November 20 – 27, 2018 Last day in the Canaries…Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria

I’m trying to write this entry as we prepare for our passage departure for Cape Verde this morning, so it’s a bit of a rush job…

The sail over to our next stop at Fuerteventura was about a 40-mile motor passage. We were so desperate to get out of Marina Rubicon that we didn’t care if we had to swim the leg. Passing by the longest part of the island we were able to see what the guidebooks mean when mentioning the sand dunes of the middle. This island and Lanzarote are very different in that this one consists of miles and miles of rolling sand dunes and is known for its beautiful beaches. Some dolphins came out to play, and although I tried to capture them on my iPhone but only manages to catch the splash. We moored at Gran Tarajal Marina, a small marina down on the bottom of the foot of the island. It was heavenly to be in a comfy place with the quaint little town just a few hundred yards around the jetty to the golden sand beach. There wasn’t much to the town; in fact no car rental, no wifi in the marina and not even a Vodafone shop (rare!) around. As soon as we tied up a couple of young ladies showed up to greet us. One is an American, Claire, who is teaching English in the local elementary school and the other her visiting Norwegian friend, Lindie. Fortunately Claire was able to interpret for us when the marinaro arrived to tell us we could not stay in the berth we had chosen which was the only one available to accommodate our size. Whether it was her charm or lovely looks, we got to stay for three nights. Blissful non-rolly, jerky or screechy nights!  

Kundalini and crew, Zsolt/”George”, Thomas and Omar, arrived early the next morning. We were thrilled they hadn’t chosen to go to Cape Verde directly from Lanzarote.  We chose not to explore the island because of poor weather conditions so spent our time strolling, shopping, hanging out at beachfront bars and cafes and eating.  Zsolt and the guys invited us to dine aboard Kundalini on Thanksgiving night. Thomas, who is a superb chef, prepared the meal of fresh market tuna and accompaniments. It was so delicious, Frank told him we have a spot for him on Destiny. I wouldn’t mind at all although Zsolt and Omar wouldn’t appreciate that a bit. These young guys have really touched our hearts. I wish I could adopt all three of them. Gosh we are really going to miss them when we separate. 

On the afternoon of Nov 23^rd, we set off to sail overnight to Puerto Mogan on the southwest end of Gran Canaria. The trip was just ok with decent wind a fair bit of the time but we struggled with the kite. It has literally been years since we had flown our giant asymmetrical “spinnaker”, and unfortunately it is one of the few items aboard we had neglected to pull out for reconditioning before leaving port. Duh! The sail is fine, but we needed to do a lot of lubricating on any metal part of it’s rigging. Finally getting it up, our speed kicked up to around 8 knots for a while, but then night began to fall and we weren’t comfortable leaving it up during the night. There are too many wind sheers and strange currents between these islands. Getting the sucker down was a bit of a Keystone Cops job and quite stressful because we had too much wind, and each of us had one issue or another befall us in our tasks. As evening approached, large waves developed on the starboard beam and throughout the night the wind was up, up, up and down, down, down. No one slept well, but no one ever does on a one night overnight.

As we entered the port of Mogan, Judith Jacbosen, another Island Packet owner was taking photos and  waving us into our berth. We knew Judith from the IPY owners group and from OCC, so finally we got to meet in person. She gave me a quick tour of the port before their yacht set off for Las Palmas.  They are also crossing this year but not until after the holidays.

While at Puerto Mogan we drove up into the mountains and then over to Las Palmas to do a bit of shopping and to meet back up with s/v Touché for dinner. It is so gorgeous here and drastically different from both Lanzarote and Fuertaventura. We dined in a cave restaurant for lunch and noted the many homes built into the caves with great balconied facades facing out from the cliffs. We could spend much longer here but are eager to get moving across. Jim did not join us the first day out, choosing to just hang out around the port. This is good for everyone to have a little disconnection time because living on top of one another 24/7 is tough stuff. We want to remain friends at the end of this!!!

It is now 8:45 on Tuesday, November 27, 2018. We are prepping Destiny for a week-long passage to Mindelo on Cape Verde (Capo Verde to many).

I’m sighing off with a promise to post photos when we are once again back online.  

November 1 – 19, 2018 Lanzarote, Canary Islands & Being Joined by a Friend

This post might be a little boring, because although we continued to explore Lanzarote, we soon lost interest in some of the outdoor attractions due to the deteriorating weather. We are only renting cars for a week at a time about every other week in order to split the time between preparing Destiny and touring. With the time change we have limited daylight hours to drive here and are trying to drive only during the day. Driving at night is its own bag of tricks and best performed by locals and daredevils, as the roads are not lit except in the sparsely populated areas, most have no shoulder, and in many areas they simply drop straight off into lava fields. Some of the main roads serpentine up the mountains with absolutely no guardrails. How crazy is that?

