Arrived at Graciosa Island in the Canaries
Balvenie
Mark Farrell & Amanda Church
Wed 19 Oct 2011 13:54
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18 October 2011
Anchor Down, yippee!!
29:13:00N13:31:75W
After 3 days and 18 hours we have arrived in the
absolutely stunning anchorage of Playa Francesca on the Northern most island of
Graciosa in the Canary Islands Chain, the island is a volcanic peak set in a
rugged remote location and is a wonderful backdrop to the anchorage.
There are currently 23 other yachts
here....French,Swiss, British, German, USA, Australian, Dutch, Swedish, Spanish,
Canadian and of course NZ flagged. This place is a natural land fall and
stopping off point for long distance cruisers migrating from Europe to the
Americas on the trade wind route as the northern hemisphere autumn is upon us,
and there are at least 5 more coming behind us. Its going a be a big beach party
on what looks to be a beautiful soft sandy beach underneath the
volcano.
Our passage was good, we motored just 5 hours and
that was mainly overnight the first night when there was just 3 knots of
wind. We ended up flying "Big Red" our spinnaker for 47 hours - non stop,
and in the end had to drop him and motor a couple of hours till more wind
arrived. It is wonderful to once again be running with the trade winds
after 4 years of the fickle winds of the Med. At last we had a downwind
passage in fairly comfortable seas, long may it continue.
We will stay here for awhile, it looks
beautiful.
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