Journal, Arrive in the Canaries

"Sunday November 16:
"Madrid airport after a typical transatlantic red-eye...half sleeping for a few hours. A bad lasgna and a five dollar split of bad red wine, but the Etymotic earplugs are wonderful. Nobody looks in my bags in Madrid or later in Lanzarote.
"The Island of Lanzarote is a very young volcanic island - 2000 ft mountains and lots of raw volcanic slag everywhere with very little greenery.
"The hotel Volcan at Marina Rubicon is themed to suit. The reception building is a 5 story cone of black volcanic rock with a 30 foot opening in the top. The reception area overlooks a 3 story waterfall into a pool surronded by palms and ferns.
"The rooms are beautiful - scattered through buildings that spread organically from the volcano like a spanish village. There are 4 or 5 restaurants, 3 bars, and pools everywhere."

Hotel Volcan

"Next door is the marina where Anthem has lived since September (when she sailed down from Cowes). It's a huge developement - lots of condos and other buildings of unknown intent (still empty) surrounding the harbor. A giant investment- somebody has a lot of confidence in the future of Lanzarote."

"Sunday PM, Anthem is launched and we rinse off two month's accumulation of Lanzarote's ubiquitous red dust. Then dinner at the 'French' restaurant at the hotel Volcan where we sample a couple of bottles of the local Lanzarote wines." (Tom, our skipper, is quite a wine afficianado - always interested in learning about new wines. He blesses the local white.)

Anthem in Lanzarote

"Monday
"Big breakfast buffet at the hotel, then spend the day rigging Anthem for the sea. Steve T and I spent the day re-reeving halyards and reef lines (which had been removed for the two months time Anthem spent on the hard, mostly to protect them from sunlight and dust. Small lines called messengers were left inside the mast so they could be easily pulled back into place), and bending on the mainsail and roller furling genoa. We also rig the storm dodgers and jackstays (Dodgers are canvas constructions that protect the hatches and part of the cockpit from spray. Jackstays are very strong lengths of nylon webbing that stretch the length of the boat. We will use tham to tether ourselves to the boat so that if we should fall overboard we will, hopefully, not be left behind...).
"Late in the day we get a message that Ashley, one of our (eight man) crew, is having problems. He is Antiguan. His itinerary was to take him from Antigua to Miami to Madrid to Lanzarote, but the American Airlines ticket agent in Miami tells him he needs a visa to enter Spain and won't let him on the plane. This is a little a strange since he was one of the crew who delivered the boat from England and entered Spain twice on the way, once in Vigo and once again in Lanzarote. The Spanish consulate in Miami is no help ("Ah, senor, we are so sorry. A visa usually takes 10-15 days, but you must be a resident of the US for us to help you here...")....
"Monday evening we walk the two miles for the marina to Playa Blanca, the beach resort town down the road. The beachfront offers the choice of about 40 restaurants - a real tourist haven - and we have a nice dinner of grilled meats and prawns - and of course some spanish wines.
"Tuesday is spent loading an storing non-perishable food for the trip - canned goods, crackers, etc. and checking over the electrical and mechanical systems, and negotiating the final bill with the boatyard at the marina.
"Mostly we are waiting until evening to start our 95 mile trip to Las Palmas on Grand Canaria where the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) actually starts. The trip will take about 12 hours and we want to arrive in daylight.
"Got under way about 6 pm. A beautiful night sail with 10-18 kts breeze from the northeast (we are headed west by southwest). We sail under singel reefed main and furling jib. Eventually the wind drops to under 10 knots at dawn and we motor in to the yacht harbor in Lasa Palmas. After fueling up, we are wedged in between a couple of smaller boats at the marina - the consequence of being one of the last ARC arrivals, but we are actually closer to the city than many of the boats our size.."

Marina in Las Palmas