Ceuta to Puerto Calera, Lanzarote

Austins' Travels
Chris & Lynn Austin
Fri 30 Sep 2011 14:53

28:54.94N 13:42.34W

This was a 4 day trip and the longest leg of the trip.

Day One:

An early start at 0530 from Ceuta to catch the tide that runs through the Straits of Gibraltar at 4-5 knots – it would take a long time to clear the straits if the tide was against us all the way.

As we had already crossed the main shipping lane yesterday, we using the inshore shipping lane reserved for smaller ships and small boats like ours. The main excitement is the ferries crossing at right angles and at speed from Europe to Africa and back.

It was hard work for the first couple of hours as the tide was still against us, although diminishing in strength, and then it turned in our favour and we shot out into the Atlantic as dawn broke at about 8 knots with very little help from the wind or motor, passing Tangier on the way.

We cruised along the Moroccan coast and planned to stop at Rabat, near Casablanca which had been recommended to us by another yacht owner.

As we moved down the coast at night it was a very confused collection of fishing boats, unlit buoys and strange lights flashing various colours and configurations and few conforming to standard maritime codes.

So it was a stressful night which included  a very lucky escape when we ran right across a net strung between buoys – I don’t know how we avoided getting caught up but we got away with it.

However we made good time and rather than wait 4 or 5 hours to enter Rabat in daylight (it is a tricky and unfamiliar entrance) we decided that we would miss Rabat and carry straight on to Lanzarote and take advantage of the settled weather.

 

Day Two:

The next day was quiet and we even had enough wind to sail without the engine for a few hours – an unusual feature on this trip so far. By nightfall the wind dies and we motored through another obstacle course with less fishing but still unlit or unreliable fishing buoys added to an increased number of ships passing up and down the African coast.

 

Day Three:

A really quiet day with insufficient wind to sail but fair size Atlantic rollers from the beam (side on) rocking us around and making it difficult to catch up on sleep – which is now the main daytime activity as there are only three of us to cover difficult night watches.

At 1900 the wind developed to over 15 knots and we were able to switch off the engine and sail all night until we lost the wind at 0700. We passed fewer ships during the night – only about 10 this time – but two were much closer than desirable. But the fishing boats and nets had disappeared, to our relief.

 

Day Four:

We had now cleared most of the shipping as we were much further offshore and we had a a quiet day motoring followed by a relaxed evening and night of sailing before arriving at our first Canary islands destination, Puerto Calero on Lanzarote at day break. Here we refuelled and received a very pleasant welcome from the marina staff. We immediately relaxed and after showers and a bit of laundry we spent lunchtime in one of the marina bar/restaurants (from 1130 to about 1600) and returned for dinner at about 1900! By the time we left we were pretty ‘relaxed’. A good night’s sleep in a stable and uncannily quiet boat was really welcome.

 

Distance run so far: 2400 nautical miles