I had intended to leave shortly after posting the last blog entry. I spent far too long on the internet, as the computer insisted on performing a virus scan, and then the connections seemed incredibly slow. Returning to the boat, the wind had picked up and rowing back was quite an effort. It made sense to stay in the shelter of Puerto de Naos for another night, and I spent much of the afternoon and evening sewing a pocket in one side of the new sun shade.
Mike was away before me and pulled up an impressive collection of rope on the anchor. He was able to free most of it, and I rowed over to help out with the last bit. I also pulled up some rope, but only a little light stuff, which I put in the rubbish rather than put back for another boat to snag. Mike wanted to try his new steering, and I went up to where he had anchored at the other end of the harbour. He was not happy with it, so would strip it down and if it was not better he would see the engineer again on Monday.
The trip down the coast went quickly with a good wind on the quarter. I had a look at Puerto del Carmen, but decided it was not for me. There were rows and rows of sun beds and a great assortment of fun boats. It would be no fun anchoring off with these buzzing around all day. I followed the coast down and round the corner to the beaches of Papagayo. These were much more what I was after, although the tourist boats do ferry people around from Playa Blanca and there is a little fun boat activity.
The wind blew quite freshly again on Sunday, and I rowed ashore then had a wander down to the point. There are no paved roads, so the options are walking along the beach, or across the tops of the cliffs. It is quite a desolate landscape, with very little vegetation at all. I was curious to see what were the strange structures that I had seen on the other side of the point on my way down. It turned out to be a caravan park, but devoid of caravans. One of the park rangers was there and he told me that it is open from May-September and is full up in the season. The mystery solved, I went for lunch at a restaurant perched on a point, just to the west of Point Papagayo. It is an unpretentious place, but must have about the best view in Lanzarote. See below
I had been fascinated by the appearance of some of the rocks between the beaches. In places there were multicoloured patches. A closer look showed that the grey parts had a seam of quartz running through them. I think that the grey colour is a change bought about by the heat of molten quartz pushing through existing sedimentary rock. I broke off a loose bit which had both colours in it. Some other bits were clearly volcanic, similar to the ones in Bay D’Abra.
On Monday, the wind blew from the South. The anchor was well dug in, but I was reluctant to go ashore, as an afternoon sea breeze could increase the wind strength considerably, and a strong swell would leave the boat vulnerable. I finished off stitching the cover, but when I bent the tent poles over the cockpit, one of them snapped. I shortened the broken bit, but it again broke. The poles are 8mm fibreglass tubes with a 4mm hole in the middle. The offending piece had the hole offset, so the tube was only 1mm thick on one side. The next trick was to run the poles longwise with the cover over the boom. This works, but is not as elegant.
Tuesday the wind again came from the south, so I moved to Playa Blanca. It is just over a mile, so hardly seemed worth taking the sail covers off. I didn’t fancy motoring, so went under genoa alone, reasoning that it would take 15 minutes longer without the main, but would save as much time putting the cover on and off again. I anchored outside the marina rubicon, as the breakwater gave protection from southerly winds.
I walked into town, where the very efficient lady at the tourist information kiosk suggested that I might find an old washing machine at the household recycling point a little out of town on the Papagayo Road. I decided to give it a go the next day, as many such places start and finish early. Most of the town, certainly near the waterside speak very good English, and there seems no need to use Spanish at all, which is no doubt part of the appeal. There are a lot of German and Dutch residents here as well.
