October

Graciosa has proved a great place to idle away the days. The same social group of boats is still largely together and the weather remains warm and settled now we are further south of the early winter low pressure areas. The assembled children were encouraged into some artistic endeavours as a part of their school curriculum and an art exhibition by the Graciosa Group was the result. The artwork was excellent and the parents had another excuse to gossip over a glass of wine! Not all the boats will be in the ARC and we can only hope to run into them again in the Caribbean or beyond.

The 'Graciosa Group' of artists

We decided to spend a couple of days at anchor in a sandy bay down the coast and scrub the waterline. While there we watched an aluminium boat towed into the harbour with huge underwater damage. It appears she was an ARC entry which had been run on to rocks off the island by a lone delivery skipper...

The children's art exhibition
The adults admiring the art and discussing the Atlantic crossing
A view of Graciosa from the south

Leaving beautiful settings such as this is always difficult but we have deadlines to keep and an eye on the weather forecasts. We sailed from Graciosa down the west coast of Lanzarote with a moderately large NW swell and a light north wind. Halfway through the trip we used the engine to assist us or we would not have made the next port by nightfall. The coast was stark and imposing. The south west corner of the island contains the volcanoes of the national park and larva fields came right to the sea.

Larval flows reaching right down to the coast
The volcanoes of Timanfaya from the sea

The numerous volcanoes were very obvious and we knew that we would have to visit them by land when we had the chance.
We tried out all our new fishing lures and gear on this trip but were not lucky. We are told that it is very simple but have watched my cousin David tow a lure for miles in the Philippines...

Punta Pechiguera lighthouse

Our destination was Marina Rubicon near Playa Blanca on the very southern tip of Lanzarote. It is a well provided, large and modern marina with good shelter but only boasts one washing machine! When we arrived even that was out of order. The setting is in a development of holiday apartments, hotels and shops which is not yet finished. It is busy and filled with pale English and German tourists. We are also next to Sunsail which can have some disadvantages when the charter boats return.

As the date for the ARC departure gets ever nearer we have been working on some of the essential maintenance that is ever needed on a live-aboard yacht. There have also been some additional safety issues to resolve.
The greatest fun has to be maintaining the heads! For those who are not nautical, the toilet in a boat is called the heads from when you sat in a seat over the bows

The toilet bowl occupies the place of honour in the cockpit
The heads in the process of being dismantled and serviced

of a sailing vessel to attend to calls of nature. Changing all the seals and valves and removing two stiff 1.5 inch pipes to remove all the calcium deposits was 7 hours hard work, but then you wouldn’t want it to block on the Atlantic crossing!

The only major jobs now will be servicing for the main engine and the generator once we are in Las Palmas in November.

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