Fist stop was Pascito Blanco. A sleepy wealthy neighbourhood with a lot of "hibernated" germans. The most common way of transportation is the golf car (the course just a couple of minutes away) and the most popular activity´s walking the dog. We took the bus to Maspalomas, the famous/infamous playa. It´s a small piece of the Sahara desert, blown here by the wind. The dunes was so hot you got burnt standing barefoot. And of course the roumors was true, it´s a gay paradise. But how they manage without getting burnt I don´t know. Peek a bu!
Next up, Puerto Mogán. This was almost a spa experience since they got HOT water in the showers. Of course you have to pay for it! For us, 50 ft with the bowsprit, we payed 30€ and then water end electricity on top of that. We anchored at first, had a suspicious about it being expensive but after a couple of hours of the roly poly we gave up and sought shelter in the marina. It´s a really touristy place but in a small scale. No huge hotels and just two story buildings. The marina´s safe and lively and there´s a beach nearby.
Off to Teneriffe! Finally leaving the island. But then, in the middle if the acceleration zone the winch broke. It might have been 35 knots and the waves was breaking. Nothing else to do than to turn back so we´d could use the other winch! We got a tip that Arguinguin was an ok anchorage. Repaired the winch, went in to see the village and in the meantime deciding a new destination. In the afternoon we saw a rescue helicopter going out. The next morning a boat was towed into the marina by a rescueboat, the mast broken but Hampus regognized the boat from Las Palmas. (When we got back in Las Palmas we got to know it was Mark who we´d met before.) He´d been out the same day in the same accelaration zone. Got dismasted, trying to engine and got a rope in the propeller. Since they couldn´t establish a working radio contact and get the right coordinates a helicopter was sent out and he and his dog had to abondon the ship and get rescued by air. Now his adventure´s taking another course, selling his boat at a bargain price (Best price ever, he probably spent the same amount just on the windvane) and flying to Australia.
New plan. We figured since we had to turn back north in a week so maybe it´s just stupid and a waste of time to have to go back and forth through the acceleration zones. The new plan was to go back Las Palmas, fix the genua sail that got a few rips in UV-cover in the acceleration zone and then continue to Graciosa which got the best angle to Madeira. The acceracion zone back here took forever. We had to tack and eventually we gave up and engined close to the coast. The trip that took us 5 hours the other dirrection now took us over 12 hours!
Still we had a few days of "summer vaccation". Swimming, lying on the sun deck with sea turtles paddling around us and Las Palmas fainted to a bleak memory...
This very moment it´s very alive though and we ´re waiting for the next oppertunity to get the hell out of here!
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