Lanzarote

Marina Rubicon, Playa Blanca - Lanzarote.

WOW!!! this place is just fantastic. We sailed down from Graciosa in about 4 hours with the wind right behind us. We were desperate to see if we could catch some fish, but no luck. Thank god we have a freezer. Playa Blanca is right at the southern end of Lanzarote, bit of a resort town but dead flat anchorage, a very modern and plush Marina and a great spot for visiting friends.

Ocean Breezes were arriving on Thursday afternoon, we were to meet then in one of the Marina bars. Well that set the theme for the next few days.

Chris and Lisa (Ocean Breezes) had a car so we did some tourist things that we'd otherwise not do - was absolutely fantastic!

We went to Cesar Manrique's house which was built in 1968 on top of a volcanic trail from a volcaniceruption that occurred in 1730-36. It uses the natural formation of five volcanic bubbles for themain rooms within the house. His paintings and art are integrated in the natural landscape,apparently his work was notorious for it's simplicity - but we had not even heard of him (of course!), until we did some research into why all the houses in Lanzarote are white and how itbecame that way. His house is amazing, although alot of it is now shut off to the public (he died in1992, in a car crash not far from his house), but all the rooms and passage ways were built into theVolcanic bluish-black lava flow, very cool!

So apparently if it was not for Cesar Manrique, the Island of Lanzarote would not look like it doesnow. He fought for all the buildings to be no higher than the tallest palm tree and that all thehouses should be the same colour (expect for the painted wood which colour changes on location ofhouses). So all the buildings here are white, and amongst the Volcanic Landscape it just looks amazing. The only difference is the painted wood of doors and frames which change from maybe blueto green. The housing is somewhat similar to that of Greece, but with the lush green of the Cactusgarden landscaping it's really something - we love it!

From there we went to explore one of the Underground Volcano lava tubes ( where the lava flowed outand down toward the sea ( it's 7km long!!!) Anyway we were down there making endless jokes aboutAustin Powers, Doctor Evil's secret Volcano Lair...how silly we were being - the other Pommie and German tourists were just staring at us - but we were in uncontrollable fits of laughter.

We had a great time with Ocean Breezes, but once they left if was back to getting the boat ready for the 2800 mile sail across the Atlantic.

Satellite email had to be sorted, the SSB radio ( high power long radio) had a few problems - we found that at some frequencies it would reset the battery meter, other frequencies it would turn on the bow thruster!!We had a few sail items to sort out, restock the freezer with some meat pies ( found some in the super market) fill up with fuel, wax the hull. Jason really wants a bow sprit for the spinnaker so we will see if we can get something made. Then it's just wait for the wind to sort itself out.

Right now it looks like it may be good around the 25th November. Only problem is that from a nearby island there is a yacht rally (sort of a relaxed race) to the Caribbean - they will sail into St Lucia. The rally has 255 boats this year, all of which head out on the same day (same minute!) so it looks like there will be a bit of traffic out there - may have to pay a bit more attention than we are used to.

We will sail (well that's the plan) into Saint Marteen at the northern end of the Caribbean chain, hopefully all will go well and we will be able to get there without any problems. The trip should take around 18 days (SHOULD)!

J&J