Gran Tarajal

As you can tell from the title, we have not headed to Morro Jable today, it is still rather blustery and the forecast is due to improve each day, so we decided to stay another night. Today is 18 kts NNE with 2.5m swell, dropping through the next few days, it has also been a particularly high tide and a slight veer in the wind which seems to have increased the swell. It was really crashing on the beach in town at lunchtime and would have been great for some body boarding. We also made another decision when going back over the pilot guides that actually neither of us really wanted to go to Morro Jable, it is really just to shortening the jump to Gran Canaria. Morro Jable is described in the pilot as having “one of the largest concentration of timeshare and hotel accommodation” with regular 50 knot winds down the hills on approach, which didn’t sound too inviting. We decided we are not averse to a longer passage so have opted to go straight from Gran Tarajal to Gran Canaria tomorrow, we will set off in the evening and travel through the night, aiming to arrive mid-morning. The wind tends to be a little lighter at night and we enjoy a night passage.

I am really excited about moving onto a new island and Gran Canaria sounds like it has a lot of interesting aspects too with banana plantations, pine forests and golden sand dunes which will be a real contrast to the volcanic islands of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. We have some more kitting out that we want to do to the boat before our Atlantic crossing too, as Gran Canaria is apparently the best stocked in the Canaries. Kevin can’t wait to get to all those chandleries!

So, we just had a few beers on the seafront last night and it was actually much livelier than on Tuesday, so perhaps it’s just Monday and Tuesday nights that are quiet. Today, we walked over to have a look out to sea from the hill to see what the conditions looked like. I went to the internet café to get the latest forecast and we decided to delay. Consequently, Kevin has taken the opportunity to start the next Patrick O’Brien book– The Fortune of War, which has kept him quiet ever since, though I’m assured he will drag himself away for a beer later.

I have just been doing my Spanish lessons and a then a blissful half hour on the trampoline in the sun with the iPod this afternoon. I may have slightly overdone it today though I think, Kevin recommended the one album timeframe, but I think I may have only have ¾ or even ½ album complexion.