Back in Rubicon plan B was forged and we hired a car for a day and explored the island. An added bonus of that was we were able to get the gas bottle (which has proved problemmatic with its' UK fitting) filled in Arrecife.

Lanzarote is an island with a dramatic 'planet of the apes' landscape. Stark, black lava rocks devoid of vegetation cover 200 square kilometres against a backdrop of volcanic mountains reminiscent, one crew member commented, of Welsh slag heaps. The island possesses a hostile beauty largely ignored by tourists in their many coastal enclaves. There is little agriculture save vines, protected by semi circular lava walls or planted in small craters like bunkers on a golf course; where there is a will for wine there is a way.

Finally, on Wednesday 27th we left Rubicon for La Graciosa, a harbour anchorage in a bay in the lee of the small island north of Lanzarote.. On paper the sail up the west coast was 32 miles but the beat to windward to get to Franceca bay on the south of Graciosa took 62 sailing miles. We tip-toed through the moored yachts at dusk and anchored at last light after a good day sail.

Despite a benign weather forecast we awoke the next morning to a southerly wind gusting 30 knots straight into the bay. Concerned with the proximity of other boats and the possibility of dragging anchors the first job of the day was to move to a safer anchorage. The wind abated and Francesca bay turned out to be a very sociable place. Around about 35 yachts were at anchor, many with live-aboard crews who stayed, in some cases, for several weeks. The social highlight was a casual gathering on the beach at 5pm each evening when stories were swapped and new contacts made. The youngest crew member who attended was just nine months old and some of young children had never lived on land.