Will have been here longer than in any other marina since departing Gibraltar and this morning paid-up until Friday. It's blowing a hooley. Typically 25kn on our stbd beam, occasionally gusting up to 35kn. Fortunately, after initially berthing last Saturday I decided to winch us over so that we would be blown-off the pontoon, which we are tied to. Good idea because without doing this our fenders would have been getting a bit squashed - all fourteen of them! As it is Ticketeeboo is well fastened to the pontoon so my only doubt is whether the pontoon or pontoon cleats will hold out and we have to believe that'll be fine.
s/y Hebe, which berthed one finger pontoon down-wind of us is having an equally good blow. Their mooring lines are a very stretchy so their skipper, Harry, has tied an extra line arount the body of their finger-pontoon, which seems effective.
I booked a hire car yesterday and set off to cycle the 8km to Playa Playitas to collect it. A thoroughly good ride. Exhausting! Cycling into 25 or more kts of wind up-hill was not easy going. At one stage it was easier to get off & walk. (I know yeah can't do enough for a good woman!) Since then we've done the Grand Tour around the north of Fortuventura, eaten 6 squid and a battle-hardened octupus and visited an inland agricultural museum. Stuffed, knackered & wind-swept all in one day (I will refrain from saying it again). Tomorrow, we hope to do the southern route and I can look forward to then next morning when I get to cycling back from Playa Playitas with the wind behind me, after returning our little (YELLOW) hire car.
Forgot to mention............ after we arrived here last Saturday s/y Hebe came in.


So once again there are two Discovery 55's in same marina. Looks good. On Sunday, we were invited to join other cruisers at the local bar, for one o'clock tapas & drinks, plus a live band. The pork, baby squid & octopus tapas were great, the wine was lovely, the beers kept flowing. At around six'ish the Hebe-ites (Harry, Imogen and Pete) accompanied by Chris & Karen s/y Dream Time as well, joined us for G&T's. In actual fact, as the story goes, Pete was taking Karen & Chris onto Hebe and got his boats mixed-up! To finish what could be a long, long, storey. When Pete left Ticketeeboo he fell in the drink. Harry got him out. Everybody was exceptionally quiet the next day. Sue has vowed never to touch alcohol again (and failed miserably) and Pete is unable to locate his wallet. Harry & Imogen have SCUBA-dived to see if Pete's wallet is with the fishies - and all they found was someone-else's Ipod!!!
Last night we were invited to join the other cruisers for a pot-luck (pot lash) supper. Another very sociable evening. Sue drank 1 x can coke and I had just 2 x beers plus mixture of really good foods 'a la Cruisers delights'.
A good time is had by all. No pain - no gain! Not sure what's on the menu tonight -definitely not octopus or squid.