Water can be collected from the main quay, so we have commissioned the tender from it's cruising position upside down on the trampoline and got the outboard running. This cuts off a mile long walk to the water supply and makes the whole exercise much more fun. We did our first sortie rather late after dinner yesterday when we realised how low the water had got. The whole area we are staying in is a marine reserve therefore use of the heads toilet) and detergent etc in the water is not allowed. We decided to make a run across to the shower block in the tender on the main quay to allow me to wash my hair and Kevin to fill the portable water tanks. Everywhere we have been in Spain the public toilets have been spotless and those at the port office were no exception. There is however no lighting at all, just loose wiring in the appropriate spot, so ablutions must be timed with the sun. When we arrived the ladies shower/toilet was occupied so we hung around for 5 minutes long enough to see a rather fresher looking local fisherman emerge! It seems that Europe wide they are slightly less prudish about gender divides than in the UK, in La Rochelle and La Coruna husbands were regularly found in the ladies block sharing the charge of a shower with their wives (2 Euros in La Rochelle). Therefore we decided to join forces in the ladies, Kevin filling our water container and me having a shower. Unfortunately, my rather prudish requirement to shut the door to the main quay rendered the whole place rather dark, nonetheless Kevin persevered trying to fill from the basin and me to have a rather cool shower (hot water not plumbed). During opening hours for the port office a hosepipe is available to the dockside, but the source is locked when the office closes at 2 pm. Anyway, we managed to complete both jobs successfully by unscrewing the showerhead due to the absolute lack of water pressure to the basin. You get quite used to the on tap water in your average marina and we were really keen to wash off all the salt off the boat when we arrived here from her maiden voyage, but because there is no natural water on Lanzarote and presumably Graciosa, the supply is mostly desalinated this kind of water usage would not be fair. Luckily a downpour overnight yesterday has remedied the boat cleaning, so now we just have to be economical on boat usage, but as we plan to be at anchorage most of trip if we possibly can, we think this is good practice. Our other job yesterday was commissioning of the generator to give us a battery top up, I will however let Kevin provide the details of that in a later blog update.
I have to return to the UK to complete my notice period for work, which will involve a ferry to Lanzarote (Orzola) and then a flight from Arrecife. 
We decided to do a reccy of that trip today to allow me to time things to catch my flight tomorrow, by taking a day trip to Lanzarote today in order to get supplies of Camping Gas, Petrol and Spanish Pay-As-You-Go Mobile plus some fresh fruit and vegetables which are not very available here on Graciosa. We cunningly disguised the Camping Gas bottle and 5 litre petrol jerry can in backpacks and carrier bags so as not to alarm the ferry crew and headed off for the 8 am ferry. We are both still suffering from waking up in the nightseparately believing we should be on watch and have fallen asleep, I managed to do this three times yesterday and had to look out of the porthole in our cabin to see the boat next to us to convince myself we were not making way and get back to sleep! Anyway, we were both still a little groggy for the 7 am alarm this morning and had to make a dash for the ferry in the end. We were the last on board and the ferry pulled away promptly at 8 am, we now realise that the glass bottom tourist boats are also ferries, which run up to 5 times a day to the mainland. It is a very professional service and within 20 minutes we were in Orzola, complete with a pilot whale sighting on the way. There is a bus which meets the ferry which we took for a very reasonable 5.90 Euros each way for 2 passengers (as opposed to the 40 Euros one cunning taxi company try to get you to pre-book before leaving Graciosa).
The young Spanish bus driver complete with shades and hair band rallied the bus down the slightly diverted route to Arrecife in about an hour and we saw all the locals pilling on to complete their shopping and errands and agreed this was definitely the best way to travel to see a more real experience of the local culture. Luckily the bus station is opposite a EuroSpar Hypermarket, which for those of us from the UK used to them as corner shops will seem a little strange, there are actually two Spar Hyper markets with 2 miles of the bus station. We decided to head to the centre of Arrecife first before loading ourselves down with shopping. There were no signs, so we opted to head down hill and took note of where we were heading. As it happened we did take a slightly long route, but by chance that took us past a diving shop where we picked up some new snorkels and past the best stocked hardware store we have ever seen and could easily beat B&Q in their range. They were able to exchange our Camping Gas and within 5 minutes walk we also found a petrol station, but opted to head into the centre first. Now ironically we spent 45 minutes walking around looking for the mobile shop,which again if from the UK, where these seem to take up every other shop on the high street, this was not where we were expecting problems with our provisioning. In the end we found an Orange shop and bought a mobile and SIM for 35 Euro and a international dialling card for 4.15 Euro for 150 minutes from the very helpful assistant plus a 12 V charger.
Very pleased to have located all of our supplies so well, we went to have a sadly overpriced lunch of a small bowl of prawns (for Kevin) and slice of tortilla and salad for myself. We headed to the supermarket, the first we have been to since La Rochelle. We still have good supplies left over, so the main aim was fresh supplies, we did also stock up on a range of wines for only 2-3 Euros, the same brands selling for 3 times that amount in the UK. Although they didn't have the live lobster and crab tank they had in La Coruna, we did manage to get some nice frozen prawns. We finished in plenty of time and went to get a coffee, where we gave Kev's brother Phil a call from our new Spanish mobile, he told us about our blog following there, so hello to all in Wigan!
Tomorrow morning is some time off to enjoy ourselves before I head back, so we are heading round the coast in our tender with our snorkelling gear and sunscreen. We will take our underwater camera housing, so we will let you know, however if it is anything like the marina which is teaming with fish, it should be great. Infact, we have some new neighbours, on a Dean catamaran, Guillam and Benie and their son, daughter and dog who are also on an extended cruise via North Africa, Mexico and the Amazon. Within 15 minutes of docking their children where in the water swimming up between our hulls and had spotted a large ray apparently, they were obviously loving the cruising lifestyle and we are looking forward to a few beers with them soon.
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