Saturday:

Current position "28:07.68N 15:25.62W". We arrived in Las Palmas at 04:40 hrs this morning. Overall yesterday was significant in its dullness! After such a fine day on Thursday it was cloudy and overcast, with the odd scattering of raindrops, and no wind, except enough to at least motor-sail from 6 pm onwards. It was sufficiently uninteresting that we realised as dusk fell that not one of us had taken a photograph – I’m sure that will be compensated for on other days, and we had lots of interesting things the day before.

 

We did do some further drills, such as putting out the “drogue” (sea anchor) – this is something one uses in gales or worse to give the boat directional stability – and we also did some reefing drills.

 

Having arrived we searched round to find a berth. The next morning the harbour master came round and was all upset that we’d berthed in the wrong place – this despite about three emails to the marina in the past few days asking for instructions where to berth. Anyway, we ended up having to make a move of some 12 places down on the same pontoon; hardly a big deal. After a sleep we dressed the ship (put up all the signal flags) and stocked up small parts in the chandlery. After much needed showers we had dinner, returned to the boat and ended up turning in at 9:30 pm we were so tired; Saturday night – party night....

 

Sunday:

More jobs – Chris working on the netting around the boat, Graham jet-washing the woodwork, James working on the menu lists and required provisioning. We had a visit from the supplier of the water-maker and generator who we’d arrange to pop by. They offered various pieces of advice concerning running and maintenance. At 12pm we stopped and went to watch the ARC parade – a parade of bands, dancers and flags from every country taking part, followed by some dull speeches(!) – pics attached. We had a couple of beers and watched the Grand Prix and then back to more jobs...!