Grandpa Currie arrived at the end of August to help out with the passage to the Canary Islands. Before leaving we did the obligatory Gibraltar tourist trip to the top of the rock to see the Barbary Apes. Legend has it that if the apes disappear from the rock that the British Empire would fail. Churchill, soon after becoming prime minister during WWII, had a fresh supply of them shipped to the rock.
While in Gibraltar we hauled the boat to have her bottom re-painted. While we were high and dry we did a short road trip to Seville and Evora Portugal. (sorry, no pictures of those places but it's August, so imagine climbing into your oven, setting it at 400 degrees and braising.)
Hey, this life on land isn't too bad. Cable TV and a crib big enough to hold all of my toys. Swimming pools in the bathroom to boot!
On August 25th we headed out the straights and turned left. At any given time there are 30 or so ships passing through the straights - makes it very interesting going through in anything less then a super tanker. The forecast was for a sustained high pressure system - but instead of no wind we had 25-30 knots and 10-12 foot seas almost all the way.
611 miles and 4 days later we arrived safe and sound in Puerto Calero on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. Just as we approached the islands a huge pod of dolphins showed up jumping out of the big following seas.
Lanzarote is a pretty nice place - good thing as we will be staying here for 2-3 months. The weather here is about 70 degrees year around and right in the trade winds so day sailing should be great. The pool is now open for the season.
RC is growing by leaps and bounds. He's sleeping most of the way through the night these days.
We'll be based here in Lanzarote until mid November and possibly later. If anyone wants to visit there are direct flights from Spain and England to Lanzarote and International flights to the big island, Grand Canaria, to the south of us.