Position: 29:13:68N 13:30:19W

Isla Graciosa, Canary Islands

Pictures from the crossing from Madeira:

Land ho!  First sight of the Canaries – Isla Graciosa

Approaching Caleta del Sebo, Graciosa

We arrived here at about 1100 on the 17^th, just under 2 days after setting off from Funchal.  I don’t think we could say we enjoyed the passage much – certainly not as much as the one from Cascais-Madeira, because of the uncomfortable motion.  However, Graciosa is an amazing place to arrive at.

You first view of Graciosa is of conical mountains, and as you get closer you realise that this really is just an extension of the Moroccan Sahara, only 100 miles to the East. It is only about half a mile away from Lanzarote, whose brown-grey cliffs tower to the South.  Looking at the desert plains and volcanic mountains on the West cost of Lanzarote we were reminded very much of the Sahara desert on the approach to Djanet in Algeria, and I suppose the geology/geography can’t be that different (except one is surrounded by water…)

We motored past a lovely anchorage with a few cruising yachts in, and made our way into the small harbour at Caleta del Sebo through crystal-clear water, and tied up.  This place is amazing.  Graciosa is only 6km long and this little town only has about 500 inhabitants, and is made up of a few whitewashed buildings with sandy tracks between them.  If you walk more than 50 metres past the houses, you are in the desert.  There are no proper roads.  It is more Moroccan than Spanish. 

Walking from marina to town

Typical street, Calheta del Sebo

It is also a place where time and timeliness don’t count for much.  Opening hours are random and at the will of the shopkeeper/bar owner, so turning up during the stated opening hours is often met with a closed door.  The port captain (a one-man band) seems to be present for about half his stated hours, but then, who’s in a hurry in a place like this?

Follow my leader

We walked the 500m along the beach into the town.  It was a spring tide, so the walk necessitated a splash through the shallows as the path was covered.  It took us about 5 minutes to “do” the town before sitting down on the beach so the girls could swim – they had already stripped off on the walk into town!

Flooded road

Two happy sisters

I spent the first two days doing boat jobs, whilst Sarah and the girls did school in the morning and beach in the afternoon.  The girls simply love school and Millie is so keen to learn more.  The beach right in the town (not more than 200m from the boat as the crow flies) is perfect for the kids as it is shallow, sandy and warm.

The two most pressing boat jobs were the alternator, and a persistent leak in Jemima’s bunk.  I now know more about alternators than I ever wanted to, and the upshot is that we need a new one.  However, I did manage to work out a “bodge” which will allow us to get some charge out of the alternator before we can pick up a new one in Lanzarote (I was quite pleased with myself, but I hope I’m not screwing anything up. The issue is a broken diode on the aux circuit, meaning high voltage to the aux terminal.  However the output voltage is still OK, so I’m taking the regulator voltage from there instead).  Jemima’s bunk was stripped, and the underside of the deck & bulkhead liberally coated with “Wet Grab” and epoxy – again.  I so hope I have fixed the damn thing this time – must be the third time I’ve had a go at this.

There are a number of boats here that have clearly arrived and never left again – it is that sort of place.  Some have been here years.  It is made easier by the harbour dues – a princely €4.87 a night for us – and if that’s too steep you can always go round to the stunning anchorage for free – the only reason we haven’t is because the beach in the harbour is marginally better for the kids.  However despite there being water & electricity pods on the pontoons, they’re not connected up so there are no real facilities.  We’ve relied on the solars and wind generator mainly.

3 days into staying here and we figured we should probably top up with water.  The fact that it took an entire morning to achieve but wasn’t in the least stressful hopefully says something about our relaxed state of mind.  You have to motor over to the other side of the harbour, raft against a fishing boat, wait an hour for the port captain to amble back to his office, then he unlocks his cupboard and pulls out an enormous reel of hose which you snake the 150m across the dusty concrete to the boat.  Lack of water pressure then means it takes 25 minutes to fill.  But hey, whats the hurry?

One day we motored out and anchored in Bahia Francesca and spent the afternoon on the beach there.  The water is amazingly clear – we anchored on sand in 10m and you could see the bottom very clearly.  Sarah and I dived in off the boat and I had a snorkel.  Good to see our first tropical fish – lovely little black ones with luminous electric blue tips on their fins.