Lucy had no problem with her driving on the "wrong" side of the road and stayed with us for the day returning to spend Friday and Saturday with Hazel and leaving Bethan with us on Sareda.

Will from Shandoo came aboard the following morning for coffee. As he arrived in his canoe that he uses rather than a tender, Bethan noticed a Winnie-the-Pooh sat on his lap - "a present" she exclaimed and was delighted when Will presented her with this cuddly toy. There is a lovely picture in the gallery of Will and Bethan that morning - they got on so well!

I spent the rest of the day in the park and on the beach with Bethan whilst Paul continued stocking up for the next extended cruise. After Bethan had gone to sleep I spent the evening packing it all away - Sareda was full to bursting.

The next day we left the anchorage at Arrecife and sailed back to the Papagayo beaches on the south coast - a passage of about 15 miles. Bethan was so good - she loved the sailing, looking at the sails as we went along, into the water looking for fish, climbing down from the cockpit to the saloon and back again in case she missed anything. She shows no signs of travel sickness or fear and manages to keep her balance very well holding on where and when appropriate.

We anchored off Papagayo but it was a really uncomfortable night as there was a strong swell but Bethan seemed to love it but the next morning we watched the surf crashing on to the beaches and agreed it would be too dangerous to land with the dinghy, so we weighed anchor and headed for Playa Blanca where we anchored in the shelter of the marina wall.

Bethan knows the procedure well now and asked for her life-jacket to be put on for our trip in the dinghy to the beach. Lucy had been watching us from the shore having driven down early to spend the day with us. In the afternoon Bethan and I went for a walk leaving Paul and Lucy sun worshipping on the beach. We found a playground with a paddling pool which Bethan loved and it took much persuasion to encourage her to leave as I thought the others might be concerned as to where we were.

As we returned to the beach Paul was making his way up, obviously looking for us. We told him about the play ground and pool and he suggested we went back again because Bethan had enjoyed it so much. On the way we met a young couple with their little girl who Bethan started talking to. She pointed excitedly to Sareda, at anchor off the beach, and said very proudly "That's my boat, over there!"

On Monday, Lucy, Hazel and Bethan joined us early in the morning. During the afternoon a strong wind blew up unexpectedly and a big swell had developed - Paul was really worried about the boat being at anchor as the wind had turned south and we were now on a lee shore. Peter, who had rejoined us, offered to help bring Sareda into the marina to avoid Bethan and I getting too wet in the dinghy as the sea was by now very uncomfortable. Lucy took Bethan and I back to the marina in the car.

For the last four days of their holiday we looked after Bethan while Lucy took a basic diving course so it was much more convenient being in the marina. For one night Bethan and I travelled on the bus to see Lucy at Costa Teguise and Paul made good use of the time to clean up the engine and bilges - a job he had been meaning to do ever since he serviced it in Arrecife.


As Lucy had hired a car for a week I joined her, Hazel and Bethan on a whistle-stop tour of Lanzarote.

We drove through the National Park of Timanfaya, where, on the side of the Montana del Fuego (Fire Mountain) is the Islote de Hilario restaurant where meat is roasted over a fumerole - a hole in the ground - and twigs burst into flames when dropped into one of the smaller vent holes.

We continued up the north coast to the Cueva de los Verdes, a lava tube 7 kilometres long, which is reputed to be the largest in the world and was formed by the eruption of the Corona Volcano between 3000 and 4500 years ago.

Within the tube is a natural cavern where concerts are held as the acoustics are believed to be near perfect due to the porosity of the surrounding lava rock. The tour through the tube took one hour and Lucy thought Bethan would be bored but she was enthralled.

From there we drove to the northern tip of Lanzarote to the Mirador del Rio designed by the local artist and sculptor Cesar Manrique. From this vantage point you can look down nearly 500 metres across the narrow Estracho del Rio to the harbour of La Sociedad on Graciosa, where we had left 'Sareda' in October when we returned to England to visit family.

We were very sad to say goodbye to Lucy and Bethan at the end of their holiday. Lucy has decided to return to Lanzarote, along with Bethan, from January 3rd for a minimum of three months to complete her diving qualifications, we are therefore unsure when we will next see them, however, Paul & I wish them well for whatever their future may hold.

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Two days before we left Lanzarote we met Renardo and Rihan, brothers from South Africa. Renardo, a doctor, and his wife Nidia had worked in England for four and a half years which enabled them to fund their passage across the Atlantic. Brother Rihan had joined them for the crossing as their insurance specified they had to have three people aboard.

The three of them joined us on Sareda for tea - they were delightful people and Renardo gave us their satellite phone number saying not to hesitate to ring if one of us was ill on the crossing. I was still a bit paranoid at the time as I had attended the doctor's surgery for a course of injections to treat a stomach ulcer a few days before and was still feeling a little vulnerable so we much appreciated his thoughtful gesture.

The next day we weighed anchor and headed for Las Palmas, Gran Canaria a passage of 91 miles which we thoroughly enjoyed and it felt good to be at sea again albeit for what seemed now like a short hop! We had received a letter from the manufacturers of our life-raft recalling some models due to a possible faulty valve and the nearest Zodiac service centre was in Las Palmas.

We did not see a lot of Las Palmas as our time was spent stocking up for the next passage to the Cape Verdes, arranging, delivering and collecting the life-raft from the service centre and ensuring our paperwork was correct.

Our only photographs were of a beautiful butterfly I captured on camera when we stopped for coffee one day and a photo of us both in front of the QE2 which Roma took. We did regret not taking others as the flowerbeds were beautiful, hibiscus in bloom and poinsettias growing in the outside beds in the warm sunshine.

We met up with many of the friends we had already encounered on route, Martin and Roma of 'Apple', Peter of 'Solara', Ton and Tonni of 'Semsin' and Renardo, Nidia and Rihan of 'Shuna'.

We also met new friends Jon and Mavis of 'Kwinto', who invited us aboard for Mavis's birthday party and Jeff of 'Siesta' a friend of Martin and Roma who is now undertaking his third trip across the Atlantic.

The day before we departed for Cape Verdes Chris and Jon from Exeter arrived - what a small world! They built their steel Ebbtide, just two doors away from 'Percussion Sou'west' Paul's previous office, workshop and retail outlet on the Marsh Barton trading estate and we knew them by sight.

On Saturday, 8th December, we left Gran Canaria to commence our longest passage yet to the Ilha do Sal in the Cape Verde islands some 826 nautical miles away.

We said goodbye to Renardo, Nidia and Rihan who were headed straight to Grenada and Ton and Tonni who were off to St Lucia, we were also unsure if we would see Peter again as he was headed directly to Mindelo on Sao Vicente in the Cape Verdes intending to leave for Barbados before Christmas.

Only Martin and Roma of Apple and Jeff of Siesta were heading for the same port as us and we all left within three hours of each other.