Gran Tarajal

I can’t believe it is July already, the days and the weeks are flying by, it is 2 months since we left La Rochelle and I can’t think where that time has gone! We were discussing this morning how we have just adapted to our new lifestyle; it just seems really natural to be here and on the boat. We were actually saying we can’t imagine not living on a boat in the future, although I suppose we are probably quite selective on the boat in that as we are both firm catamaran fans.

Overnight we had some really strong winds in the marina, starting about 7pm when we were the cockpit reading our books in the late evening sunshine, it started to gust up to 20 + knots from having had light winds all day. All of our observations on wind patterns seem to get overturned after a couple of days, as when we arrived we had thought that the wind built up in the afternoons as you might expect and died off overnight. Hence we had been planning ahead to our longer crossing to Gran Canaria to go overnight, but I think with the randomness at the moment we will just keep watching the forecast and see nearer the time. The wind had died down again by the time we had breakfast and it has been a very pleasant day’s weather with clear blue skies and a moderate breeze.

We had a bit of a slower start after our broken night and late finish last night (another Gin Rummy win for Kevin, though I was leading at the beginning and narrowed the gap from the previous trouncing!), we gave the boat another good clean down. We then realised the next bus to Las Playitas would not be until 1pm (our original plan for today); neither of us really relished a bus journey during the heat of the day so we decided to head off on a walking tour of the town. There was some sort of school watersports lesson going on in the marina, with teams of three racing in circuits on those yellow plastic kayaks you see around. There is little boat movement during the day and they were supported by a RIB, so they weren’t causing any harm. There was lots of cheering and two of the boats were neck and neck as they ducked under the ramp down to the pontoons at which point the lead boat lost an oar and lost the race. There was much cheering and yelling about that one afterwards as they valiantly hand paddled over the line in second place. It was great to see outdoors activities for kids not hampered by health and safety regulations. Just a little further round from the marina is a few little lockups containing diving and sailing club kit which seem to be quite active. There was another group of kids and supporting RIB sailing optimist dingies in the bay. They seemed very competent and the conditions were excellent with a good breeze and no swell.

There is a lot of housing development going on overlooking the marina and the bay to the south, with a show flat. We wandered by and up the hill behind the marina, where we got some good photos of Invincible on her berth. We carried on through the more residential streets in the south edge of the town. I gather from the tourist literature we have picked up that Gran Tarajal is the second largest population in Fuerteventura; however you can still walk from one side to the other in about 30mins. The architecture is generally fairly utilitarian, the older buildings being very cheaply built some with plain rough block construction and no render. The newer buildings however are built to a much higher standard, there does seem to be a chronological split in the status of the houses, with signs of investment coming only in recent years. However, there is also a lot of municipal investment including a very large purpose built nautical centre on the end of the south beach and various other adult centres, youth centres etc.

Kevin managed to find several hardware stores on our route and finally got the specific petrol jerry can he had been looking out for with a hose which stores inside the can so reducing the risk of grit contamination (as we had already purchased for diesel). We stopped for a coffee on the beach after all that walking, by which time at was already 1pm, not sure where the morning went. After perhaps the worst coffee we have ever had, we decided that as we were that end of town we’d pick up some more of the wine cartons which are on offer to stock up at Eurospar. We did actually find the Hiper Dino yesterday for stocking up, though wish we hadn’t bothered as it is not as good as the Eurospar, and unusually more expensive, they had even sold out of wine cartons for heaven’s sake!

Back to the boat this afternoon for Spanish lessons for me and more Patrick O’Brien for Kevin (he’s on “Desolation Island” now). About 4.30pm we both had an hour on the trampoline to catch a bit of sun before heading for a meal out this evening.