Penguin
Thu 20 Oct 2005 10:35
 Pilot whale off Gran Canaria
Left Marina Rubicon, Lanzarote( Oct 14) and
travelled down the east side of Fuerteventura, stopping at Las Playitas, Gran
Tarajal and Morro Jable. Morro Jable seemed to be a European holiday
centre we stopped here to try and find a windsurfer, a sailing hire shop on
the beach (Hobies and windsurfers) was our only hope but too much for an old
wreck of a board. Rob and I walked for about another mile or so but no
luck. We were under pressure to get back so did
about a 30 min run, me in Reef's and Rob in Flip Flops, along the prom up the
steps etc, back to the boat with time to spare, (we did slow up pass the women's
beach volley ball competiton).
Here we were moored on a pontoon with a small
fishing boat adjacent which arrived at about 2000hrs and left his diesel
engine running until 0550hrs the next morning, only pleasure we had was watching
a Heron pinching the fish from his boat during the late evening. We had
some choice names for the Fuerteventuraian Fisherman.
Well it has happened again, we left Morro Jable at
0830hrs bound for Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, and by 1000hrs we had bagged
ourselves a large Blue Fin Tuna. Arriving at 1830hrs to the marina and by 1900hrs we were tucking into
Tuna steaks.
The other big event of this 60 mile trip was as we
closed on Gran Canaria Rob sported water spouts, our first sighting of whales, a
pod of perhaps 30, some with young swimming alongside mothers, we stopped the
boat and let them pass coming within 50m of us, the excitement kept us talking
all evening, with all the books out to identify what we had seen, we think they
were Short Finned Pilot Whales.
In Las Palmas, good marina here, lots of building
work, toilets and showers OK but they don't seemed to have the basics, like
Electricity and Water. Still the local bar servers a larger G &
T.
We are moving off tomorrow (Oct 20) to Tenerife
when we return here on the November 13 it should be a full of life with
the ARC festivities.
HLS
> Reckon I am back in credit with the fish since
the Bay of Biscay, the food on the boat is awfull fresh Tuna steaks with salad
saute potatoes followed by mango, coffee and french chocolate.
>Looking for the bear necessities in life just
the simple ones, we found fish, paw paw and a prickly pear.The pear was strange
so next time we will beware and we won't be looking under the
rocks and plants to try the fancy ants
either.(Confused Balou is the bear).
>We are leaving Las Palmas this morning to make
our way over to Tenerife today. We have decided to go between Tenerife and La
Gomera to do some whale watching . There is a submarine canyon there that
drops
to a depth of 3000m which provides good nosh for
deep diving whales. They hunt at night and snooze during the day close to the
surface.The Canaries is the third largest whale watching area in the
world.
>We had some great news last night our friends
Jane and Peter Hannifan are coming over to see us and will be arriving next
friday 28th. Hip Hip Hooray. Can't wait to see you. I'll get the Mailbu today!
If you promise to
bring some good mature cheddar.!
>There is a man next to us who has a very
beautiful young wife and an equally beautiful five year old daughter he is
at least seventy looks very fit and speaks like an army officer. His boat is
called Last Tango! This is not
a LHS tale.
TTFN jak
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