Graciosa to Lanzarote N28 57 W13 32
 A Lanzarotean said of Graciosa, "When you land, you can take off your shoes and forget the world", and yes it had felt like that but we want to see a bit more of the world so at 9.00 a.m. we left easygoing Graciosa and set sail for Lanzarote from where we fly home on 5th October for two weeks to visit family and friends, we are really looking forward to it. Lanzarote looks dramatic with its volcanic cones and towers black against the cloudless sky, no tree line, no colour. and dark headlands sweeping across the sea. As we drew closer we rounded a rugged headland at the north east corner of Lanzarote, it rather reminded us of the needles off the north west of the Isle of Wight albeit they are chalky white. 
We gave it a wide berth as we rounded onto the east coast sailing to Naos and the capital Arrecife. According to our pilot book there are good chandleries in Arrecife; we need a variety of equipment and materials as well as wanting to explore dinghy prices as we feel we need a spare in case of irreparable damage or theft of our old Avon. We arrived at Porto Naos at 14.00 hours. The anchorage, just a dinghy ride from Arrecife, was calm and peaceful despite being amid a fairly industrial and fishing dock area. We spotted our young German friend Arney's boat and were soon joined by Russell from Boston and his wife Laura from Colombia on their American registered boat. After an abortive attempt to clear customs and register our presence in the Canary Islands, Arney and his partner Henrika offered us a dinghy tow into town where they were meeting up with Henrika's parents who had flown out to L'rote for a holiday. We gave up on officialdom and went into Arrecife with them, Arney showed us where the chandleries were as he had already been exploring ashore. We bid them farewell as they were to stay ashore with H's parents and we wouldn't see them again, Henrika would fly home with parents, then Arney would journey on single-handed to Antigua where he had secured a boat building job. He would be crossing the Atlantic early with risk of hurricanes still about so we wish him well for his long journey. Only
one of the chandleries was really good and that was more a ferreteria
(iron-mongers) which was like an Aladdin's cave of rope, fishing gear,
electrical goods including massive high powered outboard motors, paints, varnish
and every kind of iron-mongery of course. We came out loaded up with stuff
including two pairs of paper overalls with hoods ready for our anti-fouling
episode at Marina Rubicon Boatyard. We had 2 pleasant nights, and spent an evening with Russell and
Laura on their 32 foot long Contest which he sailed from Boston to the Azores
where Laura joined him. They then sailed to Madeira, where we first met them,
and then Graciosa where we met again. Like us they will sail to the Caribbean;
we shall go to the Cape Verdes islands before the Caribbean, then hopefully to
the ABC (Aruba, Bonaire Curacao) and San Blas islands off the coast of
Venezuela before Panama although after talking with Russell he has
practically convinced us that we must visit Cartagena in Colombia so we are
considering this along with our other plans - well maybe!
From Naos we have continued south along the east
coast of L'rote, there are no high rise hotels or anything else here, all is
cautious low level development and all buildings are painted white, having seen
some of the development in Gran Canaria and Tenerife this seems something of a
miracle. It is all due to a responsive Island Council that worked with the
famous Canarian artist and sculptor Cesar Manrique until his death in 1992.
Manrique was artistic adviser to the Council exacting benevolent and
effective control over the design of buildings ensuring that landscape is not
dominated by development, this influence has now been absorbed as part of
planning control for the islands of Lanzarote and Graciosa.
 On to Playa Blanca and Marina Rubicon. This is
travel brochure new, the marina and complex were built about six years ago,
restaurants are plentiful, unusually the sand is white, shops are smart, the
marina is colourful with boats and the white, white buildings lend a real Arabic
feel, only the shining minarets of mosques are missing. However, at the
moment it is work on our mind as we have come to this marina to get the boat out
of the water and use the boatyard, recommended by a member of the Cruising
Association, to undertake some maintenance in readiness for the journey to
come.
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