LIVE ABOARDS IN THE CANARIES

Daddy's little girl

After a very busy trip back to the UK having seen lots of friends, visited George in Leeds, spent time with Emma at home and with my mother settled back in her home we headed back to the Canaries and the sunshine! Two days later we had our first visitor, my cunning plan of coaxing my girls to spend time with their parents over the next few years by buying them an air ticket to warmer climes paid of and we had the pleasure of the lovely George for a week. What a treat to spend quality time with her on her own, we had already had Emma to ourselves last year in Spain and loved that! Hopefully she will join us in the Spring when she has finished working in the Alps.

We spent a day in the sun in the Club Le Punto and then mindful of our youngest tendency towards sea sickness ventured an hour around the corner to Anfi del Mar and anchored in the bay. Such a lovely place and very calm,  beautiful weather so lots of sunbathing and swimming. Somehow the skipper was persuaded to buy a lilo for his little girl, a rather  questionable addition to the boat! We found a great bar for sundowners and then headed back for Spaghetti Carbanara, such a shame that the cartoon of cream I had purchased in the supermarket turned out to be Strawberry Yogurt!!

The next day we ventured a little further down the coast. Having annoyed one particular marina with my constant phone calls to enquire after a berth, its very confusing this Spanish Language of which I do not speak one word , we were unable to get one so we anchored outside Mogan and took the dingy in for dinner. It is well worth a visit with lots of lovely restaurants around the port and the weather was settled so George survived the night at sea!

The Fishermen

The next morning we were up early and set sail for Teneriffe.  The fishing rod was cast amid much excitement amongst the female crew very keen for our first catch, and we did hook one but it got away....  probably spurred on by our hysterical screams of excitement! However we had a cracking sail and made good time arriving in the early afternoon.

From Gran Canaria Teneriffe is a very impressive sight with its Volcano rising above the clouds, but as you get nearer it loses its grandeur.  Let us just say that after two nights we headed back the way we had come. The only memorable bit of our stay being my girlie day with George on a beach, reached by taxi, where we sunbathed, enjoyed a few glasses and calamari for lunch and put the world to rights with our constant chatter. Oh and a little retail therapy for mum, such a delight these grown up daughters!!

Anfi del Mar

We spent our last night with George back in Anfi del Mar and sadly said goodbye to our little girl who looked a lot healthy than when she had arrived. We spent a few more days there just chilling, working out how to use our TRX  and then it was time to head to Las Palmas to sort out the water heater.
As the ARC were in town there was no room in the Inn so we dropped anchor in the harbour as before. The next day we managed to get a berth just for the day and the Oyster Boys in Red T shirts came onboard and what a delight they were! Not only did they fit our new hot water tank but they gave the boat a full MOT and some very useful advice on future maintenance and oh what a joy to have hot water again!!!!!

We decided to stay in Las Palmas, until our berth became available at the Real Club Nautico once the ARC had left , and to spend the time working on the boat carrying out the maintenance items that had been suggested to us. We had been told that our engine and generator needed a clean, after three days of cleaning them I wasn't quite so enamoured of the Boys in red but actually they were correct they were both filthy and it will now be so much easier to see any oil leaks or problems. We also serviced the engine and I think even I could now do an oil change.  Having spent so much time working on the engine I have lost some of my fear of it, no bad thing even if my hands ended up looking like they belonged to an engineer! We also serviced all our winches and feel the boat is now fully ready for her crossing in January and I am happy to know that if I run out of face or body cream that Diesel is a very good alternative!

Las Palmas

 It was actually great fun being in town with the ARC, not only did we have the advantage of several contractors giving us a great after service but we also made and cemented some good friendships. The very wonderful Jorge, who had organised us a berth in the Real Club Nautico for December, managed to get us an early berth so we didn't have to bounce around in the harbour,  I loved him!! What  a fantastic club with such lovely facilities and charming people, we have both decided that the Spanish are fantastic, so laid back and friendly!! All in all we had a very jolly time, with only one particularly bad hangover which resulted in a day by the pool as we were fit for nothing! And of course we  gatecrashed the final arc party - well really there we were sitting on our pontoon with music blaring out in the Yacht club, it was too much, we had to put on our dancing shoes and sneak in!!

The Committee Boat for the Arc

The night before the ARC left the wind switched up a notch and by the time they left on the Sunday it was blowing 25 knots and there was a big sea running. I felt very sorry for them, having spent so many weeks in harbour anyone prone to  sea sickness was probably in for a bad couple of days, I know I would have suffered. We went out with Jorge, his brother Jose and friends to watch the start and wave them of, it was quite a spectacle watching all the boats come out of the Marina with bands playing and horns blowing. I felt quite exhilarated by it all and excited for them, while at the same time feeling very sad that we weren't going with them.

Loving this shop

The last few days we finished of our chores and I took advantage of our time there and stocked up on liquids and dry goods for our crossing. Of I trotted to  El Courte Anglais, a fantastic departmental store with an amazing food hall. The next day everything was delivered to the boat - so easy! A few problems with the language again, but then it is rather arrogant of me to come to their country and expect them to speak English, a spanish language app for the crossing perhaps....

As you can see no wine....

We have loved living on our boat again, so easy to keep on top of all our emails and our life & we do realise how very fortunate we are to be able to have this adventure! Despite the odd spate, and some bickering ,  Andrew and I have been getting on famously, it is like the old days, until I look in the mirror that is!

As the time to leave approached I kept  wondering how I was supposed to leave our lovely vessel,  she is so very special, just as special as our Sigma 33 and anyone who knew me then would now how very special that is!! I am absolutely certain that this adventure of ours is the correct thing for us to do at this time in our lives but it is hard with certain ties at home, my mothers welfare a constant concern. This trip my aunt, who is childless, was rushed to hospital and is not at all well. Many phone calls to England again and anxiety as to wether I should go and see her, happily she is improving and has many good friends who have been visiting her and looking out for her.  Having never been very driven before by any one thing in life I am only just coming to realise that if you really want to achieve, or do something special it is often necessary to be selfish. Good thing I wasn't talented at anything, I would have been a nervous wreck!!

Jorge in charge with  Jose looking on..

So we left the boat with a very heavy heart, secretly hoping that we had left our passports behind by mistake and would miss the flight!!!! However she is in excellent hands and we cannot thank Jorge enough for all he has and is doing for us in making sure the good ship Hullabaloo is safe and ready for our return in January when it will very defiantly be time to go to sea again!!