Stargazer of Southampton - Las Palmas

Las Palmas - Gran Canaria

Stargazer of Southampton

Susie and Adam (both think they are skipper)

Mon 22 Nov 2010 20:46

22:11.10, 28.07.80N 15:25.36W

We ended up staying a couple of nights at the anchorage in Morro Jable as it was nights there - the sea was crystal clear and very calm with only a few boats anchored in the bay and we didn't see anything of the dreaded gusts of wind blowing down off the hillsides at night.

Here's a couple of pics from our boat to the surroundings - don't panic - don't think that there are any naturists on the pics. We did go into town to the shops to pick up some groceries and you do see some odd sight in a german resort - Best was a guy in a smart straw hat, pressed stripey shirt - and no trousers - we think he had speedo's on but didn't want to look to closely - so it looked like he had gone out and just forgotten to put on everything below his waistline and was wondering about the supermarket. Perhaps he just assumed he was having one of those dreams where you realise that you have gone out and forgotten to get dressed?

We lost one of our oars for our dingy months ago back in Spain and finally managed to buy a new pair in Gran Tarajal - Susie refused to put the engine on the tender and insisted on getting some use out of the new oars by rowing ashore.

Sunday we set off early in the morning before light for Gran Canaria - the Arc were due to leave Las Palmas by lunchtime so we planned to get there in the evening.

Had a fantastic sail across and made much quicker time than we anticipated. We had been having a grumble to each other on the way about the lack of anything dolphin or whale like in the Canaries. . . literally about an hour later we spotted Dolphins jumping out of the water a few hundred metres away - they headed straight for the boat which was trucking along under full sail through the water. There were probably about 15 or so Dolphins in the group - we think they were Atlantic Spotted Dolphins which are apparently thrill seekers and like a bit of bow-wave riding. They stayed with us for at least 20 minutes jostling for position at the bow of the boat. We were both up leaning over the rails and watching them - I was taking photo's and was not happy when one of them slapped the water a couple of times with its tail and soaked me and my beloved camera so I had to go running back to dry it off.

It was brilliant to watch them playing and the longest that Dolphins have accompanied us yet on our trip

From a distance we did see the ARC set off - about 300 yachts left Las Palmas , we assumed it would be pretty quiet in Las Palmas with that lot gone - there is a Marina and an Anchorage next to it, all set in what is really quite a big commercial port. The Marina to be fair has quite a bit of space, but we were headed to anchor. The bay for anchoring is more than packed with boats overflowing and anchoring around the breakwaters for the marina. It just looks like each new boat has got to the edge of the mass of boats and though 'yeah, this is acceptable - I'm not that far out of the anchorage. . . .' so there are boats everywhere we arrived and we are further out than we would have chosen, but another load of boats turned up and are now on the outside of us so that's alright then - we're not on the outer limits any more.

There is everyone here that we met in Gran Tarajal and various boats that we haven't seen for months that have all converged on the same place which means its quite good for atmosphere and for getting all the bits that couldn't be bought anywhere else!