The end of part 1

On Tuesday evening we finally made it out to sea despite a harbour full of swell. A front had gone through which had brought heavy rain and winds but now it had died down and there was barely any wind, which was disappointing. However, it allowed us to enjoy the spectacular sunset over the mountains while eating our dinner. During the night the wind got up and we had the best sail of the whole trip. As I changed over at 6am for my shift I got the fright of my life when I saw flapping out of the corner of my eye. It turned out to be another bird, this time a sea bird, which appeared to be injured, as it could not fly. It was sitting just next to the wheel, which was very inconvenient, and I had got such a fright I had spilt my tea everywhere so I was amused. It was a great passage with a good wind and it was more exciting to do some helming. On the morning of Wednesday we went into the very industrial port of Las Palmas, which was our final destination before we set off across the Atlantic.

We are doing the crossing as part of the Atlantic Rally Cruising, which provide not only advice, but also a series of seminars and socials the week before we set off. We are doing the ARC+ with around 73 other boats but there is also the ARC, which departs at a similar time, which accommodates a couple of hundred boats. Therefore all the yachts that are usually birthed there have to move out of the marina for all the ARC boats. It was blowing very hard when we arrived and all the boats were crammed into tight spaces so it was quite challenging to tie up but we had made it!

We took some time to explore Gran Canaria and went into the mountains, which were far more lush than Fuerteventura and Lanzarote which I preferred. We also spent some time wondering the old streets of Las Palmas but to my mother’s great disappointment I couldn’t face going to another Christopher Columbus museum!

As part of the ARC there is a lot of paper work so it took us 40 minutes to check in and it was quite overwhelming. They gave us a huge amount of information from where to buy all our food to the seminars available to some tips for our costumes for the fancy dress party. Next week we have a variety of events happening which is quite exciting and makes it feel more real!