Canary Islands

Not since first setting out from Florida 3 years ago have I been able to raise the sails and go with no plans, agenda or time frame. Now our decisions are made day to day, and simply based on the people we meet, direction of the wind, and the attraction and excitement of new destinations.

One of the greatest things is being able to share the cruising concepts with those who may otherwise not experience it. It reminds us all how easy it is to be happy with the simple things in life – Sun, fun, your best friends and cold beer.

This time in the Canaries we had plenty of people aboard, peaking at 9 come New Years. Oli and Kev were persuaded over a pint on Christmas eve and paid top dollar for flights on boxing day. Soph spontaneously decided a week earlier; Rich flew from Spain before having to return for 4 days to snow bound England 2 days later – It really was fantastic the effort made. This combined with new friends Valerie and Ludo, together with Captain Dan and sister Mons we converted the DB into a floating backpackers.

New Years was spent in a small town not far out of Santa Cruz on Tenerife – Everyone was on fine form bombarding the village street party and dancing till dawn. Although I still can’t understand what Oliver was thinking when he abandoned his 8 friends on shore by taking the dingy back to the boat before going to sleep at 4am… Over the next few days our party crew disbursed a bit returning to the real world, while the 6 remaining moved on to explore Fuerteventura, 150miles east of Tenerife. I was particularly sad to see Monique go - It had been a good few years since we spent any time together and we had so much fun for the few weeks she’d been in Europe. Although Dan and I had hid her passport we eventually caved and let her go back to NZ on the 3rd Jan. Fuerteventura is a truly bizarre looking island – One would easily be forgiven mistaking it for the moon if it was not for the white Sahara sand and turquoise waters.
Although we hired a car and explored the island by land, I took advantage of a good cheap marina and spent a lot of time doing some much needed boat work.

It is often said and quickly forgotten that cruising is simply ‘Boat work in exotic locations’. I was lucky I had a patient crew and everyone was great about helping out where they could. Although Dan is an odd ball and I’m sure gets a huge kick out of spending my money in a chandlery, I can’t thank him enough for crossing a thousand niggling job’s off my list – Some have been on there for 3 years and I’m sure would still be there in 10.

The highlight of the boat jobs is DB’s new transome. DB’s home is once again painted on the stern (thanks to a fine stencil from Valerie), and finally a ‘5 times do it right’ addition with my £400 Ebay self-steering wind vane.

In mid Jan the girls left and took with them any hope of us maintaining a good diet and clean galley. It was great having them both aboard. Valerie is a fun travelling Ukulele playing 5 language speaking Belgium girl who’s now off sailing to Mexico via Cuba.

And of course it was so good to see the crazy French frog Sophie again, never a dull moment with loads of energy, spirit and adventures in the pipeline.

So begins the boys trip… Soon after dropping off the girls we made tracks to Los Lobos at the top of the island (rumour has it this is one of the longest right hand surf breaks in Europe and we weren’t going to miss it). When we arrived we couldn’t have been happier with the setup. The island is protected by the national trust and there is no facilities for staying over night, so the only way to surf it is to be dropped off by boat from the mainland.

We made an effort to get involved with the local customs and stay away from tourist traps

The surf was perfect and we were able to anchor a few hundred meters off the break. It was a great place to be before heading off on the 1000 odd mile passage to the Cape Verde’s.