Noon position 28 02N, 15 22W. Yesterday turned out to be a messy day to say the least. We arrived in Las Palmas at 06.00 and rafted up to the port authority boat much to the disgust of the ‘marinaria’ who moved us into a very tight mooring when we explained we would only be there for three hours whilst we fetched some filters for the dear water maker.

However, another job we were going to undertake was to clean out the water tanks as the previous night Andy had said the water was tainted and Ian had poured some into a glass tumbler, in which we were able to see some black ‘bits’. The only problem was that on investigating the tanks, there are no inspection hatches on them so we decided we would simply flush them out as best we could, because none of us felt ill from drinking the bits. All this took longer than anticipated especially after my visit to the immigration office but I understood we had until 14.00 before they would charge us for a day at the marina. At 13.30 we left the marina and were chased by a rib with the helmsman saying we had to return to pay. This we did and much to my disappointment we were charged another month’s tax making the overnight stay costing £320! I was not a happy camper to say the least but we decided to stay anyhow.

But today is another day and we are closing the Canarian chapter as Gran Canaria disappears over the horizon with Cape Verde beckoning us in eight days time.