Lolling in Las Palmas (not!)

andromeda of plymouth
Susan and Andrew Wilson
Mon 8 Nov 2010 09:01
After all the years of planning we have now arrived in Las Palmas with
only two weeks to go before the big trip – to say we are excited is a bit
of an understatement - we have been working towards this so long and can
hardly believe we are here (certainly the planning has been longer than
anything else we have ever done).

The last month didn’t turn out as we had thought in our long term
planning, for a start we decided to make a surprise visit to our family in
the UK, so after getting our new batteries installed we flew back into
Gatwick. We had a great time surprising everyone and the time flew by. We
visited a few chandlers as expected and came back with our luggage bulging
and just a little bit overweight. Once back on board Andromeda we had time
to stow it all away and get a couple of more jobs done before our planned
departure. We also caught up with Lesley and Andy from Kodiak who arrived
in Marina Rubicon the same day we returned and immediately invited us to
dinner, not only that but they also invited us the next evening too, to
help eat the bonito that they had just caught. Both meals were really
delicious and we returned the favour the night before we left again. In
the meantime we also met up with Lesley and James on Coba Libra and
Graham, Pheadra,(sorry if the spelling is wrong), Aston and Atlanta on
Nakesa and met Alan and Mary on Stella.

We left Lanzarote on Friday 5th and sailed across in company with James
and Lesley on Coba Libra. Andy and Lesley from Kodiak came round to push
us off and give us a good send off, can’t believe we won’t meet up with
them now for a long time, but hopefully it will be somewhere in the
Caribbean – maybe this time next year. The trip across to Gran Canaria was
so different from all our others as we could see other boats all of the
time – a first since leaving the France last year. After all the nights
spent being the only ones in our patch of the ocean it was very strange
and different. We were timing our arrival for office opening hours but
even though we tried to slow down we were tied up on the reception pontoon
before 7.30. We had time for a cup of tea and bacon and eggs before the
office opened and we joined the queue to book in.

Now fuelled up ready to leave again we are on G pontoon berth no. 50 next
to a big motor boat with 2 love birds in a cage on the deck. Fortunately
they do go to sleep when it gets dark so we can still have a hatch open
and get some sleep. It is noticeably warmer here in Gran Canaria, just
getting us ready for the hotter weather on the other side. We have been
and registered ourselves at the ARC office, been allocated our number –
184 – and will have our safety check on Tuesday 10.00am. We then have
seminars to attend, food to locate – the fresh and freeze/vaccum packed
stuff – and some other bits and pieces to attend to in between hopefully
enjoying the events put on here as well. Our number one priority though is
to get the charging system sorted once and for all as we appear to have
another problem with our electrics – needless to say at 9.am Monday
morning we will be tracking someone down to help with this.

In the meantime it is now time to get ready to go to Coba Libra where we
have been invited to supper – its a really hard life – honest.