There was a light breeze of about 15 knots, so we slipped out of the anchorage and headed out for a
nice 96 mile sail. This should place us in Las Palmas right on "beer o'clock" - Jo was still in
bed so Jason pulled up anchor and got the boat settled in with a full main and jib out.
We were making good progress, dodging a few of the fishing boats that always seem to be up and about
before us - no matter what time we leave?. About 15 miles out, way out in front we could see a
massive amount of lights. Checking the chart there was no island out there, so our first thoughts
were that it's an oil rig? No oil rig, but a HUGE ferry coming in our direction, it passes on out
port (left) side about a mile off.
Now it's all dark again out in front and we can see another set of lights, ahh this must be another
one of these fishing boats, so we keep an eye out, the thing was it was getting closer quite
quickly!. Taking a look through the binoculars we can see a silhouette of what looks like a ship
but it was very hard to see.
A little while longer, yep it's a ship/ferry something, but from our angle there were bugger all
lights on this thing, just three VERY small lights and it was coming directly at us. So we punch
the autopilot up 20 degrees, no luck it's moving real fast now. Rules of the sea state that all
boats should pass port to port (left side of the boat to left side of the boat) and also that boats
under power give way to sailing boats.
Well this was not looking like port to port, rather bow over boat, so we quickly turned on all the
deck lights, anything that would light up the sails. A few minutes later the ship does a big turn to
the right and we can see the side of it. It was a big ferry loads of lights on the side but not a
thing up front???
I guess when you are on a big boat like that a little sailing boat would look like a beer can
floating in the water!
The rest of the sail was quite good, Reverie was sailing really well in a nice groove, the wind
moved a little more forward of where it was meant to be, but it was good fast sailing as we pushed
our way to Las Palmas at around 8.5 knots. We arrived to a very busy anchorage, 75 boats, dropped
the anchor just before 5pm and settled in for arrival drinks.
Every year around this time there is a Yacht "Rally" where a bunch of boats all head out from here
(Las Palmas, Gran Canaria) to the Caribbean. Over the years this "bunch" has turned into 255 boats
and they all leave from here all on Sunday the 26th. - ITS A BLOODY MAD HOUSE, quite funny to
see actually. There are people on the dock, taking all the labels off tins of food, and washing
their fruit and veges in chlorinated water ( for fear of having a bug infestation).
The local chandlery is out of control, it's like going to the local deli/butcher, where people have
to take a number and wait to be called.
There is this mad panic in the air. People seem to be putting so much food on their boat they could
feed a small country. We saw one 45ft boat with what looked like a whole banana tree, it would have
had well over 200 bananas on it. We only hope they have good toilets on board.
We plan to leave here just after the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) leaves, maybe Tuesday or
Wednesday. We have a small oven problem to fix and then we will be off.
Okay it's 11am now Sunday morning and all the ARC boats are getting themselves sorted for their 1pm
departure, camera crews/TV crews are here, it's all happening. It's blowing about 20 knots, (last
night it was blowing 30, and gusting into the 40's) we just looked through the binoculars and there
is a massive sea out there, we are happy not be leaving, we will watch the ARC boats leave and then
head ashore for a latte.
Cheers!
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