The weather is good, the visibility is correct. Today is the 28th september and off we go towards the Canaries Islands!

A first cargo appears far away on port, here comes the cargo rail. Now a second, then a third... we´ve got a good speed (about 5 knots) and the rail is about 8 miles wide : 4 miles for each direction. We are carefull and keep looking at these floating monsters. They remind us of those, overloaded, that we used to sea on the Elbe from our offices in Hamburg.

Finally, they are all behind us and the horizon strectches out in front of Cephee, while the portuguese coast slowly disappears.

The sun goes down, replaced by thousands of stars and a round full moon. We feel that latitude decreases as nights are softer and softer. We fish successfully, mostly small tuna, that we arrange in various dishes : Tuna salad, tuna civet, tuna hachis Parmentier, tuna papillotes... Helene is changing her mind on this fish she didn´t really like. We have to take out the lines in order not to catch too much fish!

The wind stabilizes from North, between 15 and 20 knots, is that finally the trade winds we were looking for !?! Conditions are great, even if the sea is a bit agitated. If the wind doesn´t change, we´ll reach the Canarians within less than five days...

And indeed, on saturday evening (we left on tuesday morning), we can see the Alegranza island appear. Night is falling and we hurry up to find a place to anchor.

This island looks like a stone in the middle of nowhere. There´s nothing but birds on it and we read this volcano appeared more than 3 million years ago.

The wind turns in the night and the eastern swell prevents us to sleep well despite our fatigue. So, we decide to go further to the Graciosa island (4 miles away) while the sun rises.

We land there, amazed by landscapes and water transparency. Other boats are moored at the small harbour of Cabo del Sobre, the only village of the island, and they spontaneously come to help us. Our neighbour´s name is Mamuroba, a french steel boat, occupied by a 4 member family.

Graciosa looks like Alegranza but bigger (27 km² against 5 for Alegranza) and is inhabited. The village, with its small white houses looks like a postcard picture.

Marc, Muguette, Robin and Bastien, our neighbours, welcome us and explain us that the harbour isn´t finished yet, that´s why there´s neither electricity nor water and we don´t need to pay. It seems that it is the same since years and we wonder why they don´t finish a harbour like this (pontoons are new)...

The village is in fact mostly made of houses to rent for holidays to tourists. It grew a lot lately and will probably become a touristic spot in a near future. Water is driven by pipes from the next island (Lanzarote), where it is taken from the ocean and unsalted.

Made of 4 volcano, from 100 to 265 m, its vegetation is very limited as it rains about 15 cm a year. A ferry feeds the island with victuals and tourists twice a day.

Marc and Muguete invite us for the dinner, they´ve got too much fresh fish ! They built their boat themselves in 4 years and the result is really good. They foresee to cross the Atlantic this year, after a stop in Cape Verde.

The day after, we go walking on the nearest volcano. From there, we´ve a wonderful overview on the island and its neighbours.

In the evening, we land on Ilo, a great aluminium Garcia whose owners are Michel (29) and Marie (25). They introduce us Patrice, Geraldine and their two daughters, Eliza (3) and Marie Lou (5) who navigate on Gambade, a concrete boat. Delicious Barbeque with very nice people whose lives are full of travels and fabulous experiences.

We leave Graciosa with Gambade the following day, to go to Arrecife, on Lanzarote island. On the way, we see spermwhales, a few meters away from Cephee.

Arrecife allows us to do some shopping and to find some change pieces for Lucien, the flatner which is getting old, but we don´t like the city and we don´t stay. We go further to the south of Lanzarote.

Once the Papagayo cape passed, the beaches offer a superb anchorage. No hotel reached this place yet and the bay, naked and arid looks like what we imagine of some African coasts. We swim and enjoy the sunset while tasting the freshly fished Bonita.

The day after, we walk to visit the marina one told us about. It is about 2 km away from where we anchored and we discover on the way tourism ravages. After the beaches, hotels, holiday villages, houses to rent, brand new highway, cranes... and the marina. Everything is new, and the cranes work hard not to let the least unoccuppied area. Papagayo, how much time is there left before you disappear under hotels? The marina offers us the possibility to repair our Spi, torn since the Finistere cape (they can lend us a room) and to work a bit on Cephee.

On the way back, we see a 4 star hotel and can´t resist to its huge swimming-pool. We simply enter and have a swim !

We go back to our beautiful anchorage, where we finally have the worlds biggest swimming-pool.

Then we spend 2 days at the marina, where we get to know Hilda and Simon, a formidable english couple. Retired, they sail round the world on Calisto. Without them, we coudn´t have repair the Spi. Real experts, they spent a day with us to help us with their knowledge in sail rpairs and their special sewing machine. we thanked them with a good french dinner. Hilda and Simon already crossed the Atlantic 5 years ago and they do it again. We really spent a good time with them.

Our next stages are Fuertaventura, then the Gran Canaria where we´ll equip Cephee with a device to allow our SSB to transmit, and maybe a water maker. The 21st october, we´ll have Cecile and Alexandre on board (Helene´s sister and her boyfriend) for one week, which we´ll probably spend in La Gomera (apparently one of the most beautiful islands of the Canarians, not spoilt by tourism) before we cross to Cape Verde, at the end of the month.

A local recipe:

Mojo Picón :

Hot Canarian garlic sauce

2-4 dry chilli peppers, 1 head of garlic, 1 teaspoon of salt, 200 ml oil, 100-200 ml white wine vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon of cumin, 1/2 teaspoon of hot paprika, 1 pinch of powdered saffron

 

Pour boiling water over the chilli peppers and leave them to swell for 1 hour. Peel the garlic and chop the cloves into not too small pieces.

Place the cilli peppers, garlic, salt, 100 ml vinegar, cumin, paprika, and saffron in a mixer and mix until you achieve a homogeneous mixture. Then start adding the oil bit by bit fluidly without stopping mixing. Put more vinegar up to taste.

If you prefer a creamy garlic sauce, add also red pepper to the mixer.

This sauce is perfect with boiled potatoes, rice, fish or meat. There are two variants : the red and the green which are served in all restaurants in the Canarians.