It was fun having company aboard for several days, and it was a bit of a letdown to see them leave. But now it was time to begin preparing for departure and provision for the Atlantic crossing. First item on the list for Burger was to don his diving gear and dive under the boat to clean and grease the propeller while I stood watch and lent assistance with the hookah.


Next day we rented a car and combined business with pleasure. First we hunted down some boat stuff at chandleries in Puerto Rico and Las Palmas, then drove north from Maspalomas to explore a new part of the island. The windy road threaded along steep mountainsides and through the Valley of the Thousand Palms, where camels were sitting on their haunches awaiting customers.
Our destination was the tiny cliffside village of Fataga, where we lunched on tasty tapas and beer while sitting on a patio overlooking the vast vistas surrounding us. Tourism was very low key, just a few hikers and bikers. After exploring the cute little town and its artesan shops we drove on to San Bartolome, but it was a bit lacking in interest. On our way back through Fataga we stopped for coffee and cake in a cafe/art gallery.

Our final destination of the day was our favorite Lidl supermarket, where we filled the car with all manner of edibles that should last us far beyond our few weeks at sea. We even found a plump little turkey for our Thanksgiving dinner!

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