The small inner harbor at Arrecife

Vineyards, believe it or not 

A defunct vineyard

We finally reconnected with our friends Mark and Laura Pitt (Sabbatical III) whose yacht is situated at Marina Rubicon. They have introduced us to their favorite places to eat and stroll within the Papagayo and Playa Blanca areas. Here are some photos from a hike with them.

This is a typical "hike"

A little beauty growing right up through the pebbles

Add caption

 

Mark and Laura

We also found a few more boat projects that needed attention and so we tended to those as parts and products became available and spent a lot of time going back and forth to IKEA where space saving products and innovation is king for Cruisers. Walking and riding our bikes along the promenade that meanders for a few miles along the coast has become a favorite pasttime. We went for a few hikes, treks really, OK walks in the rocks! The views are magnificent, digging lava stones from our shoes hasn’t been so magnificent. Our favorite spots for enjoying the dramatic coastline and the panoramic vistas are El Golfo, Mirador del Rio and Los Hervideros.

Interesting roundabouts throughout the island...

Cesar Manrique designed sculpture in a roundabout

The walk to Playa Blanca from Marina Rubicon

Looking back at Marina Rubicon from Playa Blanca

A little bit now about our Hungarian neighbor who is without a doubt the kindest, most generous young man we have met. When he told us his name, one that doesn’t have very many vowels, we must’ve looked really puzzled so he said; “Just call me George!” Right away he and Frank became buddies, although our Hungarian language skills are nonexistent and his English is spotty but improving, we manage to enjoy one another’s company a great deal. He brought us several cans of very expensive teak oil that he didn’t need after treating his own decks, and from there the gifts and generosity continued to flow. One week he had several visitors from home who prepared delicious Hungarian meals, always making enough to bring us “leftovers” enough to feed the Jolly Green Giant. One day it was Hungarian Goulash, another it was homemade crepes rolled with various sweet fillings, other times it was a variety of portions of whatever they were eating or had purchased. George will not let us pay him when he buys an extra amount of something or other to bring back to us. So, we have him over for drinks and meals and help him whenever he needs an extra hand for a job. George has already sailed around the world in a race but now he is preparing his large personal yacht for passage and has started a YouTube channel about his adventures that is subtitled in English. We love him and we love it because his adorable personality shines right through in his clever videos. His channel is called Kundalini Sailing. He has a lot of fun with it, as do we. We invite you to check it out: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=kundalini+sailing

November 14^th- Jim Collins has arrived!!!! Jim is joining us for the passage to Cape Verde and then onward to the Caribbean. He is an avid sailor and is looking forward to an ocean crossing. Frank and I have always done passages alone but are now 10 years older than when we first started out and are quite happy about having another set of eyes, ears, limbs and brains for this final step across. His luggage was nearly empty because he needed the weight capacity for the bottles of single malt Scotch he brought for Frank. That is a very good way for a guest to arrive on Destiny. We had planned to take him around the island for about three days to see the sights and then head to Tenerife before moving on but once again the weather is giving us the old; “Oh, I don’t think so!” attitude. It is windy, stormy and cold but we did manage to take him up to Mirador del Rio, Cueva de los Verdes and El Golfo. He and Frank set off one day to gather fishing equipment for the passage and more junk food because every passage needs a fair amount of that. 

Jim Collins with Frank

Some of the interior of the Cueva de los Verdes formed by the volcanic eruption

Can you see the monster in the cave?

A view of Graciosa Island from Mirador del Rio

The marina continues to be very uncomfortable. Two nights after Jim’s arrival we actually snapped a dock line, ripped apart right at the dock cleat. No one is sleeping well and the level of irritation over this is about to trump the fun factor of being here. 

We are casting off this morning to make a 40 NM trip over to Gran Tarajal on Fuerteventura, the next island over, and we think we have tempted George and his two crew, Thomas and Omar to join us. Im surrounded by handsome men, what more could a woman want?

Oct 11 – 31, 2018 Lanzarote, Canary Islands

We are now in Marina Rubicon located at the bottom end of Lanzarote Island, aka The Devil’s Island. The marina is surrounded by restaurants, cafes, bars, retail shops of every kind, markets, a good chandlery, a dive shop, a laundry, rental car kiosks and of course several ice cream shops (this thrills Frank to no end). There is a lovely resort-style pool that looks very appealing but which we have been told is so icy that only the brave will attempt to take a plunge. It is beautiful and could be paradise but…our berth here gets a disturbing amount of swell and thus we have positioned 8 fenders between Destiny and the finger pier. Our neighbor is a very friendly Hungarian guy who lent us even more fenders to place between his yacht (Kundalini) and Destiny. We have all become very close as friends and berth-mates. Not much helps alleviate the sound of rubbing fenders, stretching dock lines and screeching metal on the docks. It is hellish during daylight hours. At night it is unbearable. Trying to sleep through the night has become an absolute challenge due to the constant jerking and snapping of the dock lines even though some of ours have built-in springs. On several occasions one of us has been standing or walking through the boat when a sudden jerk causes us to lose our balance and fall down or into something. I’m covered in bruises and told Frank I’d better start wearing long pants and shirts with sleeves so people wont think my husband beats me – ha ha. Thankfully we have a lot of good restaurants to choose from so I’m not doing much cooking and look forward to meals off the boat. The positive side is that at least we no longer have to Med-moor…

