A Lady - A Lady Canaries

A Lady Canaries

A Lady

Stephen Hyde

Sat 17 Oct 2009 00:05

Tuesday 6th october 2009

Got up reasonably early and had a light breckfast. The weather was brilliant and the location matched. ohhhhh the beaches and the cliff's of Lanzarote

in the background,
We spent lots of time in the water, plus washing down and cleaning the boat inbetween. This is what the whole trip is ment to be like..

The girls spent lots of time ashore on the beech, paddling and swimming.

Lolling around, just lovely, Later we went to the harbour in the rib and who should we meet, yeah , Brenden Long and a few friends sailing on an

" Amel " those French engineer type boats. but fairly popular.. Of course we had a beer and then back to " A Lady "for roast Chicken , roast spuds, and all the trimmings ..

Late Bunks after a few scoops and zzzzzzzzzz

WEDNESDAY 7th October 2009

A very slow get up followed by a just as slow a breckfast. After some housework we all went ashore in the rib to the beach. The girls laid out their towels

on the sand and Stephen and Denis went mountain climbing, Ohhhhhh the whole place and , and ,and, feck, there are no words that can describe the

sheer beauty of this place.

Later we rented bicycles and and decided to do a tour of the island. The dirt track we started on , turned into a cliff climb over rocks and paths so narrow

that it was very difficult to negociate, especially as Denis and Stephen had to carry the bikes on our backs, HEALTHY STUFF,

All this took about two hours, passing as we did , the local dump with blazing rubbish in the middle of a national park, as this Island is.. contradiction

of ideas....?

We still cant believe that Denis,with his fabulous camera, failed to capture Stephen carrying Aileens bike over the cliff, Blast, will have to do a rerun

sometime again in the future.

Back at the town, we met Anders and Annette , The owners of Noel Smith's Farr 56, they are also doing the Arc , and round the world, but I think

not with the world arc.

Back to " A Lady " for a cold roast pork salad in the candle light on deck,, eat yere hearths out...yum yum

Bunk later after a fabulous day..

Comment;- the island was the nearest thing to a lunar surface we ever saw. and no such thing as a tarred road, all dirt tracks, but wonderfull.

Beautifull sandy beeches washed by silky soft pale blue water,, niiiiiiiiiice ohhhhhhhh so niiiiiceeeee

THURSDAY 8th October 2009

We departed this lovely Island of " Grasiosa " . We motored N.E. out through the sound to clear the top of Lanzarote and then sailed south

in a S.E. breeze down the east coast and arrived in " Porto Colero " about 15.00 hrs.... We were given a large berth once all the paperwork was completed. when we were all settled, we got a taxi over to the " KINSALE " restaurant, operated by Bob and Maura Carpentor. ( they used to have

the OVERDRAFT in carigaline and ANNALIES in Kinsale later )

Recent visitors there were , Brendan Long and friends from cork and Bernard and Helen Macassey from Adare golf club. small world.

Late back to the boat, and had to have a few more drinks in Aileens favourate building. " Her Future House " a restaurant called " AMURA ""

It seems that the King and Queen of Spain eat here when in Lanzarote,

Bunks, fairly shaggged,but feeling very nicceeee..xxxxx

ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz

FRIDAY 9th October 2009

Decided to sail down to Fuerteventura, the next Island just about 20 miles south, We anchored under the "Isle de Labos " , a little island off the north tip

of Fuerteventura, had a swim off the boat but decided not to go ashore as there was a strong breeze after building up. later we set off for

the mainland across a very rough stretch of water. After many attempts, we managed to tie up to the marina and complete all necessary paperwork.

Difficult, when we have no spanish and the Harbour Master has no english and less Irish,

We went ashore and had an Indian meal that night, ok ,ok

Early night after a tough day, BOLUXED..

prrrrrrrr

Saturday 10th

Up early. We had to be off the marina for 08.00 hrs, so got going early. the sea was much flatter and the wind ( even though much lighter ) was dead ahead, so we motored north to " Playa Blanca " on the souhtern tip of LANZAROTE .. We anchored off the beach . Stephen got working on the blog, while the rest went ashore for beach therapy and a swim.

Later we had roast chicken for dinner, with all the trimmings, in the cockpit again with candles keeping us warm.. GOD, we could get used to this easily.

Cricky , forgot to mention the avacado and prawn starters and the whole meal was washed down with some powerfull Madeira wine while we

watched Arnaud's great photo show again,

SUNDAY 11th October 2009

Up at 09.00 hrs, Stephen and Aileen went ashore to 10.00 Mass, afterwards we had an excellent breckfast in one of the french waterside restaurants,

did a little supermarket shopping before topping up the rib with fuel on the way back to " A Lady ". Later Denis decided to take the girls on a tour of the area in the rib, but when on deck, there was no rib, GONE , it had slipped its lines and drifted off,, BLOODY HELL and no sign with a strong offshore

breeze, It must have taken 10 minutes to get over the " I want to get sick feeling " before we started to think logically, where could it have gone ???

Not out to sea, as we would surley be able to see it. After a while,( seemed like a shagging eternity ) we noticed that a spanish yacht close by

had two rib's tied behind, Would one be ours ? we asked ourselves. so, lets go and find out. We raised the anchor and motored over to this

" Friend or Foe " Anyway they were great, they had our rib, ( collected it when it went adrift from A Lady ) and gave it back to us ,no problem,

Aileen gave them our best bottle of wine, Bless her little heart,

We continued then back to Purto Colero with an easy sail, we saw lots of flying fish on route and arrived around tea time.

Later we went ashore and had a lovely meal in the " AMURA " restaurant.

Again there were lots of admirers of " A Lady " many taking photo's or using her as a backdrop for photo's of the loved ones,

An interesting day.

Good night zzzzzzzzzzz