Lanzarote - 3rd to 11th October

Lanzarote - A volcanic Island

 

3^rd to 5^th of October

We arrived on the 3^rd at 10:30at Lanzarote at Puerto Calero. Geat Marina, great facilities and friendly people. We find other boats that also go in the ARC and also 3 other Aussie boats. The rest of the first day and second day we spend with catching up on sleep and cleaning the boat, washing etc...

On the 5^th we hired a car and explored the island. All black volcanic ash, no grass the only green are cacti and palm trees on the waterfront. Lanzarote is also a wine growing area. Each plant grows in a dug out hole with a rock wall around it. Looks like lots of work to set up.

 

By chance we came across a leaflet about a donkey race that day in the mountains in the wine growing area. It was so much fun! Not a touristy thing, but part of a festival from the local wine growers! And besides us and a couple of German people that live on the island, there were only local Spanish people; the whole event was very loud and lively. The races we didn’t quite understand, but the aim seemed to be to be able to stay on the donkeys! The local wine was handed around and some cooked pork belly pieces and in a raffle you could win a pony! The number that won was one after ours! We just missed out on travelling with a pony in the cockpit....

 

 

 

 

 

The next few days we spent having a look around the Island, having dinner with our new friends Barbara and Fritz from Germany which we met at the donkey races, more sightseeing and of course celebrating Lisa’s Birthday on the 10^th of the 10^th. Back home then on the 11^th.

 

 

Dinner at Fritz and Barbara's Place

 

8th of October: In the morning visit of National Park Timan  Faya (The mountain of Fire)...

 

 

 

 

 

...followed by a fantastic seafood lunch...

 

 

...followed by visiting the residence and art gallery of Cesar Manrique. Cesar was a local artist born on Lanzarote, studied art in New York and came back to Lanzarote to practice his art there. He put through, that after the first high riser apartment block was build, no building was to be built higher than 3 storeys on Lanzarote. It is the only one of the Canary Islands where this was put into place. His house was amazing, it is built into a lava tube!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10th of October: Lisa's 14th Birthday....

Starting the day with presents...

 

 

 

...followed by a visit to the waterpark...

 

 

 

 

 

 

...lunch: the best Pizza in Puerto Calero...

 

 

... and finally the birthday cake... Happy Birthday, Lisa!

 

 

 

 

 Barbara and Fritz came over to help celebrate and say goodbye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alicante to Lanzarote - Martina's Log 22/09/2013 - 03/10/2013

Alicante – 22^nd to 25^th September
Martina’s Log:
Arriving in Alicante on the 22^nd at 20:35. Pete came to the airport to pick us up. It was so good to see him after such a long time!

 

 

 

Alicante was fun, we did some sightseeing, the big castle on the top of the hill was great! Fantastic view over the whole area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we spend stocking up our food supplies for our trip down to Lanzarote. We visited the local markets, scampered for some Spanish words and Lisa had to leave the meat markets, she didn’t like the look of all the rabbit, lamb and pig heads in the displays! Finally managed to get all the food to the boat (you stay fit without a car!!!) and left the marina to sail towards our first stop at Ceuta on the African coast at 14:00 on the 25^th.

 

 

 

25^th to 27^th September: No wind at all until the second day, where we had the gennaker up and made good speed. Seas were mostly calm and besides lots and lots of cargo ships and fishing boats not much happening.

 

 

We arrived at Ceuta on the 27^th at 14:30. Ceuta belongs to Spain. We had a look at the old part of town, where the city walls and mote where still there from the 1500’s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We were recommended a couple of nice restaurants for dinner, but as we found out after running hungry for about 10ks through town, that NO eating place in this towns opens until 10pm!!! So hungry and annoyed we went back to the boat where we had leftovers and some BBQ sausages.

 

 

 

28^th to 30^th September:

Leave Ceuta at 17:00. The weather wasn’t that good, but we needed to keep going. Choppy sea with wind and waves coming directly at us. All of the 29^th Jack, Lisa and I felt sea sick, but poor Lisa was so sick, she couldn’t even keep a sip of water in! Our poor kids get dragged around the world on their parents’ adventures and don’t even complain about being sick. Seeing that Lisa was so sick, we decided to make a stop in Morocco to give poor Lis a break and get some water and food into her. Would have liked to stop at Casablanca, but it has changed considerably since Humphrey Bogard’s times... Big industrial harbour only, high risers, big city! So we stopped just north of Casablanca at Mohammedia, arriving there at 7:35 in the morning.

 

Casablanca

This was our first experience of clearing into a new country, with custom officials coming on board. They were very friendly, even though it worried us a bit when one person took off with our ship papers (we made photo copies since then!) and another taking off with our passports! Even though we only wanted to stay for a few hours to fuel up, we had to pay the custom and marina fee for the day, which was 24 Euro. We then fuel up the boat and made our way into town to find a bank to get some Moroccon money to pay for the fuel. It was the cheapest fuel on the planet! We changed $40.00 and got 325l diesel, 5 x cokes in a cafe, 2 baguettes, 5 sweets, 2l milk and some coriander!

Our quick stop in Africa! Nice people and we will be coming back here again!

30^th to 3^rd October:

Back on the ocean again at 17:00 and heading for Lanzarote! The sea was very calm now, so everybody was happy and not sick! The night watches were very peaceful. Between Pete, Karl and me we did 3 hour watches, which worked very well. But you have to be always alert on a lookout for cargo ships and fishing boats, last were often really hard to see as they often didn’t have many lights on and they mostly do not appear on the AIS screen (a ship identification system, it tells you the type of ship, it’s name, size, speed, call sign and where it is heading. Great help!) The clear calm nights were beautiful, lots of stars, the moon and the sparkling phosphor in the water, just like in “The life of Pi”!

 



 

 

Through the day everybody settled into the life on the water. Lots of dolphins, lots of reading (Lisa and Jack each read half a book in a couple of days!!), fishing and relaxing. The table inside turned into a chart table, we lived entirely in the cockpit. It is a great living area! Pete put the fishing line out  to catch some Marlin and Jack had one on the line on the 1^st of Oct, but it got away (Lucky fish)!

And every day ended with an absolute gourmet meal cooked by Karl! Our friend Karl from England, who came with us all the way from Cannes to Lanzarote, was not just great company abut he is also an excellent chef, who used to have his own restaurants. So we were spoilt every day with delicious meals.

On Pete’s birthday, the 2^nd of October, the day started with 2 lots of dolphins visisting us, each group  see them. And in this lots were many mums with their babies! The little ones kept perfect speed with their mothers and mums and young ones stayed together, like in a nursery. Then often they will turn on their sides, look at you and then speed off while others  jump out of the water in groups over the swell! So beautiful!

 

 

 

 

As usual, until we had finished breakfast, it was already around 11am and then Pete hooked onto another huge big Marlin, which took off with the line straight away, kept jumping out of the water, came back to the boat and we lost it.

The afternoon continued with a nice birthday cake, which I had freshly made and finished with yet another delicious meal cooked by Karl. I think Pete had a nice birthday!