I am meeting more and more people that I know here in Las Palmas Marina. That’s because we’re all such wild and interesting ocean adventurers, right?  Well, no - It’s cos they’ve been here for flippin' years, still living on the same boat, and still in LP.  I recognise loads of faces, and none of them have moved an inch in the four years since I was here last time. 

I find that live aboard yotties slightly lie about how long they’ve been in the same place for the first five years, always saying that they’ve been there for LESS  time than they have.  So they say they’ve been there for two or three years, even tho I just know that it simply must be  be at least four.  After a while, they lie the other way, and say they’ve been their ten years or longer, when it’s only eight.  But we all love lying about the time, don’t we?  I’ll just be five minutes darling.   I’ve been waiting for ages!  And so on.   

If you do the ARC, you’ll see LP in full-on busy mode.  200 plus boats ready to cross the Atlantic.  body else will be doing this, eh?  Well er not right now cos you lot are here, see? You might think that the marina becomes empty the day after it leaves and if you’re here a day or so after the ARC leaves, you’re quite right.  

But now in early December the ARC fleet departed two weeks ago now - and the marina is almost full again.  I thought it would be ghostly empty.  Nope.   In fact it’s so full that boats are being stacked out into the anchorage, like planes in a holding pattern.  Although it’s also cos the gently-working marina types are employed by the council, yawn.  I can see that there are spaces as I drive in.  

In LP marina - at least at this time in the year - the first thing that the marina staff in the dink tell to new arrivals is to turn around, and go wait in the anchorage and listen out on VHF Ch11.  This is a bit unfamiliar for most yotties - they’re used to getting ready to moor up before they go in, and being given a berth straight away, perhaps even as they motor into a marina so no need to bother with the waiting pontoon. Just the one heart-stopping mooring operation instead of two.  No, the other side!  Did we hit it?  Yeah, but not too bad.  Not here.  

Whilst stuck in the anchorage the increasingly-indignant yotties chatter in lots of languages amongst each other.  They think that they’ll be called in  perhaps 30 minutes, or an hour or so - and now it’s getting late and they’ve been there all day!   Lots of calls to the marina saying that “we’ve been here since this morning, how much longer??”.  Some have been waiting for days.  Oh dear.   I’m perhaps the only person who is happy about the anchorage wait - more time to sort fenders and lines and er, it puts off the solo berthing gig and the wind might drop a bit, I hope.   

And in fact the marina staff don’t bother calling boats on VHF anyway.   Cos after a few hours people go bonkers and stop listening to the crackly VHF.  Instead, a marinero guy pootles around the anchorage in the marina dink to find the next boat that they have decided to, very gently assign a berth.  I expect they have a meeting about it. “So, ladies and gentlemen - this is the list of 10 boats waiting in the anchorage  BUT we only have 35 spaces, see?  So let’s go around the table and tell me which one you feel deserves to get a space next, and then we’l have a vote, ok?"  

The French boats going especially potty at this waiting, not helped by the fact that the marina staff explain that they speak Spanish (best) then Engleesh, and a bit of Italian - but no French at all, sorry.  Pfft.  The frenchies only know boat-crash English, which involves shouting extra-loudly into the mic at the stupid foreigners.  Just like we English speakers often do when we can’t speaka the lingo.  Then they frustratedly pass on the messages to other frenchies also on Ch11, yeah they’re flipping useless here, sheesh!  But it’s obvious what they’re saying. The frenchies get to stay out the longest, of course.  

I was only held for a few hours, and then the dink comes round to indicate that I’m next, and the guy in the office clears his throat on Ch11 and guides me in to the reception pontoon for The Paperwork.  Actually, it’s a very good job that he explained it all - it turns out that the waiting pontoon is near the entrance with a massive signs saying “RECPTION PONTOON” as the only clue as to where it might be.      No reason at all why they couldn’t send me to the berth first, and tel me to do paperwork later but as I said, it’s the councii, see?   I’m given a spot on the back wall, with two empty spaces next to me, but filled within a few days.  

More soon.