Count Down To The Caribbean

Christmas 2017 was spent in Rubicon Marina, it seemed strange to be celebrating in the warm sunshine, and as the Spanish don tend to celebrate Christmas day, (they celebrate Christmas eve and the 6^th night, the arrival of the three kings) it all seemed very conservative. Christmas day we treated ourselves to a lovely meal at Restaurant in Papagayo, best restaurant so far, problem I ate too much.

The following week we continued to get the boat ready for the passage to the Caribbean. On New years Eve we again treated ourselves to a meal at Lani’s in Rubicon, the meal was not as good as on Christmas day but was probably as expensive. They did however provide a party bag per person and a very good firework display.

We had intended to have a leisurely day on January the first but as we were running out of time and still had several jobs to complete we decided to have a bike ride to the lighthouse then get back to work after lunch. On the 2^nd January  our crew Trina and Ian arrived, after showing them the working mechanisms of Kailani, (their boat is smaller and a different make to Kailani) we set off for Las Palmas Gran Canaria to get the remaining  provisions for the trip. We arrived late in the evening and anchored in the bay, where several boats were also at anchor, we are still amazed as to how many sailors anchor without mooring lights. Over the next two days we obtained the remaining provisions and equipment from the Chandlery, we checked that the nets we had made to contain our fruit and veg were adequate and so we were now ready for the off (the nets have been admired and photographed by several sailors).

We had intended leaving for our Red Rock on Tenerife on the 6^th January but as strong winds were predicated we decided to leave on the 7^th. As we left the harbour the swell was quite significant 3 to for meters coming from the north and so we decided to head south to Anfi del Mar at first it was a little uncomfortable however after we changed tack it was much better, the waves were from behind and at times we reached 10knots as we surfed down the waves.

From Anfi del Mar we had intended to sail to Red Rock, but as we neared the anchorage the swell was from the south west and was going straight into the anchorage. As we had left Anfi del Mar at 0200 we still had time to make it to La Gomera and San Sabastian marina before night fall and so we changed course and headed there instead.

La Gomera was the last island in the Canaries we intended visiting, and planned to hire a car and head inland to see the sights that so many people had told us about, and we were not disappointed.

We headed to Valle Gran Rey, a very pretty seaside town where we enjoyed lunch then it was off back up the mountain road, the views were spectacular and Gomero is certainly very green. We stopped at Mirador de Abrante where we looked over to Tenerife from a glass walkway, whilst there we were treated to a demonstration of the islands unique communication system called Silbo.

This is a whistled language still used by some Gomeros today and can be heard up to 5 kilometres away, and it has been taught in schools since 2000. From there it was time to head back towards San Sebastian.

Finally the day has arrived for us to set off across the Atlantic, after checking the weather we plan to head south to catch the best of the wind before heading eastward to Barbados. Team Kailani are raring to go.