Gran Canaria - Puerto San Nicolas 28:0.3N 15:49.3W
Lotus
Thu 5 Nov 2009 18:13
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We picked Jim and Jo up from the airport and made
our way back to Santa Cruiz, getting back to the marina was a little like
visiting IKEA in two respects. Firstly, we could see the
marina but couldn't figure out how to get to it and secondly,
the tiny hatchback that we'd hired was full to the gunnels as Jim and
Jo had brought out two folding bikes for us.
Time had marched on and it was gone 10 before
we walked into town to get something to eat. Jim and Jo had done a
Spanish course in Argentina and were keen to practice talking the local lingo,
they also wanted to experience authentic Spanish food so we opted to have
tapas. Unfortunately neither they nor us are fluent Spanish speakers and
we failed to find out the price first and ended up paying 80Euros (£7 for
each small dish) on things like potato salad, tuna and some prawns that
made Krill look quite large. John blamed Jim! Maybe a lesson
learned, although I doubt it!
Next morning we tried our new bikes out by cycling
to the local fresh produce market. We made Jim run behind us as penance
for the previous night. The bikes were great and we were ready
to set sail to grand Canaria by 10.30.
Fresh winds gave us steady sailing on the 40 odd
mile trip to Puerto San Nicolas. we arrived about an hour and a half
before dark, the small harbour was full of small local boats and the swell made
anchoring particularly difficult. The bottom was largely stony with a few
small patches of sand interspersed. The anchor dragged repeatedly as we
tried to set it. There were strong winds and significant swell but if we
had gone to another anchorage we wouldn't have arrived till after dark, so
john and Jim took the kedge anchor in the dingy, manly battling the winds and
John dived down to find a small sand patch and manually set the anchor. I
then brought the boat into the harbour, having been stood off whilst they
fannied around for half an hour, but at least now we could lie at anchor while
John continued to dive down to try and provide a more secure fixing. In
fading light he eventually managed to tie a rope around a huge boulder on the
seabed to which we could attach a mooring warp. Now that we were secure we
spent a pleasant evening. The next morning we had a snorkel around
the boulder before departing south for Puerto de Mogan.
We had a short pleasant sail down to Puerto de
mogan and anchored just outside the jam packed marina. We spent the
afternoon diving off the boat, snorkelling and John even bullied a local bloke
into giving him a go on the back of his jetski. We then took the dingy
into town for Tapas and beer. This time john chose the Tapas bar and the
bill was 8 not 80 euros.
 
 Next day we prepared for a 50 mile return crossing
to Tenerife. For the first hour or so we were in the lee of Grand
canaria and had to motor with less than 5knots of wind. Then within
minutes the windex was showing 25knots and white horses began to develop.
Over the next hour the wind steadily rose, all the time John telling Jim and Jo
that we must be in one of the acceleration zones, that we would soon pass
through and that the winds would then drop. How wrong he was, both
the wind and waves continued to build and we experienced force nine gale,
peaking at 46knots of wind and 4 meter high waves. We beam reached with a
scrap of head sail out at 8 knots (peaked at 11.5knots) for the next
45miles, all the time reassuring Jim and Jo that all was fine yet at the same
time silently hoping that it wouldn't get any worse. We eventually sailed
into the lee of Tenerife's south east coast and the wind dropped to 25knots and
the waves became mere 2 meter high ripples. We sailed a little further
south and found a berth in San Miguel marina. After a shower, beer and
food we all slept soundly.
   Jim drenched after being pooped time and time
again.
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