23^rd October 2021

We have had a successful few days provisioning parts and spares in Las Palmas. We walked miles visiting chandleries; hardware stores, and a variety of other establishments buying everything from gas bottles to fishing tackle; paint, water containers, shackles, nuts, bolts, screws, washers, blocks, lines, a service kit for the head, fuel filter, non-slip matting (it might keep dinner on the table during our crossing), a radar reflector for our liferaft, new broom head, sponges, sandpaper.... what else.... well you get the idea!!!! One day we walked to the "King Hogar" hardware store; an hour and a half out of the marina; after about 40 mins walking around the store I took a great interest in their garden furniture aisle.. especially the chairs!! On our way back to the marina we stopped off at an engineering wholesaler and managed to acquire a small bearing for Jamie's "new" fishing reel. He has yet to finish reassembling it but is hopeful that this little part will get the Penn Senator 9/0 multiplier (trolling) reel that I found for him working and serviceable. It was a fabulously fortuitous stroke of luck that after studying Dick Mclary's "Fishing Under Sail" book Jamie had set his sights on purchasing a Penn Senator 6/0 reel for trolling underway. We had decided to go and look at trolling reels in the tackle shops of Las Palmas the very day that I took the recycling up to the bins and spotted someone had left a plastic Haribo pot containing a dismembered fishing reel on top of the bins. You can romanticise all you like about Magpies and shiny objects but we really are just bin-dippers! Anyway it turns out that the reel I found was a superior version of the exact type that Jamie wanted... that we were going to try and find that day! It appears someone took it apart and from what we can gather lost the bearing and as this is now a discontinued model threw it away as they wouldn't be able to get parts for it. After a bit of research and finally tracking down a €3 bearing which he will need to modify for this purpose Jamie is hoping to get it all working again and if he can he has a €300 fishing reel for the cost of the bearing and a few hours walking around Las Palmas!.... THEN he won't have any more excuses not to catch me a big old tuna or mahi mahi! Watch this space...

On Friday night we accepted we had spent as long searching for items off our massive list as we had time for and finally headed to the Sailors bar "Sailors Bay" for our traditional Friday Night crew drinks.

This morning we slipped our berth in moonlight and were out into Las Palmas harbour at 7am. The swell was absolutely stomach churning... just getting our mainsail up took twice as long as usual as I had to keep stopping and hanging on to the mast to stop myself getting flung across the deck. We finally got all our sail out and that made it a little more comfortable but the Stugeron I had taken as we set out joined last night's dinner over the stern of the boat while I expressed my opinion to the skipper once again that sailing really is a silly way to travel the world! I have pointed out previously how bloody brilliant Stugeron is; however as you are meant to take it at least two hours prior to setting off, it doesn't lend itself to an early morning departure where I would have had to set an alarm for about 4am to take it... I mean now I see that written down of course I'm thinking that actually wouldn't have been a bad idea at all..!! Everyday is a school day hey.

Well anyway after emptying my stomach and snoozing for a couple of hours in the spinnaker bag (by far the comfiest spot on-board) I felt a lot better and really enjoyed the 8 hour sail down the east coast of Gran Canaria to Anfi. The seas flattened a little and as we were travelling mostly downwind the swell was from behind which wasn't so uncomfortable. We had a boost from the well documented "acceleration zone" where the wind blasts down the island; recognisable from the white-peaked waves up ahead but also pretty easy to predict by the presence of an absolutely enormous wind farm ashore! 20kts soon became 30kts and we were barraling along at over 7kts... Captain claimed he saw 9kts of speed over the ground a few times; Hamble Warrior was loving it!

We passed the resort of Playa del Ingles and the sand dunes of Maspalomas and soon had Anfi in our sights.

Dropping anchor next to a party catamaran in the bustling little anchorage with dayboats, jetskis and screaming bodies clinging to inflatable bananas we scanned the waterfront and easily managed to spot Jamie's parents waving enthusiastically from the spot where they had been watching us sail in. Now to get ourselves and Hamble Warrior looking presentable...