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| Lanzarote Marina, Arrecife |
The Marina Lanzarote,
at Arrecife, was also the venue for our next crew change. With Matt
due to depart 48 hours after our arrival, and the weather forecast
being less than inviting for an excursion to sea, we decided to hire
a car and “do the island” in order that he would see somewhat
more than just the harbour and a bit of coastline. From Arrecife we
headed south to the southern tip of the island at Punta Papagayo
where we enjoyed a swim and relaxing late lunch at El Barba, one of
the cafe/restaurants on the cliff top. This was followed by a
leisurely drive up to La Caleta, a windsurfing/kite surfing venue on
the west coast, where we enjoyed an excellent dinner at the
Restaurante Costa Farmara, dining whilst watching the sun set in the
west. Ultimately we headed back to Arrecife and Kurukulla for the
night.
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| Statues at the entrance to Lanzarote Marina, Arrecife |
Next morning it was
time for Matt to depart, we dropped him at the airport and then hit
Lidl to re-victual before the next two guests arrived, Ray and
Amedeo. They were due to arrive in the mid morning of the next day.
With victuals and the next two guests embarked it was time to set off
southwards again.
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| Southern end of Lanzarote |
With the wind and sea coming from the north this
was going to be a rolling good start to Ray and Amadeo's time
onboard. Fortunately it took us only a pair of hours to get to the
bay of Playa Blanca where we anchored for the night, very close to
Punta Papagayo, our lunch venue of the previous day. Our first
attempt at setting the anchor was less than successful, we had
mistaken flat rock for sand; hence, we had to concede defeat, start
the engine, and re-lay the anchor; this time successfully. Moral,
when anchoring under sail take a careful look before dropping it!
We stayed here in the
shelter of the bay, enjoying the yellow sand beach and relative calm
(only very slight swell penetrating the bay) until late in the
afternoon of the following day. At that stage we sailed off the
anchor for the short, 5 mile, passage to Isla de Lobos. Here, due to
lack of space, we opted to motor into the anchorage. In the event we
chose to pick up one of the several moorings available, all of which
were laid for day tripper boats to use, rather than risk getting our
anchor fouled on their ground tackle. There is very little if any
unobstructed and sheltered space left in this “anchorage”.
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| Las Playitas bay at sunset |
Here
we stayed overnight but with grey skies and relatively strong winds
whistling through the rigging we were not tempted to venture ashore
and we had departed before the first of the tourist boats arrived to
claim their moorings.
Next stop was Las
Playitas, an anchorage two thirds of the way down the east coast of
Fuerteventura. This charming little village is almost a place that
time forgot. It is very reminiscent of a Cycladean village, that is
if you ignore the rather ugly (but well hidden) resort behind the
beach to the west of it. So taken were we with this little gem of a
place that we decided to stay two nights and on the second night
chose to dine in one of the two waterfront restaurants, Restaurante
de los Playas; again we enjoyed a very good meal. On return to our
dinghy, which we thought we had left well above the high tide line,
we were informed that it had been retrieved by the locals having
taken itself for a “passeggiata”!
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| Papagayo |
Well, one does tend to become
unaccustomed to tides after so many years in the Mediterranean and we
were later leaving than we had predicted! Fortunately the rest of the
trip back to Kurukulla was uneventful.
After 36 hours of sun
and swimming we set off for the southern tip of Fuerteventura via the
beaches to the south of Punta de los Molinos; sadly, despite the
relative calm of the last 48 hours, the swell was such that we were
unable to anchor off of any of the beautiful golden sand beaches and
were forced to carry on to our planned night anchorage at Puertito de
la Luz. Initially we had a variable, if only light, wind to carry us
south but at Morro Jable, the most southerly tip of Fuerteventura,
the wind deserted us and we were forced to resort to the engine for
half an hour or so; the eight mile reach to Puertito de la Luz took
two hours not the 90 minutes we had anticipated, that said, as we
approached the anchorage, the winds got up considerably from the
north west and when we anchored we were in winds of 20 gusting 25
knots that persisted for the night. Good for battery charging at
least! Notwithstanding the wind the remainder of the crew swam ashore
for a walk on the golden sand beach, I remained onboard to look after
Kurukulla, or that was my excuse anyway!
