Leaving Arrecife

We celebrated Gaston's 60th Birthday by renting a car and visiting the Island of Lanzarote with Karry from Zaliah (BR) and Guy fromGaara (FR) (www.gaaraguy.com). The first goal of the visit was to see the Parque Nacional de Timanfaya. This is a park of volcanos which erupted in 1730 creating new mountains and a field of lava as far as the eye can see. It is impressive for it colors and shapes. On the mountain were the bus tourstarts, the restaurant uses the heat from one volcano to grill the food. Besides the park, we visited the lovely city of Haria. With it's tall palm trees, it is like an oasis in the middle of the desert. We stopped in Teguise to eat tapas for lunch. For those of you who don't know, tapas are small dishesthat are shared. Kind of like feeding yourself with different appetizers. Inthis case, we had some octopus with onions and green peppers, potatoes with curry and pimento sauce typical of the Canaries, tomatoes with ham, cheese and balsamic sauce, a slice of tortillas (spanish potato omelet) and shrimps in a tomato sauce. For diner, our two new friends joined us on the boat to enjoy a paella (spanish rice with seafood) cooked by Gaston. By the way, if you are wondering what the three of them are doing on the picture, they are comparing scares from bicycle pedals that have slipped and hit their shin-bone.Gaston's back is better. Or at least he can move now so we have decided to move on to the next Island. We first headed to Playa Mujeres in the south of Lanzarote to spend the night anchored next to the beach. It is a beautiful anchorage in nice weather but since the bottom is made of mix of rocks and sand, the hold in not guaranteed. In bad weather, the marina Rubicon which is right next to the beach would be a better option. However, it's new, it's big and it's surrounded by shopping centers... a bit too commercial for our taste. So the next morning we left early to head fo
r the island of Fuerto Ventura since we had about 80 nm to cover to get to Gran Tarajal. The trip was all done using the engine since we had no wind. An interesting fact about this island is that it is the closest to the African coast with only 60 miles to get to the Sahara desert. When a storm hits the desert, the sand is transported to Fuerto Ventura by the wind. This created beaches of white sand on an island that is otherwise all dark brown. We are expecting some bad weather for the weekend; a few stormsand 30 knots of wind from the SW. So since we are at present surrounded by concrete walls, we will sit still until the sun comes back. The marina is 6,55 Euros a night and includes electricity and water but no showers, laundry or wi-fi. The first two are done in the cockpit and the later in the cultural center which is about 15-20 minutes walking distance. If you would like to see pictures more pictures of the canaries, check out the web site. We are trying a new format for the picture. Let us know what you think.