, which is a very cheap rate. We wanted to spend the last day at anchor at the beach outside the port. 

When trying to lift the anchor we discovered it had got tangled up in a nearby mooring and we had no luck trying to untangle it. 

We had two neighbouring yachts, with Gio on catamaran Buzio One and Richardo on Catxito a Benetau 58. Both rushed to assistance. Richardo an experienced free diver and he managed to uncouple the mooring from the bottom slab. We then lifted the whole mooring and our anchor chain into our dinghy and got it all untangled. After we lowered the mooring again and Richardo went down 7m and connected the mooring back onbthe concrete slab. 

 We thanked them both our fullest, but they both said they saw it as a fun challenge and a welcome break for a quiet de at anchor. So we finally could lift our anchor and go outside to anchor at the beach. We both had a good swim and a good dinner before going to bed. 

The next morning we set sail for Madeira. We had an email from QuintaDoLorde marina welcoming us the stay there a few days. We thanked them and later the same day we had an email from Funchal marina, saying they had a space for us, but we would have to raft up on the outside of other boats. We thanked them - no, first of all as rafting up is a hassle with ropes, fenders, risk of moves and difficult going ashore. In addition we have plans to visit there in april. Besides going to QuitaDoLorde was very nice as we had purchased a new propellor and a maintenance kit for our dinghy outboard. The Suzuki dealer wasn't far from there.

Quinta Do Lorde marina

 

We arrived the marina in the afternoon. Its just 6 hours sail from Porto Santo. The marina and the area around is a tourist complex looking very nice, but they had gone bankrupt and there wasn't much activity there. But Captains bar had cold beer and we had a decent burger meal there.

Your's truely at the Captains bar

 

Tomas from Suzuki came down to see us bringing the new propellor and the maintanance kit. Our old propellor was no use at the safety rubber had broken and it would only give us slow speed. 

We had also discovered the battery for our shortwave radio had broke down. One of the cells was'nt working. We visited the local chandler - and what do you know - he had just got in 4 used AGM batteries. 3 of them were in perfectly good order. The 4th had a broken cell. The owner had decided to buy Lithiums. They were axactly the same physical size as the old one but 120Ah (even better then the old 100Ah one) I tested them both, and they both charged up to 13.8 VDC. 

On our final day there we met Richardo and his family. They had come to the marina the day before.

Time to leave Porto Santo

we have been at anchor for nearly a month and it's time to leave. There are many yachts this year going south from the Iberian peninsular and most of them sail via Madeira. probably because of fear of being attacked by Orcas. So ports are very busy and finding a free space on a pontoon in marinas is difficult. We are on a waiting list in Funchal, but we have a berth reserved for us at Quinta do Lorde marina, just east of the port of Canical, both located on the eastern tip of Madeira. will be nice to do our laundry, clean the boat inside and outside. Top up batteries.

Arrived in Porto Santo (Madeira)

Finally arrived in Porto Santo. The trip was uneventfull bordering to boring ;) I guess sailing to a destination you have been to before, lowers the challenge and the exitement. The weather enroute was mediokre, wind was a little too light and speed had to be increased using motor at times. Normally we sailed best during daytime and the windvane did all the steering. Night time motorsailing. Surprisingly there was a lot of shipping traffic. And we had to give way twice. So sleeping at the helm was not recommended. Although we did sleep - but in short periods. Arriving at Porto Santo we went straight in to the anchorage inside the breakwater. Lots of boats already anchored there. At our first attempt we did'nt find a good holding and drifted to close to another vessel. We then moved to another spot further north and found good holding and good swing-room. Next contacted the marina and sent them our covid vaccine certificates. They need to be authenticated before we are allowed to come ashore. Hopefully we will do so tomorrow. We have cold beer in the fridge and Grete has prepared a nice dinner for tonight, baccalao. No one makes baccalao as good as she do. We plan to spend a month here - and will start stripping our broken down teak deck. Plan is to get that done and apply Kiwi Grip deck paint. We got hold of paint online and it was sent to us at the marina in Cascais. Grete & Geir

On our way to Porto Santo

We departed Cascais Wednesday afternoon. We had just received a parcell of tools ordered online, filled our tanks with freshwater.
Maintank and 2 jerry cans filled with diesel. Diesel is getting very expensive. 1,65 Euro per litre.

So far we have been sailing and steering by our trusted Hydrovane wind rudder.
It needs correction quite often as it will veer of course slightly. On a longer voyage 1000 nm or more you can accept
drifting of course and longer intervalls between ajdustments. But now our voyage is less than 500nm.
Adjustments at night time gives us less time to rest/sleep. Yes - we do sleep on watch.
Our AIS system is keeping us safe and decides how long sleeping periods we can allow to do.
Usually we have napps of 30minutes or max 2 hours.

So the Hydrovane is used at daytime and the electric autopilot at night time. The autopilot draws from 4-6 Amps,
so in order to maintain the battery capacity we run the engine at just above idle speed. It also helps with a half/one knot extra. Charging is also pretty good from our wind generator and at daytime solar panels.

The weather is perfect. We have winds constantly from the north at 10 to 15 knots, meaning 130 degrees into our starboard side.
Speed is averaging 5.7 knots. Looks like we will arrive Porto Santo early morning on Sunday the 19th.

We are both feeling well and the boat is performing excellent. We have a Danish neightbour 10 miles off our port side.
S/Y Hennessy also bound for Porto Santo.

Grete & Geir