Dentist, volcano, racing boats

Scott-Free’s blog
Steve & Chris
Sat 23 Oct 2010 18:09
We spent several weeks in Puerto Calero, just taking it easy and getting a few jobs done on the boat - and ourselves!  Chris needed a dentist to sort out her broken tooth as the temporary filling was now becoming loose.  This involved a trip into the next town where a very nice Swedish dentist went to some effort to remove said tooth.  After much pulling, twisting and drilling, it eventually came out in two pieces, leaving an enormous hole which over the next couple of days turned into a dry socket.  Anyone familiar with this condition will know that it is rather painful and so off we went to see the dentist again.  He declared the socket 'absolutely dry!' and then inserted a tiny tablet into it which gradually eased the pain and then got rid of it altogether.  He very kindly gave me another tablet, wrapped in a tissue "just in case!", but it wasn't needed.
 
We hired a car with Rob & Sarah and set off to visit the Timanfiya national park and the volcano, only to discover that it was closed that day - Spain was having a general strike!  Fortunately there were other places to see and we had a nice day sightseeing, finishing it off with a trip to IKEA which appears to be very popular in the Canaries!
 
We did get to see the 'Mountain of fire' as the locals call the volcano a few days later and it was well worth the return trip.  Visitors are obliged to leave their cars in the car park and board a coach that takes them on a tour of the volcano.  The landscape is somewhat eerie - black and devoid of any life except several hundred species of lichen.  The view from the top is spectacular, over miles and miles of black lava runs, right down to the sea.
 
   
 
The highlight of the stay in Lanzarote was the RC44 Regatta which is hosted by the marina we stayed in, Puerto Calero.  As temporary berthholders we were invited to join the spectator boat whenever we liked and even better for Steve, to go on the racing boats during the races.  The regatta lasted a week and we had a wonderful time. Steve went out on the racing boats several times and we both enjoyed more laid back sailing on the spectator boat, being served drinks and food by waiters, all courtesy of the marina. 
 
              
The fleet running downwind to the finish line                                                        Steve sails as 'guest' on this Swedish RC44,as they round the marker buoy
 
We enjoyed the stay in Puerto Calero,as much for the people we met up with there as the events.  We had heard Sue on Saltcsar III's voice regularly in Marmaris as she was net controller once a week there, but had only briefly met her and John before - they were on J pontoon already when we arrived and planned to stay till December.  We met David and Lynn on Moonbeam who slid in alongside Serafina saying 'Hello Rob Bell, how are you?" much to Rob's surprise as he and David had met in their working lives some years before but had not seen each other in recent years!  We met an antipodean couple called Ken and Wendy sailing their newly acquired Bavaria 46 back to Tasmania.  Michael and Anne arrived on Nimue from  Morocco - we last saw them in Gibraltar.  Rico and Jackson finally arrived on Apparition, having spent five weeks in Porto Santo waiting for engine parts. As they said, "Porto Santo is nice, but not for five weeks!!"  And of course Rob & Sarah were there for some of the time before their trip home. As usual we greatly enjoyed socialising with these like-minded people, admiring each others' boats, exchanging ideas, sharing expertise and information about places visited and telling sailing tales...and downing the odd drink or two. 
 
Meanwhile we set some locals the tasks of fashioning a bracket for the towed generator, a very short bowsprit for the cruising chute, and a partial cover for the dinghy, as well as putting a few rows of stitching in the genoa sacrificial strip.
 
Steve offered the old partially-working Mini-M satellite phone to a couple on a Polish boat who were very happy to take it and in return they gave us a lift to the airport for our flight back to the UK.