My favorite point of sail is reaching, and my favorite wind speed  about 12-20  knots, (for big boats) and my favorite wave conditions are waves with us. This is what we had for most of the trip here from Funchal, it was delightful and smooth, the boat gliding along effortlessly, quiet except for the gentle slosh of water passing the hull.  And then it died. So the last 24 hours we motored and slowed down to a crawl so we would enter after daylight.    As it was, when I got on my 6:00  AM watch, we were too close, so we actually turned around and headed out until it was light enough to see.  And sure enough, we were treated to a spectacular sunrise over the northern most islands that make up the group called Lanzarote, the northern most islands in the Canaries. We are not far from North Africa, and the islands here have that kind of terrain, dusty, moonlike and tan.  We motored around the bottom of Graciosa and anchored in what is a popular anchorage called Playa Francesa.  By 10:00 AM, the breeze picked up out of the prevailing NE, and the people from the other anchored boats were already picking their spot on the beach, or already swimming in the crystal clear turquoise water.