View of Destiny in her berth from our favorite cafe

 

arrival dock at Marina Rubicon

cool apartments/townhomes 

 Our first several days were spent addressing boat issues and doing routine maintenance (always). We enjoyed dinner one evening with friends we had met while in Agadir, David and Marilyn on s/v Blue Yonder, whose yacht is moored up the coast at Puerto Calero. Thanks to their introduction and David’s sponsorship both of us are now members of the prestigious OCC, the Ocean Cruising Club. 

We finally broke free the following week, renting a car to tour this fascinating and tragically beautiful island. The roads are surprisingly well kept and beautifully maintained as is evidenced by the numerous bicyclists we found ourselves dodging everywhere we drove. The landscape on the other hand is very uninviting; not just rocky but ominously jagged and dangerous and yet the island is full of hiking trails. We passed the strangest vineyards and farms cultivated out of the red and black rocky sand. Vines are burrowed down into the sandy ground as if they are being sucked down into a funnel in order to protect them from the high winds and harsh environment. Between the strange landscapes and interesting architecture it is a joy to drive around the island because each time we pass from one area to the next we are met with a new surprise that nature has wrought.

Our first destination on this jaunt was to Timanfaya National Park situated in the heart of The Montanas del Fuego where, in the year 1730, a massive volcanic eruption began spewing over 48 million cubic meters of lava that devastated over 200 sq kilometers of the island over a 6-year period. This shocking landscape reminds us of images of the moon’s surface. Frank said he thinks this is what the Earth will look like 100 years after Armageddon. Chilling. After completing the 14k bus tour through the park we enjoyed lunch at the Cesar Manrique designed “Restaurant del Diablo” where food is roasted on a grill built over a volcanic vented open pit. The panoramic views from the restaurant are fantastic!

Entrance to the park

Volcanic chicken!

Our next touristy day was another Cesar Manrique adventure that led us along his artistic footprint around the island, stopping first at the Monumento al Campesino, the “Peasants’ Monument” erected to honor the island’s laborers whose handcrafts are still taught today in the adjacent visitors center and museum. There also happens to be an impressive and beautifully designed restaurant in the complex that serves delicious local Canarian cuisine. Of course we stayed for lunch before moving on to the Fundacion Cesar Manrique. This was one of his two homes on the island built into the lava fields. This one is very literally built into the multi-level volcanic formations, incorporating large air pockets and lava tubes in such a way that the house flows along with the natural flow of the lava, forming lounge rooms, bedrooms, terraces and very cool tunneled passageways throughout, ending in a paradise that surrounds a pool. His architectural style accommodates the formations rather than the other way around. Within the home is a gallery of several of his works and information about his Foundation that strives to preserve the island.

at the Foundation

Cesar Manrique's home at Haria

Cesar Manrique's home at Haria

Frank discovered that Lanzarote has a golf course about 15 miles from this marina, and quite close to Puerto Calero so we made a drive by one day on our way to visit David and Marilyn for dinner. It looked OK, rather rough and rugged but we wanted to be able to say we played golf in a lava field so we booked a tee time for a few days later. I had just begun golf lessons this past summer barely finishing before we returned to the boat, and had not yet played a full 18-hole round. The driving range is laid in volcanic stones, rather unappealing and weird. The course is bizarre! There is some grass, but strictly along the fairways with no out-of-bounds area, so a ball that doesn’t make the green goes into a pile of lava rocks and often completely out of site. We got hit with two gusty and very wet storms while playing but we persevered noticing other players bailing out completely, and in spite of not playing very well we both had a great time and laughed a whole lot!

a home on the golf course

the trees separate one fairway from another

view of the golf course from the entrance road

One of the tee boxes

 Continuing the Cesar Marique theme, which is nearly impossible not to do here, we spent a day driving up to his home and studio in Haria.  After I snapped a couple of pictures of the living room I was quickly approached from two sides by angry docents waving arms and telling me we were forbidden to take photos, OOPS! His studio is housed in a separate building and has been left as it was on the day that he was killed in an automobile accident on this very island. After visiting this home we headed over to Lago Mar, another absolutely marvelously designed home by Manrique. Omar Sharif owned it for one day before he lost it in a Bridge Game. What a terrible shame! This home is unbelievably beautiful, sexy, avant-garde and one that you can imagine a movie star owning and throwing lavish parties for all the beautiful people in his life.

Lago Mar

Lago Mar

Lago Mar

Lago Mar

Lago Mar

One of two pools at Lago Mar

One of many staircases at Lago Mar

One of the garden areas at Lago Mar

The other pool area at Lago Mar

El Golfo  

Time to end this version…it’s getting too long and I want to include photos.

More later!