Next morning it was an
early-ish start. The alarm sounded at 0700 and by 0800 we were ready
to go. It was to be a relatively long, 55 mile, crossing to reach Las
Palmas in Gran Canaria. With the winds of the previous night I was
expecting the seas to be fairly heavy hence we all set off in
harnesses and foul weather gear. I was not disappointed! After a pair
of hours our two joiners had retired to their bunks, taking refuge
from the seas, and Christoph and I took it in turns to steer for 10
mile stretches. As we approached the harbour of Las Palmas the winds
subsided somewhat but the seas did not. Not a bad crossing though; 55
miles in 8 hours; roughly a 7 knot average.
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| En tour of Gran Canaria |
With strong winds
forecast for the next two days we again took the option of hiring a
car and touring the island that way. Not only did it give us more
flexibility but it allowed Christoph and I, on the second day, to
deposit the other two crew members on the beach whilst we got on with
arrangements for the storage of Kurukulla between end September and
early January when the trans-Atlantic leg starts. The final crew
dinner was enjoyed at the Restaurante Rustico, in Maspalomas, not far
from the Golf Course; it was excellent. We opted for a selection of
Tapas, all were delicious; they were served with care, in an ambiance
of calm, but in a restaurant full of character. The following day we
deposited the two departing crew at the airport, en route back from
the beach, after which Christoph and I settled for a simple meal in
one of the marina cafes before retiring for an early-ish night.
We opted to declare the
next day a maintenance day, undertaking laundry, minor maintenance on
Kurukulla and relaxing, only to discover it was a public holiday in
Las Palmas hence there was nothing open anyway! The following day we
headed for the supermarket to re-victual before calling at the fuel
station on departure from the marina to fill Kurukulla's fuel tank
and finally anchored for the night in the anchorage inside the port.
Life is so much more pleasant in these temperatures when clothes are
unnecessary and you can swim at will!
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| Approaching Bahia de Antequera, N end of Tenerife |
As the sun rose next
day we set off for Tenerife, this was the last of the islands we were
planning to visit before laying up. The winds were from the north and
the seas confused as we left the port. For the sake of saving time we
motor-sailed north-east before shutting down the engine and setting
off north westwards towards our destination. As we rounded the north
of Gran Canaria we were able to free off even more and were soon
surging along at 7-8 knots on a close reach, this was to last almost
to our destination the deserted bay at the north eastern tip of
Tenerife called Bahia de Antequera.
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| Bahia de Antequera, N end of Tenerife |
Close to the beach here the
bottom is stones covered by a thin layer of sand but after two
attempts we managed to get the anchor to dig in and settled for the
night; notwithstanding the blustery winds the anchor held firm and we
passed an uneventful night. Outside the bay were two drill ships and
a drilling platform each of which was anchored and lit up like
Christmas tree!
Next day we decided to
have a lay day.
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| Bahia de Antequera, N end of Tenerife |
We had the anchorage to ourselves and thus decided to
take a hike up the adjacent hills. We swam ashore and just as we
landed on the beach another yacht arrived and anchored near Kurukulla
accompanied by a “water taxi” bringing beach lovers from Santa
Cruz, neither seemed phased by our state of undress. The trek took us
up to the crest of the hills behind the anchorage and then we decided
to follow a dry river valley back to the beach. Although far from a
footpath we only had to negotiate two dry waterfalls in the process
and two hours after we left we were back on the beach.
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| Arriving back on the beach |
The sunbathers
were still there but not for long. Soon after our arrival the mizzle
started and the mixture of mist and light rain settled in for the
rest of the afternoon. We had chosen our time well! The beach lovers
soon summoned their water taxi and departed!That evening was
tranquil with a mixture of mizzle and blue sky, normal for the north
end of this island.
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| Entering Puerto di Santa Cruz, Tenerife |
Next morning we departed for the Marina de Santa
Cruz where on day two we hired a car and see more of the island before our
return to Gran Canaria. However, our first trip ashore was a shoort one by tram and to visit the world renowned town of La Laguna, a world heritage site. Impressive though the town is I was somewhat underwhelmed. It felt rather more like being on a film set than standing in the midst of history and at street level it bore more allegiance to Oxford Street than an early Spanish settlement. By comparison the tour by road was a great success. Next day we
departed Santa Cruz, heading west, crossed the island to Puerto de la
Cruz stopping en route for a swim at, what we determined to be one of
the best beaches on the island, Playa del Pozo.
