28.07.522N 15.25.491W

One of the ‘Challenger’ yachts passed close by, Challenger 93 82ft, and we had some friends on our tail most of the way, Simon and Marg on ‘Margansie’.

Dark nights without a moon was good for the stars but with cloud cover the night watches meant you couldn’t even see each other in the cockpit or the sails! 

Josh and Gina had a close encounter with a military ship one night which couldn’t make up its mind which direction to go and by the time the ship was picked up on radar to try and track its course, having visually picking up its lights it had cut across our path at an alarming rate too close for comfort too especially in the dark. Having decided to alter course quickly to somehow avoid it proved tricky in the dark as the genoa had to be furled and the darkness of the night didn’t help in finding the winches!!  

Twin foresails are wonderful for sailing but when it comes to tacking, the large jib just has to be furled away in order for it to pass through between the two forestays (thats for any non sailors reading this).

However, the following day gybing downwind with a North Easterly wind eventually brought us into Spanish waters again.  Moored on the visitor pontoon overnight then were directed to our berth the following morning.

Las Palmas is the biggest marina we’ve been to so far and very different from all the cosy little marinas we’ve encountered along the way.  Las Palmas is a large city full of bustling traffic day and night.  Internet in the marina is not good unless you spend all your time in one of the bars or cafes. Electricity and water is charged on a daily basis and varies for the size of yacht. 

We will be in Las Palmas until 22nd November preparing for our Atlantic crossing.