Sailing to Lanzarote (Part 2)

We threw ourseves into a frenzy of activity, deployed our MPS and had a coffee to celebrate our twice-a-snails-pace increase in speed. Disappointingly, the light wind was not so jovial and decided to disappear. Like our competition, we switched to fossil fuel to ensure progress.

All the while, the scenery remained decidedly brown. I had previously thought that volcanic islands had rich and fertile soil and were therefore green. I had only expected that Fuerteventura, to the south, with its more recent (18^th and 19^th century) volcanic activity, was brown. Not so, it would appear.

Arrecife ahead   

The extra miles under engine dragged somewhat. The cliffs got a little blacker and, as the coastline curved away to the west, we got our first sight of the industrial port cranes and power station of Arrecife.

To our right the coastline looked much more like a holiday destination…

... but ahead, Arrecife continued to look much more industrial.

As we turned around the large harbour breakwater we saw that a cruise liner was in port, which was encouraging because they don’t normally dock in places with nothing to see. Even more useful for us was that the marina staff confirmed on the radio that they had space for us in the marina.

Navigating through the harbour into the shallow approaches to the marina (bottom L)   

The main harbour was nice and deep but we needed our work our way past a shallow patch to get to the marina. Past the cruise ship on the left, head towards the refurbished fort on the nose and then turn hard left into the buoyed channel. It was then a case of counting the pontoon arms to find ours and then look out for a mariñero who would be standing by our mooring. Sure enough he was there and we crept in and made ourselves secure in the allotted place. We’d covered 154 miles in 28 hours, but most of it under power.

Arrecife, Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain