On to the Canary Islands

Although we escaped the Straits with no real drama, we spent the day and night beating into the wind down the African coast. After 130 miles of that, it seemed that spending a night in Casablanca would make sense while we waited for the wind to turn more favorable. As it turned out, sailing vessels are not allowed into the busy port and we were directed to Mohamedmedia to look for a berth. We did manage to get the only open spot at a rather rickety dock. The customs officer was friendly and helpful, stamping us both in and out of Morocco so that we could depart in the early morning, which we did.

We continued motor sailing through the day until the wind came around and finally at midnight we were able to rig the pole and go wing and wing. Morning brought turtle and dolphin sightings as well as a little gold finch hitch hiking on the stern life line! The wind continued to be a mixed lot as we worked our way south over the next few days arriving in Lanzarote around 9am on Monday Sept 19. We pulled into Marina Lanzarote in Arrecife on the east side of the island and found a comfortable, new marina brimming with boats participating in Jimmy Connell's Barbados rally.

The next day we rented a car and drove around the island's north end with it's fields of lava, stone and cactus. We went into the Cueva de los Verdes - an underground volcanic tunnel that is 6km long, and drove to the lovely town of Teguise passing vineyards planted in ash with vines surrounded by lava rock walls. The island is big enough to warrant a two day drive, so we toured the south end the following day. There we visited the Montanas del Fuego Parque Nationales de Tianfaya - a required bus ride through the volcanoes.

Lanzarote was a pleasant surprise but then it was time to move on! An 8 am departure for Gran Canaria started with....motoring but was soon followed by a romping wing on wing sail, rolling with the swell, and careening along at between 6-8 knots through the night. We sailed down around the southern side of Fuerteventura with it's beautiful cliffs and hills, across the channel and busy shipping lanes and into the unbeknownst to us "acceleration zone" where it blows 30+ knots on a regular basis - just when we were trying to slow down! Thankfully it was behind the beam. Then just as suddenly as we accelerated, we hit the "deceleration" zone and calmly entered Puerto Mogan just as it was stirring to life, like 9:30 am. Such is life in the islands!

That's the news from EQ, where the winds are fair, the seas calm and the crew content.

With Equanimity and Joy...

To the Spainish Mainland

With August nearing an end, we carried on for the mainland of Spain landing in Cartagena. We set the spinnaker and ran through the night with it - a smooth 144 miles. Although Roger was sleeping at the time (and Kim debated whether to wake him up), EQ passed from east to west longitude at 23:08 and is back in the western hemisphere after 12 years in the east!

Cartagena has been inhabited for over two millenia, being founded around 227 BC and it currently has a population of about 200,000. The city had it's heyday during the Roman Empire and much of it's historical weight is due to the coveted defensive port, one of the most important in the Western Mediterranean. It continues to be the main military haven of the Spanish navy and is home to a large naval shipyard (where we went to get our passports stamped but that's another story). 

The city contains a number of landmarks such as the Bull Fighting Ring, a Roman Theater and an area of Roman ruins being excavated and preserved in a covered outdoor museum. Other charming features included the wide pedestrian streets, the Art Nouveau buildings, the street sculptures and the landscaping. We rode the glass elevator to the castle on top of the hill and read a short history of the city. 

It would have been nice to travel further into Spain but we thought it best to move on to Gibraltar, as we had fair weather to do so. 

Once in Gibraltar, the work began in earnest and Roger spent practically two weeks in the engine room or at the Perkins parts dealer. We did manage to get out and about town a bit but other than a trip to the top of the rock, St Michael's cave, and a visit to the Gibraltar museum to see the Neanderthal exhibit, found it rather uninspiring. The English supermarket was a treat though (as in proper oats) and we walked across the airport runway border into Spain (with not a glance at our passports) to go to the mercado and stock up on nuts and dried fruit for brekky.

As it turned out, the Spanish immigration police said we like Americans and Kiwi's, so no worries about staying as long as we liked. They were kind and helpful in Cartagena and stamped our passports anyway but let us leave whenever we liked. But at "the Rock" we could walk across back into Spain and no one cared. So, all the worry about making sure we didn't overstay our 90 days in the EU was for naught. We do like Spain. :)


But the Rock was crowded and busy, certainly a nervous lot, especially with Brexit just happening, and so was time to move on. EQ's inner workings got a major refit; all new hoses on the Perkins engine along with cleaned and calibrated injectors (now she purrrrrsssssss), a new water heater (hot water anytime again), and a new very quiet engine room blower (yipppppeeeee). And so we worked out the tides (we hoped) for escaping the Med out through the Straights of Gibraltar, no easy task mind you. We found a decent weather window for the 4-5 day trip to the Canaries and shoved off at 4:00am. We did swirl around a bit in the eddies but managed to get flushed out to sea. Into the Atlantic we go!!!!!

So, that's the news from EQ, where the seas are full of eddies, the winds on the nose (as usual), and the crew content to be back at sea.

With equanimity and Joy...