Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Friday started wet and rainy day in Las Palmas and so boat jobs were confined to the indoor list. There were small mounds of mud and sand at the bottom of all of the rigging by the time it finished raining though, suggesting 4 months of dust from our rigging had finally been washed off. Kevin was straight out as soon as the rain stopped to wash the decks, he’d also planned to wash the rust stains which appear below the exhaust at the waterline. He had intended to do this from the deck, however after a bit of over enthusiastic scrubbing he ended up over the side dangling by one leg to one of the mooring lines and decided to concede to the inevitable and do the job from the water!



Meanwhile, I was in the saloon catching up on some emails none the wiser, assuming he’d just decided to just strip off and jump in. Anyway, after his confession and passing the necessary implements to him, we now have very clean topsides.

Next job was a quick trip to the supermarket and to check again on whether our orders were in. Our mission was partly successful, with collection of the electronic charts for the Caribbean. Also a quick trip to the supermarket for some fresh supplies and a bottle of wine to take round to the dinner we had been invited to that night.

Invincible is moored against the wall in Las Palmas immediately in front of the breakwater. This means we are a little away from all the other cruisers but under constant scrutiny from local people who enjoy walking along the promenade behind us all day and evening. Kevin got chatting to one couple who were asking where we were from. Rafael is in the marines and is stationed in Las Palmas with Christina his American wife and three children. They came aboard and we gave them a look around the boat, Tina was also in the Navy, so they were both interested in life aboard our small boat. Anyway, the next day they dropped by with their children to invite us to have dinner with them. They have been very kind and offered to help with laundry, use of the car etc and we were more than keen to spend an evening with them and find out more about life on the island from them.

Rafael came to collect us at 8pm and drove us to their apartment where Tina had prepared a fantastic Spanish tapas. We were also joined by one of Rafael’s classmates from military academy who had recently been stationed on the island. We had a really pleasant evening that continued on to the early hours. We were especially grateful for their invitation when we understood that Rafael was leaving on Sunday for 3 months. We hope to see Tina and the children though whilst we are still in port.