Graciosa

After a great sail down from Morocco and a good rest, we took time out on the Island of Graciosa, the most northern of the Canary Islands. We anchored in a beautiful bay with a number of other yachts from all over the world, all heading south in preparation for the Atlantic crossing. Graciosa is a stunning volcanic island with many craters, lava fields and sandy beaches. The main town is only a forty minute walk along the beach where most provisions can be had – it has a small marina and many bars etc. for the tourists who mainly come in for the day by ferry from the next door island of Lanzarote. There were a number of other Kiwi boats in the anchorage and so it was imperative that we were able to follow the Rugby World Cup final. Chris and Justin had a walk into the town the day before to try to find a bar which would be showing it, without much luck (Spanish TV doesn’t seem too interested in Rugby, although if you want to watch a good bull fight….)

We decided to try to stream a radio commentary via the internet on board, which worked very well for the first half before the signal dropped – after which we had to rely on the BBC live twitter updates every two minutes! Luckily we also had a running update of the score from the crew of another Kiwi boat who had managed to find some TV coverage in the town. They had taken their mobile VHF radio with them and let us have updates on channel 17 every time there was a score…. and of course when it was all over!

Reading the BBC twitter  coverage of the Rugby World Cup Final with Tony an Aussie from the boat ‘Tactical Direction’.

Mark, a Kiwi from yacht ‘Balveni’ doing a tour of the anchorage with his Kiwi flag, paying particular attention to the French boats anchored nearby!

There was a real community feel to the anchorage in the bay with most crews convening on the beach every evening for sundowners, songs and silly games. International beach cricket was the highlight!

Helen having a go at trimming Justin’s newly acquired ‘beard’!

Justin trying to sort internet problems out on Irene’s computer. Don’t let him near it again!

After a couple of days of settled weather, the wind and swell increased blowing into the anchorage, so we moved to the next bay for a more settled night. We then moved back for one more party on the beach before making tracks down the Eastern coast of Lanzarote to Arrecife and the Port de Naos.