Location: Mogan

Lat/Lon: 27:49.0N 15:45.8W

BEVERLY:

We left Santa Cruise, Tenerife on Thursday 22^nd November at about 11 am. We were to have the best sail since Biscay, but we left on a sunny day with a light breeze. About an hour out the wind increased and we where surfing down waves at 7-9 knots with the wind increasing all the time. First we put two reefs in the main, then we took down the mizzen sail and finally rolled up the head sail altogether and where still averaging 6 knots on a reach. What was wonderful on this sail was that we could see Mount Tiede and the cliffs of Gran Canaria at the same time. 5 miles out, as if controlled by a switch, the wind stopped altogether as we were shaded by the island. Reluctantly, we switched on the engine and headed for Peurto de Mogan.

The wind acceleration zones in this area are quite significant. We arrived just at sunset, a passage of 50 miles in 7 hours.

Mogan is a lovely small holiday town with a very nice small marina surrounded with what looks like mews houses and cafes, small shops and restaurants. We reversed into our spot very professionally despite this being the first time for such a maneuver with Swiftwing.

Friday morning, we where awaken at 6 am by a street market being set up. Obviously popular with the tourists who arrived by the coach load. ‘Looky looky, cheapie cheapie’ and Christmas songs where heard all day but they left at 3 pm when the wind threatened to blow the stalls away. We rented a car for the afternoon and having spent the day cleaning the boat, we collected the Neil and Alan from the airport at 7 pm. It was great to see them and catch up with news.

The following day we went to visit the ARC rally in Las Palmas but didn’t manage to find our way down to the marina. It looked very busy and we decided that we where very glad that we hadn’t gone.

We spent today preparing for sea and the boat is now stocked and jobs are done. We are just about to fuel up and leave to cross the Atlantic. The Arc boats left a few hours ago at 1 but have an extra 50 miles to sail, it should be interesting and I hope I have remembered everything.