Lanzarote
|
Wednesday 9
November Marina Rubicon,
Lanzarote 28o 51.5 N 13o 49.5 W Brian and I anchored off Playa
Blanca, Lanzarote on Monday evening having sailed almost 700 miles from Cascais
at an average speed of 3 knots according to the log trip meter. It took us six and a half days and
was an uneventful passage, the air was warm, the sky clear and the sea a
brilliant blue. We had good moonlight at night and were sailing predominantly
down wind in light winds, although we did have good breeze when we set off. We also motored for a day when there was
no wind and the forecast suggested there would be slightly more wind towards the
coast of Morocco. With very little
wind, the sea was calm with an enormously long swell that we almost didn’t
notice. We had originally intended to
sail via Madeira but there was no wind at all there. We looked seriously at a stop in
Morocco to break the journey and set off for Rabat but, eventually, with slow
progress, we just had to continue towards the Canaries. The only glitch on the passage
was that the generator started to falter at one stage and we suspected fuel
starvation and since there was plenty in the tank, that generally means a
blocked fuel filter stemming from water or sludge in the fuel tank. When we tested the propulsion engine
that struggled too - both engines draw from the same primary filter unit. A sailing boat is not disabled without
an engine but, on the other hand, we couldn’t make toast or top up the batteries
without the generator. We changed the fuel filter at sea
which is always a bit messy and after bleeding the air the main engine ran fine
but we were unable to get the generator to run properly at that time. However, there is still the nagging
suspicion that there is sludge in the tank. ‘Diesel bug’ – bacteria that grow in warm
diesel contaminated with water, especially nowadays with a biofuel component, is
usually the first suspect.
This was annoying because I had pumped out the diesel and cleaned the
tank last winter in Southdown marina.
Another possibility was that the last fill up in Cascais was contaminated
with water. The filter
I removed didn’t look particularly dirty but it did seem soggy, difficult to
describe, but possibly contaminated with water. We sighted Graciosa, the smallest
island to the north west of the Canaries, at dawn on Monday and continued
sailing through the barren, volcanic, off islands and along the northern,
moonscape, shore of Lanzarote, still in light winds but with the swell breaking
noisily on the shore a couple miles to our left. I wanted to head for Playa Blanca just
around the southern tip of Lanzarote because we were confident we could sail to
anchor there if the main engine failed again. It was great to be able to anchor and
have a full nights sleep with no watches. We swam on Tuesday morning, the
water must have been close to 20 C and was gin clear, we could see the anchor
plainly in 8 metres of water. After
that we moved into the Marina Rubicon which has good boatyard facilities, an
impressive chandlery shop and is surrounded by restaurants and boutique shopping
outlets. The town/resort of Playa
Blanca consists of white low-rise buildings which we have not visited yet and just
inland, the landscape of conical mountains contrasts barren and
brown. Within the marina, we were able
to arrange for the diesel to be pumped out and desludged next Monday and have
reserved a marina berth for that to take place. We also, finally, got fuel to the
generator and got it running smoothly. We’ll go back out to anchor tomorrow but
today’s objective is to get to Arecife to have our passports stamped back into
Schengen Europe, oh joy.
PS Some photographs taken by our friends on 'Fishcake' of Graciosa just to give a flavour of the landscape here.
|
