This is my island in the sun

Warm, sunny Islands. Coconuts hanging on Palm Trees. White sand and crystle blue seas. Cheap beer and good company.  Paradise??? Yes. I think it very well could be!

Our first taste of Paradise came in the form of Lanzarote. We had a good sail there from Morocco. It took four days (our longest consective time at sea so far) and we arrived safe and sound without any problems or excitment (of the bad braking variety) to complain of. At 4:00am on the 13th April we dropped anchor in a little natural bay in Puerto Naos, just outside the captial of Aricefe.

From friends I had always heard it be refered to as 'Lanzagrottie' but this was so far from the truth. It was super clean everywhere (More litter collectors than i have seen anywhere) and the weather was beatiful - between 25 and 30 degrees at all times - and the warmth lasted long into the evening. The volcanic rocks that the island is made up of were still radiating warmth enough to be in t-shirt and shorts at 9:30pm at night, this made it perfect weather to take out our BBQ for its first trial run on the first night. To date it has just been sitting in the back cabin being longingly looked at every now and then by Jarvis. I think the Australian DNA for BBQs runs deep.

With so little time on the Island before moving on we booked ourselves on a little tour of the South part of the island for the day. It was really good; great value for money, informative and let us see all the main attractions on Lanzarote, but one day was definately enough time to spend in the 'tourist Zone'. Being ushered around like cattle and frowned at if we went over our 7minute allotted toilet break. Tours defintaley have their positives but this was a good reminded that they have their down sides too and that we are very lucky to be doing this all at our own pace.

We took a Camel ride up the Montanas de Fuego and got a grumpy old lady camel called Sigera who rode more like a bucking bronco than a camel but it was brilliant fun and I believe she liked Jarvis a little too much. The tour wound its way around the mountains where a restaurant topped the view as all the food there is cooked by the heat from the Volcano itself - very cool! Then down to the wine tasting valleys in the middle of the island where, obviously, we had to make sure we got our moneys worth before we moved on. All up very good but we won't be doing another one in a hurry.

The rest of the 4 days were unashamedly spent doing... nothing! Wonderful, sweet nothing. A spot of reading here, a bit of lazing in the sun there. No complaints to be had but nothing exciting to tell.

Our next stop in the beautiful islands was to be Tenerife. I havent been there since i was very little but it looked to be a good point to head south down to Cape Verde to after and we really wanted to climb mount tidie, so after checking all the weather sites (we mainly use Gribs and WindGuru) we got up at 3am (YAWN) set a course for Puerto Colon and set off. We knew to expect some exagered winds due to the channelling effects of the mountains but halfway in the predicted force 4 winds turned into a Gale, the waves were crashing over the boat and everything was coming at us head on. Not comfortable at all. We just gritted our teeth to bare it, after all the whole journey should only have been 24hours max, but we were both very sick and decieded to head for closer shelter in the form of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. With only 5 miles to go the boom broke free of the main sheet and was swinging violently across the boat above us. We had to lasso it from underneath and tie it down as best we could before any damage was had, we were lucky that the only damage caused by theforce of the swing was one spare hallard line breaking off. 

We powered into Las Palmas at 6:00am this morning and although not our original desitantion I am very glad we came here. The Yachting community here is lovely. Not too touristy but very friendly and we already have plans to go have drinks on a Norwegien boat this evening (secretly to quiz them about the crossing and gain tips). Internet is free, the beach is 100 meters away and i can see the main city from where i am sitting. As we didn;t plan to come here I don't know much about the island but our friend Mr Google will be able to help us im sure. We hear its even pretty cheap to take a ferry over to Tenerife so we might still get to climb that mountain after all.

Tia and Jarvis, Over and Out.