Nothing happening here yet
03 November 2017 | Lanzarote
Not for the want of trying, I have been trawling the marinas in Lanzarote for the last three days with only one possibility of a berth which did not work out, the skipper is planning to cross the Atlantic with very little experience and no insurance. Or real plans for crew or food and water.
On a nicer note the owner (Joy) and his partner of my first Airbnb were very nice and helpful, his home was nice and comfortable if a little off the beaten track, so he driven me in towards Playa Blanca to continue my search for a boat ⛵️which still took about an hour to get there.
Lanzarote is just so barren, now I know that it is hundreds of old volcanos 🌋 but there are hardly any trees 🌲 one Thing that I learnt was that there is very very little rain fall here on the islands therefore water is at a premium. On the sides of all the hills I noticed that there are lots and lots of very small walls no more than 1m high, forming lots of very small pens (some no more than 20m square) all over the place. Also there were set out in thousands of (walls) small semi circles with shallow ditches within, which is to prevent the wind from damaging the thousands of vine plants inside (one per semi circle) , apparently the vino is very good from here (But as people who know me will also know that I only use it (wine) to put on chips 🍟)
This morning 01 Nov I caught a taxi to my new bed and breakfast the taxi driver insisted that we were at the correct address. I tried to tell him that he was wrong in a polite way, however he made me get out. I knew we were not at the correct place so I had to carry my three bags which weigh almost 50kg, well over 800 m to my new digs.
Over the last four days I have spent around €150 on taxi fares, this is the problem being so far away from anywhere, so I now have a hire car which has cost me only €70 for 4 days how good is that? 👍😃. I have spent today in the two marina's that are around Arrecife the capital. I managed to speak to 5 or 6 skippers but none of them know of any boats going to the Caribbean in the near future or anywhere else for an extended period. It now looks like I may have to fly over to Gran Canaria to try out a few marina's there. Which is where the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) starts from.
Something that is very disappointing with this island is that there seems to be no maintenance. On the seafront alone there are hundreds of wooden boards on the jetty's and pontoons, that are missing with large holes just waiting for someone to fall into. The streets are covered in dog muck, out of all the people I saw walking dogs not one had a bag for collection. One thing I did see was an enclosed area about 50m square with lots of obstacles for dogs to play in, in this area I did not see any dog muck. The sun is still shining and the temperature was around 26°C