First of all the good news………

Jennie and I are at last shaking off this dreadful flu bug that we picked up in Gibraltar. In the end we gave in and sought out a doctor who prescribed anti-biotic for Jennie’s ear infection and Mega strong Codeine for my chest and cough.  Washed down with  lashings of cough mixture. Well it made a change from Vino Calapso.

Bad news is that with three days to “D” day (departure day) for our Atlantic crossing we still have no boom or mainsail. However, we are told that that they will both be ready to be re-installed tomorrow morning. I will keep everything crossed in the hope that this comes true and that we have no more serous problems. Then we have to test everything thoroughly before Saturday.

That said it has been a productive last few days, with provisioning for the forthcoming passage. We found a brilliant “British” style Butcher who could provide every type of meat and cut that Jennie asked for and could vacuum pack and freeze it to boot! Found a mega out of town supermarket, which was great for most things, but getting green vegetables here is REALLY challenging. The Spanish just don’t “do” veggies.

All the servicing work for the Generator, Water maker, Engine and Gearbox is now completed.  We will need to see how the hydraulics pan out once the re-built boom is back on board.

Now for tourist information.!!  We hired a car and spent three days cruising all over the Island. Partly by design, and partly because I got lost several times!!

But before that we had a race last Friday. It was all a good natured laugh, and I had the honour of being invited to helm on Heidenskip, which is a 65 foot aluminium Van DeStadt designed yacht, that is in the Rally, and owned by Robert and Wendy from  Holland.

It is a simply an awesome boat, which sails like a laser dingy but with rather a lot of technology on board. (It also weighs in at 35 tonnes). Robert had a hand picked crew and as skipper, managed the whole race brilliantly, which resulting  our coming in first.

 It was a really fun afternoon event followed by loads of fun in McSorely’s bar, which is the yachtie bar here in Puerto Calero.

Now for the information you have all been craving for! Lanzarote is a fab and interesting place. Yes, it does have the odd “low rent” tourist spots, but it is a truly interesting and entreating place.

Our first major excursion was to the south of the Island. The major attraction here is the “bad lands”, which is called Timanfaya. This is the area on the island where the monster volcanic eruptions happened in 1734 and went on for three years. Destroying 25 villages and a large chuck of the Island. The volcanic activity carried on for the next 100 years. Today the activity is somewhat lessened, but the landscape had still not recovered and it is like a 200 year old time warp.

It is an eerie landscape with static lava fields, fissures and an array of base metal colours that provides the backdrop to Lanzarote’s reputation. No green fields and very few birds or wild life.

They used to use Camels for farming in the same way that horses and donkeys used to be used in the UK. Now they are strictly for tourist transport. Oh, and scaring the crew!!

We drove into the National Park and then had a roast chicken dish,  that had been cooked over an open fissure, in a dormant volcano. It was very yummie and the setting was VERY dramatic, with a panoramic restaurant, on top of a volcano, hot stuff!! The local Lanzarote red wine is actually very good. Tastes very similar to Cote De Rhone.

  “Roasting Tonight”

Next time we will tour the North end of the Island. We might even have some good news on the recalcitrant  Boom????????