The quietness of La Graciosa



Morning of the 8th of December. On a broad reach towards Las Palmas that has seen wind speeds between 8 and 32 knots. The sun has risen and is projecting its light on Fuerteventura; its mountains appear in a yellow sun haze. Queenie is surfing downwind in a steady 8-9 knots sometimes exceeding 10 knots. 10.8 is the highest that I have seen so far. We have reefed the main while sailing downwind. I couldn't exactly remember, but it went well.



We left Arrecife just after 10 last night. We had enjoyed dinner at a tapas bar overlooking the shallow inner bay. Some people were erecting the municipal Christmas decorations which included a miniature city; not sure if it was Bethlehem. Arrecife has an interesting location with bays and reefs, but is hardly stunning. Maybe it looks better in sunshine?



I read in the Lonely Planet that Arrecife first became the capital of Lanzarote in 1852. This it said explained the lacks of grandeur in its architecture that some of the other island capitals have. However, to its credit it appears very much to be a working city, not just a tourist place.



Marina Lanzarote in Arrecife is brand new. We were made very welcome and is very fresh and well laid out. It had staged the stop over in the Mini-Transat earlier this Autumn, Two of the Mini 6.5 were still there, probably had retired in Lanzarote; one was Estonia's only entry. These small racers look awesome; 6.5m long and 3m wide. I had attended a talk earlier this year at the Royal Ocean Racing Club by the two female British entries. The participants are only allowed GPS and VHF, no long range communication etc, so they receive very limited weather information.



It is now 9am and time for another coffee. Fuerteventura is disappearing astern, but still no sighting of Gran Canaria. We got 37.5 nautical miles to go; should be there between 1-2 this afternoon.