Alcedo Blog, 2/07/2013, 28.12.44.N 14.01.59W. Gran Tarajal

Alcedo
David Batten
Wed 3 Jul 2013 19:50
We had planned to stay one more night at Gran Tarajal, but ended up staying for two. On Monday morning, the Port Capitan was back on duty, along with a port security guard that David has nick named "jobs worth". There was no way we could stay where we were, if the wind blew (as it had been), it would be "catastrophe", the boat was too long for the pontoon, (undoubtably true) and we must go onto one of the berths stern to the harbour wall with an anchor out to hold the bow. We were more than happy to oblige and even with the wind on the beam, succeeded in
arriving stern to with anchor well out on the windward side in good Mediterranean style. As the wind can blow from the west as well, we put another one out on the other side, plus 4 bits of string to the pontoons on each side. This seemed to take all morning before everyone was happy with the arrangements and we then spent some time in the afternoon with Peter, a single handed yachtsman on a tidy Doug Peterson half toner, who helped us by catching lines yesterday and today. Well behind with the jobs list and well secured, we decided to spend another day here.

Gran Tarajal has a pleasant atmosphere, excellent shopping with three good supermarkets, fresh fish from the shop on the fishing key and a first class hardware store. We have even managed to buy PTFE tape and a set of liqueur glasses. The only problem from a yachting point of view is that the 'staff' are not sailors, they have no knowledge of yachts or yachting and will not even take a rope to help you on arrival and the pontoons were clearly designed for an inland waterway marina with no wind. We met a very helpful Englishman, Chris, who has kept his boat here for 4 years and who told us that the first set of pontoons broke up in the first big southerly blow, when they get a surge of a meter or so in the harbour. They replaced them with the same design and have been re-welding and re-inforcing them since. Other than the fact Alcedo is really too long for them, hence the angst, we have really enjoyed our stay here and would recommend it for any yacht of 15m or less. The other factor of note, no WiFi in the harbour, but there are good facilities in town.

Tomorrow we continue upwind towards Lanzarote.

Alcedo

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