Arrecife Lanzarote

Arrecife turned out to be a bit of a maintenance stop for us but we also had quite a sociable time as well. The main maintenance and problem-solving session was clearly finding and fixing what was causing the generator to trip off-line. However, we also pulled apart the top of the steering pedestal and replaced one of the 2 compass light bulbs. With the generator up and running again I also finally got around to refitting the proper water pump for it. Last year we had noticed a small water leak from the drive shaft and so had fitted a spare pump that we had on board. When we were at home in Guernsey over the winter we had ordered the correct size of shaft seals and had brought them back with us. So, here in Arrecife I was able to strip down the pump, fit the new seals and, having put it all back together, swap the pumps on the generator. It’s a much better pump and primes instantly which will be good for using the generator at sea [Ed: unlike the temporary spare which is a bit asthmatic and which usually needs the inlet pipe to be primed, which in turn requires a total unload of a very full wet-locker and subsequent cabin chaos when we’re underway in a heavy sea!].

We had last seen Mike and Cate from Kealoha V when we were in La Linea. They had been waiting there for a spare part to be delivered but when their extra crew flew out to meet them, they had had to leave La Linea before the part had arrived. They had routed via Rabat in Morocco and then on to Arrecife, arriving well before us and so we were quite pleased that they were still in the marina so that we could hand on their spares. Sea Dragon, the research yacht whose crew we had met in Selvagem Grande, was also in for maintenance before they head across the Atlantic and then on to Hawaii. We swapped cheery waves with the crew every time we passed them but they were clearly busy working on the yacht most of the time getting it ready for its lift-out.

The other chores for us were adding some more credit to our Spanish SIM card as well as the more routine business of restocking the wine cellar and the fridge. For those jobs we took several walks into town. It’s very much a mix of old and new; modern concrete accommodation and shopping blocks interspersed with the odd one or two much older buildings.

Castillo de San Gabriel   

Protecting the old harbour is the 17^th century Castillo de San Gabriel, which now has a drawbridge causeway linking it to the shore. The castillo houses a small museum but it was closed when we visited. However, we did get to see the 1885, bronze, 21cm calibre cannons. They seemed quite advanced with rifled barrels and breach loading. Each weighed 3 tons and could fire a 78.7kg shell 6850 metres. If we read the Spanish signs correctly, they were used up until WW I.

The older part of the town which we could see from the causeway was rather attractive and there were several tapas bars around a shallow lagoon. The newer part of town was well served with large supermarkets and shops and so the shopping admin was easily sorted.

On our last night in Arrecife, Mike and Cate invited us on board Kealoha V for dinner. Also there were Andrew and Angela from Alytes. They are CA members too and were on the list of yachts planning to cross the Atlantic this year. However, they have had a major change of plan and have decided not to go any further and to put their yacht up for sale in Arrecife. It was a lovely evening with fantastic salmon that Mike and Cate smoked on board whilst we had pre-dinner drinks. With 3 couples’ worth of sailing experiences to share the conversation and wine flowed very freely until we suddenly realised that it was nearly 2 am. A fab evening all round.

The final icing on the cake of our time in Arrecife was that Alex and Lucy, who had lost their flights out to see us when Monarch Airlines went bust, had found some replacement flights which would work with their time off work. We got back to a message asking if we could pick them up from Fuerteventura and drop them off at Gran Canaria. So, our plan to return to the north of Lanzarote and then, with Alex and Lucy, sail gently downwind along the east coast of the island to its southern tip, was all to nought. However, we had already booked BV into the small marina on the island of Graciosa where had originally planned to meet Alex and Lucy, so there was no point in wasting that, and we really wanted to see Graciosa too. So, we rapidly hatched a plan to leave Arrecife on Saturday 14 October to do a short exploration of northern Lanzarote after which we would hightail it south to meet Alex and Lucy on Fuerteventura on Tuesday 17^th October.

Arrecife, Lanzarote, Canary Islands