Now at sea again after the best part of two months back in the UK and in the marina at Lanzarote. Marina Rubicon has been really helpful and competent looking after the boat and carrying out the various jobs that needed doing. The water maker is installed and working (as I write!), the spinnaker halyard has been replaced, the vang put right, Vega polished and gleaming.

We had time for a day trip around Lanzarote. For the most part artist and visionary Cesar Manrique has prevailed and the development, where it occurs, is mainly low rise and pretty unobtrusive. Most of the houses on the island are no more than two stories and painted white with green woodwork. i’m pleased to see that one or two have broken free from the convention and gone for black! The volcanic landscape within the National Park is spectacular and sadly we didn’t have time to join a guided geological walk. We did manage a coach ride around a specially constructed roadway that afforded wonderful views across the volcanoes, starting and finishing at the reception centre designed by Manrique and where you could have meat grilled over a natural volcanic vent. We also visited Manrique’s former house that encompasses subterranean rooms and passages built within volcanic bubbles, and which is now the base for a foundation in his name.

The biggest surprise for us was the extent of the vineyards and the way the vines are grown. Where there isn’t a covering of volcanic ash one is created a metre or so in depth and a circular pit dug down to the soil. A semicircular lava wall is then built around one side of the pit which shelters the vines and also absorbs water from the atmosphere to keep the vine roots moist, on an island where rain is infrequent. Huge areas are covered in this way or with some variation such as long pits with a wall on either side. 

 What have we learnt from the first part of our trip? How much we miss family and friends when away and how wonderful autumn is in the UK! Also quite how deflating and demoralising the political situation is now at home - there has to be a better way to create a shared social ethos. In the places we have visited we have learned to ignore other peoples published experiences - we have received  kindness and help pretty much everywhere. Also not to have too many preconceptions e.g. life in Morocco is just as cosmopolitan in the cities as elsewhere and there are parts of urban UK little different from those less cosmopolitan parts of Morocco we visited. 

So here we are back at sea again and the map position is from where I have posted this. After so long on dry land this 7 day trip down to Dakar is making us feel a little isolated and apprehensive. However there is lots of shipping out here and this morning Blue Moon, a 60ft catamaran, caught up with us and had a chat. They are headed “generally south and west” with a view to ending up in Martinique for Christmas. A French sounding woman on board was very keen to go to the Gambia and wanted to swap boats! (so would Annie if she had been up at the time and seen the palatial size of the catamaran).

All the gear seems to be working. I have ironed out a fault with Hydrovane (that wasn’t the hydrovane at all but the main rudder that doesn’t lock in place sufficiently). The Duogen is keeping the batteries fully charged and the Iridium seems to be ok now that I have managed to get all the email settings correctly set up. Just five days to go until Dakar……..