Crossing part 3 then came the relief

So after 6 and a half days we sailed in-between the island of Graciosa and Lanzarote the islands sheltering us from the strong winds and the swell reduced and the temperature increased. 

We headed for the anchorage which was quite full and managed to bring down both of the sails which had stuck, the main sail part way up the mast and the headsail was jammed too. We were exhausted dropped the anchor and did our best to stay clear of other boats swinging about still at times with 30 knots of wind in very overcast and choppy water. So a long awaited hot dinner and an early night, oh no it wasn't meant to be, only just climbed into bed the anchor alarm went off which meant we had dragged way too close to another boat behind us. Lifting the anchor in the dark in the howling wind engine noise and the noise of the chain coming in is very loud and then having to re locate hoping for the anchor to reset is very stressful so we had to go into much deeper water than we would have liked in fact almost 15 metres but well away from the reef and other boats we settled down for the night. We spent the next day tidying up, and Don screwing down furniture that decided it wanted to be in a new position. The weather was not good enough for a dinghy trip ashore so the trip planned to explore went out the window. 

Such a pity we had to leave then but we needed to leave to have the wind in the right direction

The "top west side of Lanzarote, nothing to see except hard volcanic rock.

Graciosa town and marina which was full.

We needed the "right wind" to go out the following day, so we headed north back out into the swell and 20 knots of wind for what we thought would be a quick ride into Lanzarote, nothing ever seems to go quite as it says in the forecasts but we arrived in Puerto Calero late afternoon checked in and were sent off to the far wall of the marina. 

Blue skies at last

This is what we followed into the marina

A yellow submarine, I'm trying to get Don to take me on it, not his kind of submarine really.

Thankfully Its much warmer here and out came the shorts and T shirts but it is chilly at night. Since then we have met our friends from  "Dolittle" one of the boats in our group Bluewater cruisers.  People tell us that the crossing we did would probably be the worst we would encounter but I won't hold my breath. 

We plan to hire a car and explore Lanzarote, maybe take the ferry to another island so bye for now. Eventually we will go to Gran Canaria after the ARC rally / race has gone at the end of the month.

Agua Therapy

Don and Glenys