On Wednesday I did go to the recycling, going via town to collect a map from the tourist kiosk. It was quite a hike, probably only 4 km, but there was no shade and the dark dry ground warms up in the sun. I did get a switch, but the lady at the place was not co-operative. Ideally, I needed to be fluent in Spanish, to explain why I needed the part, and that I would be removing a plastic item thus increasing the value of their scrap steel, etc. The alternative was to have no Spanish at all and not understand their refusal. So the conversation went something like this:
-Hi, I would like a switch off an old washing machine like this picture, shall I just look in this bin
– No you can’t take anything from here, it’s not allowed
– OK there are none there, what about that trailer over there that looks likely
– No those bits have been sorted. You are not allowed to go there. It is against health and safety regulations
– Look there is exactly what I want. I’ve got my screwdriver, it won’t take a minute
– You imbecile don’t you understand it is not allowed
– OK great, look it tests fine, thanks very much. Is that OK?
– That’s the lot. You are not having anything more. It’s more than my job’s worth. There are cameras everywhere. Get out of here and never return.
– Thank you very much. You have been most helpful.
I didn’t want to press my luck and ask for another for a spare, but made my way back towards the marina across some new estates. That was a strange experience, like walking through a ghost town. Beautiful wide roads, with pavements and cycle paths, pedestrian crossings and areas planted with cacti and canarian palms, each plant separately irrigated. Many of the houses were partly built. One group just had a pitched roof and columns erected. They looked from a distance like Japanese pagodas. Others had the outside completed but were lacking any windows, doors or interiors. Sales offices were padlocked. It just indicates how badly the recession has hit the industry here.
I fitted the switch, which involved lengthening a few wires and adjusted it so that it cuts in when water is nearly half way up the pump and cuts out when it is at the bottom. As the cable on this pump is right at the top, it should never be covered by water, so should last longer than the last one. I played around with the internet a bit. The marina provides an internet connection, but you have to log in, so that would mean going to reception. I found that I could get an intermittent signal from a hotel. If the wind was blowing from the south or west, the boat moved closer so the signal was better, although it was still at the very limit of signal strength. I did manage to order some lights and find the code for some spare bits for my gas soldering iron kit. This has proved a very useful piece of equipment, particularly the hot knife, but all the tips have now stopped working.
Thursday morning, I went to walk up the mountain to the west of Playa Blanca, Montana Roja. It looks like it has a caldera. I thought it was just a bit higher than the one on Graciosa, about 200m high. On the way up, I met a party of German tourists who were being led up by their German tour guide, a young guy in a combat suit. Then an English guy in his late 20s joined from a third direction and we walked and talked a bit. As expected the views behind as we climbed were well worth the effort. This mountain does have a caldera and we were able to walk right around it. The tour guide was at a concrete tower at the highest point. He is based at a German hotel and does the walk every Thursday. My estimate was not far out, it is 196 m high. I think the tower must be a trig point, but it looks like the plate has been removed as a souvenir. From the mountain, you can see that more land to the west has been zoned for development.
We walked back towards town. I went to a café that I had seen that offered a Menu for €4.90. The starter was a salad, and most salads here involve tuna. That was really nice. The main course was Adulpho Galicia, or something like that. It is not in my phrase book, but was octopus, and quite tough as well. It is not a dish I would rush to try again, but I finished it. It must be cheap, because there was a lot of it, or maybe no one else wanted it. I could understand that. I went for a coffee near the marina. Unfortunately I could not get a good enough signal to connect. Went outside, and sat between the boat and the hotel where the signal had come from yesterday, but could not get a signal at all from there. Perhaps their WiFi is down today, because I can’t get the signal from the boat either, so will need to go ashore again at some stage. I would like a fresh weather forecast before moving on.
So I have had to go to one of the many Irish theme bars, which had their wireless connection fitted a few days ago. Apparently I am the first customer to use it. There is some live music going, which is nice. I feel like moving on, having full stocks of food and water and given the legs a good work out. Next stop is probably Isla dos Lobos. Lobos means wolf in Spanish, but Lobos Marinha is the wolf seal. There are none left there, but it is said to be a lovely place, quite like La Graciosa. There is a shallow lagoon on the south side which should give excellent protection from winds and waves. You can see the island from here, it is off the north east tip of Fuerteventura.
Adventures of Scallywag II 