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| Self at La Laguna |
This beach was a
nightmare to get down to, the cliff falls had carried away several
parts of the path, but once there it was an almost deserted kilometre
long stretch of black sand, clean and close to paradise. Oh joy. From
here we headed south west along the coast until we were constrained
to turn south east and undertake an amazing climb, up into the
volcanic mountains, to reach the more populated parts of the south
coast.
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| Church of San Bartolomeo, La Laguna |
The village of Masca had to be seen to be believed, nestling
in amongst the peaks and looking like a village the world had
forgotten! The climb was astounding, first and second gear only, with
hairpin bend after hairpin bend. The descent was slightly less
challenging but only because gravity was on our side! If there is one
word to describe the most southerly shores of Tenerife it is
“breathtaking” but for all the wrong reasons. Acres of concrete
and rock with little to recommend it, other than the ease of access
from the motorway. We stopped at Palm Mar, a development that had
been recommended, it was like a ghost town.
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| The beach at El Pozo, near Puerto de la Cruz |
Thousands of apartments
but virtually no one to be seen. We departed soon after arriving,
having stopped for a beer at the “Beach Bar”, situated on a few
hundred square metres of imported Saharan sand! Not for me.....
By 2030 we were back in
the main city of Santa Cruz, settled onboard for a late supper and
determined that we would leave next morning.
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| Crossing the southern end of Tenerife, town of Masca. |
With the hire car
returned and a few other odd jobs completed we requested approval
from Santa Cruz Harbour Control to depart and once granted set off
for the south eastern shores of Tenerife, with the initial intention
of anchoring for the night at Bahia de Abona, but the further south
we went the more unlikely this looked; the wind veered to the east
sending the seas it had created directly into the bay; for this
reason we continued south to reach Playa de las Tejitas a more
sheltered bay, protected by Punta Montana Roja, which also hosts the
refuelling system for the Aeropuerto del Sur, the most southerly of
the two airports on Tenerife. The tankers moor to four buoys in the
bay and pump the fuel ashore to the storage tanks; sure enough one
was in position as we arrived. Notwithstanding the ships presence we
were able to anchor nearer the beach but a significant swell was
rolling in on the beach from the south, where this had come from
goodness knows as we had had no southerly wind for weeks! Fortunately
the north easterly wind held us stern to swell and we were able to
enjoy a relatively stable night without rolling our hearts out.
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| Punta Montana Roja, close east of Playa de las Tajitas |
Next morning dawned
with 20 knots of wind from the North East; it was to be an early
departure as we had to cover the 50+ miles to Pasito Blanco on Gran
Canaria, our last port for this season. It was here that we had
reserved a place ashore to lift out Kurukulla for the September to
December period, prior to going trans-atlantic. A north easterly wind
meant that we were going to be on a close reach or worse still close
hauled for the trip across; c'est la vie! As we departed we settled
down on port tack making good 6 – 7 knots, almost close hauled, and
with 25 knots of wind over the deck. As the day progressed the wind
increased but backed such that by mid day we were on a beam reach
which, although faster, meant that we had breaking waves coming at us
beam on, not pleasant. After twice having the cockpit of Kurukulla
filled by a breaking waves we eventually reached the lee of Gran
Canaria and breathed a slight sigh of relief. As we approached the
island the winds became stronger, the winds choosing to go round the
island rather than over it, but within 10 minutes of reaching the lee
we were verging on becalmed, ghosting along in less than 10 knots of
wind. To have light winds was a pleasure after the previous five
hours of steering by hand to avoid the worst of the breaking waves
but frustrating given that we were keen to arrive in Pasito Blanco
before the marina staff went off for the night. After two hours of 2
– 3 knots we opted to motor the last 7 miles and get into port at a
reasonable hour; we finally arrived at 1930 where we were greeted by
the security staff. We came alongside the fuelling pier whilst they
checked our reservation, and then we were directed to our berth for
the next three nights. Thus ended the 2017 season......
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| Kurukulla ashore at Pasito Blanco |
Our task now is to put
Kurukulla to bed for the next three months and to make the
preparations for the Atlantic Crossing and for the 2018 season in the
Caribbean. She will go back into the water in late December and the
plan is to set off for Antigua on or after the 4
th of Jan
2018. Notwithstanding the after effects of hurricane Irma, Antigua
remains our first destination only because one of the crew, Malvena,
has her return flight already booked from there. After that the plan
remains flexible depending on how quickly the BVI, Barbuda, Turks and
Caicos and other islands recover from the effects of Irma.
Next blog once we are
about to depart.........
