First things first we were met with some really friendly Marineros. They took our lines, listened to what we asked them to do and did it and the result was we parked up very nicely, stepped off and shook their hands. Some of the other people on the pontoon came down and said hi and then left us to it. We needed to tidy up a bit. Not too much as we (read me) do tend to keep the boat pretty tidy as we go along, but life jackets etc needed putting away, the heads needed cleaning and the cockpit needed washing down from all the Franco fur. This could wait. The Canine Captain was calling and he had found his way to the top of the pontoon and was waiting patiently to be let out.
After about 30 minutes we made it to the end of the marina, with every single piece of vegetation having been suitably watered. I think given half the chance he would have gone back to the boat to restock up on fluids to carry on, but instead we went off for a wander as neither of us (or any of us if you include the dog, but that would be a bit odd) had been here before. Arrecife is a great town. It is non touristy so from our point of view had a really authentic feel to it. We asked around and found out there were a few supermarkets within walking distance, but as we had already decided to get a car shopping was not going to be too much of an issue.
We got back to the boat and I tidied up while Lee went off and sorted out the paperwork. It may not be obvious to some non sailory people but we have to keep all the original paperwork and then copies of these on the boat. In addition they are also backed up to a hard drive and also accessible from Dropbox. One set live in an easy to grab folder with all the boat and our paperwork in. Franco has his own folder, so it’s dead easy to grab both folders and know everything you need is ready to go and in one place.
After tidying up I went up to see how Lee was getting on. The paperwork can sometimes be quick or can drag on a bit, and this was dragging on a bit so I bimbled up to the marina office. And there I found him chatting to a guy called Anthony we had met up with and befriended in A Coruña!
Now we have had the privilege to meet LOTS of sailors and people who have done many epic things, but this guy Anthony is hands down, a Dude. He was a fisherman in Shoreham which is where I was born, and he decided one day he had had enough. He carried on working and saved up enough money to buy a boat and get some savings going on. He moved onto a boat, did some work on it. Phoned his Mum from the boat on his clam lid phone and asked her what the weather was like. She put on the news, watched the weather, told him it looked good and off he went. In the middle of Biscay he hit that massive storm that had kept us in A Coruña for all that time. He didn’t have autopilot and in his words “it was a little lumpy”, he hoved to in the middle of Biscay for 5 days, ate tuna and crackers and slept and then carried on when it passed. We met him on his way in and as he looked a bit bedraggled we invited him over for some beers and dinner. We became pals and asked him where he was heading, and he said he thought the Canary Islands as they would be warm. We said if he got there give us a shout and dinner would be on us. And it was.
We had decided to get a hire car as we were keen to see all the island had to offer, and Franco meant we were unable to take the bus, which was a bit of a bummer. We got the car and we were off!! And around it we drove. It is an incredible and eerie landscape with lava fields and dormant volcanoes, like something from a Sci Fi film based on Mars. Think Total Recall with Arnie and you are on track. Obviously the tourist hotels are all planted up fabulously, but this is not the same around the rest of the island, which is pretty much beautifully barren apart from a couple of stunning small towns, amazing views and some wonderful, stony, semi circular vineyards. And cacti. Lots and lots of cacti. And possibly the world’s largest supply of Aloe Vera. We were unable to visit the few tourist attractions because we had Franco with us, but this was a small price to pay and we really enjoyed roaming around and stopping now and again when we wanted to. We mainly stopped at Aloe Vera shops as that’s all there blimmin well is, but they were very nice Aloe Vera shops. Kind of felt a bit bad I had bought a bucket of the stuff off Amazon before we left.
Overriding everything is the influence of world famous artist and sculptor César Manrique. Thanks to this incredible man there are no high rise buildings or advertising billboards scarring this amazing landscape. All these are banned. There are wind toys around the island, most clearly visible on nearly all the roundabouts which are adorned with his sculptures. These manage to fuse nature with art to incredible effect. Local homeowners follow the lead set by him and the buildings are almost universally painted white with green or blue woodwork. This makes the architecture soothing and restful to look at. And there are his incredible houses. I visited one and it really was lovely. It was meant to appear as if he had just left the room, and as such had a lived in feel to it, splashed with stories about the famous people he had entertained there and his studio which still had art on the floor as if it was being worked on. It had a little bit of a 70’s James Bond vibe going on.
We spent 5 days on Lanzarote, as really wanted to see it properly. We visited the pretty marina Rubicon, went swimming, went to the amazing marina gym, ate in some fabulous restaurants, caught up with old friends and relaxed. However we had things to do and places to see so it was soon time to move on.