Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Thursday we were back to work restoring the boat to some sort of order. The Pikorua crew left mid-morning so we said our goodbyes to them, hoping to meet again somewhere in the Caribbean or perhaps the Panama canal. Just as we said goodbye to them Tina dropped by to say hello and see how we were getting on with our preparations. We had a good chat with her, albeit outside in the cool wind that had started up due to the eau d’Zum onboard, from a second belt and braces spray that morning.

Not long after we’d said goodbye to Tina arranging to meet again on Monday before we leave, it was starting to rain quite heavily. It also was rather oddly for here gusting thirty knots westerly in the usually very sheltered marina. We tightened our lines and were fine, but it was obviously an unusual event because there were headsails unfurling on one side of the marina, the large Glass bottomed dayboat moored three spaces up from us, underneath the pontoon ramp which never goes out but seems to have a permanent staff of boat sitters started to ram the pontoon. They didn’t seem to be doing a great deal to stop it and very soon their boarding ramp was pulled off the bow and wedged under the pontoon ramp. They had butted the electric point two or three times and it was looking rather lopsided when the port police and one of the marina attendants arrived and appeared to suggest in forceful terms that they should perhaps think of tightening up their stern lines. This they did and the boat was now safe from hitting the pontoon, the boat immediately beside us on the other side was yawing over towards us with each gust but seemed safe enough. We hoped that the Pikorua crew weren’t hit with this as they were due to be heading west along the north coast of Gran Canaria, as this had not been in the forecasts. However after about an hour the gusts had died down again, leaving behind a warm but lighter wind and rain.

Having fumigated ourselves off the boat, we decided to head to the Sailor bar for a leisurely afternoon on the internet with some of their lovely coffee. After several years of fruit/herbal teas whilst working and resisting Starbucks, thanks to our present of an Expresso pot from my parents and Angelo and Michelle I now cannot operate without my daily 11.30am expresso! So we had a leisurely afternoon, Kevin ever encourageable already planning our next boat and me with my book. We watched the rain pouring outside through the open front of the café and for the first time was reminded of long weekends at home planning this trip and watching the rain outside. Obviously the other bonus is that apparently cockroaches don’t like the rain.

We headed back to the boat in the late afternoon and finally got to eat our prawns with a salad now that the smell had subsided on the boat. After we’d eaten the rain had finally stopped, but there was now a very warm breeze and the boat had dried off completely, at 10pm our little weather station was reading 25 degrees.



Pikorua departs for Puerto Mogan