Dentist, volcano, racing boats
Scott-Free’s blog
Steve & Chris
Sat 23 Oct 2010 18:09
We spent several
weeks in Puerto Calero, just taking it easy and getting a few jobs done on the
boat - and ourselves! Chris needed a dentist to sort out her broken tooth
as the temporary filling was now becoming loose. This involved a trip into
the next town where a very nice Swedish dentist went to some effort to remove
said tooth. After much pulling, twisting and drilling, it eventually came
out in two pieces, leaving an enormous hole which over the next couple of days
turned into a dry socket. Anyone familiar with this condition will know
that it is rather painful and so off we went to see the dentist again. He
declared the socket 'absolutely dry!' and then inserted a tiny tablet into it
which gradually eased the pain and then got rid of it altogether. He very
kindly gave me another tablet, wrapped in a tissue "just in case!", but it
wasn't needed.
We hired a car with
Rob & Sarah and set off to visit the Timanfiya national park and the
volcano, only to discover that it was closed that day - Spain was having a
general strike! Fortunately there were other places to see and we had a
nice day sightseeing, finishing it off with a trip to IKEA which appears to be
very popular in the Canaries!
We did get to see
the 'Mountain of fire' as the locals call the volcano a few days later and it
was well worth the return trip. Visitors are obliged to leave their cars
in the car park and board a coach that takes them on a tour of the
volcano. The landscape is somewhat eerie - black and devoid of any life
except several hundred species of lichen. The view from the top is
spectacular, over miles and miles of black lava runs, right down to the
sea.
The highlight of the
stay in Lanzarote was the RC44 Regatta which is hosted by the marina we stayed
in, Puerto Calero. As temporary berthholders we were invited to join the
spectator boat whenever we liked and even better for Steve, to go on the racing
boats during the races. The regatta lasted a week and we had a wonderful
time. Steve went out on the racing boats several times and we both enjoyed more
laid back sailing on the spectator boat, being served drinks and food by
waiters, all courtesy of the marina.
The fleet
running downwind to the finish
line Steve
sails as 'guest' on this Swedish RC44,as they round the marker
buoy
We enjoyed the stay
in Puerto Calero,as much for the people we met up with there as the
events. We had heard Sue on Saltcsar III's voice regularly
in Marmaris as she was net controller once a week there, but had only
briefly met her and John before - they were on J pontoon already when we
arrived and planned to stay till December. We met David and Lynn on
Moonbeam who slid in alongside Serafina saying 'Hello Rob Bell,
how are you?" much to Rob's surprise as he and David had met in their
working lives some years before but had not seen each other in recent
years! We met an antipodean couple called Ken and Wendy sailing their
newly acquired Bavaria 46 back to Tasmania. Michael and Anne arrived on
Nimue from Morocco - we last saw them in Gibraltar. Rico
and Jackson finally arrived on Apparition, having spent five
weeks in Porto Santo waiting for engine parts. As they said, "Porto
Santo is nice, but not for five weeks!!" And of course Rob & Sarah
were there for some of the time before their trip home. As usual we greatly
enjoyed socialising with these like-minded people, admiring each others' boats,
exchanging ideas, sharing expertise and information about places visited
and telling sailing tales...and downing the odd drink or
two.
Meanwhile we set
some locals the tasks of fashioning a bracket for the towed generator, a very
short bowsprit for the cruising chute, and a partial cover for the dinghy, as
well as putting a few rows of stitching in the genoa sacrificial
strip.
Steve offered the
old partially-working Mini-M satellite phone to a couple on a Polish boat who
were very happy to take it and in return they gave us a lift to the airport for
our flight back to the UK.