Harriette Leaving Canaries

Having spent a lazy winter in the Canaries, mainly Tenerife, we are now on our way north towards the Mediterranean, which we plan to cruise for the
summer.

Many thanks to our friends who came out to relieve the monotony. The latest were Roland & Sanyu who flew out to Tenerife, with a flight back from Gran
Canaria. Very brave, seeing as they had never sailed before and this involved at least one all-day passage across a wind acceleration zone. They survived it well, not needing the bucket even once! In the end it was difficult to prize Sanyu off the helm, and Roland was always first on deck before dawn preparing the jackstays and mainsail.

We spent last night in the purpose-built resort of Puerto Castillo, in Fuerteventura. This is built round a semi-circular yellow sandy bay, ideal for a family holiday with kids since the sand slopes gently into the water and the bay is very sheltered, with the marina tucked into one corner. Here we met Rafael and Mary Luz, on their 38 foot yacht which they keep in Puerto Castillo, because it's a lot nicer than Arrecife, where they live. After seeing each other's boats inside, and eating in a restaurant that they recommended, we went back and had drinks on board their yacht.

Today we have motor-sailed to Correlejo, in the north of Fuerteventura. As we entered the harbour Rafael & Mary Luz waved to us from a ferry, on their way back to Arrecife. They had already checked where we could berth, so here we are, alongside a pontoon opposite 2 Guardia Civil launches.

Which reminds me, last night in Puerto Castillo we watched the Guardia Civil empty a 5-metre wooden boat with an outboard and tie it up. They took away about 15 Africans who had evidently just come across illegally from Africa, which is only 60 miles away.

For the last 3 days the weather has turned quite hot and sunny, after a dissappointing few weeks (although not bad compared with England, I suppose). We spent yesterday on the beach catching up on the tan (and getting burnt in places where the lotion missed).

We saw 4 dolphins the other day and quite a lot of flying fish. In spite of what it says in our fish book we're convinced that they actually do fly, not just glide. One went for at least 60 metres without touching the water.

We have crew fixed up for our passage back to Gibraltar via Madeira, although there is still room for one or 2 more for the Lanzarote to Madeira leg, if anyone is interested? We plan to leave Lanzarote in the morning of Friday 18th May. It should take about 3 days to Madeira - just a long weekend, really.

Then, after a day or 2 sightseeing, revictualling and refuelling we'll leave for the longer crossing to Gibraltar, hopefully with Andy Winter, Frank Kormos and John Enston to share the watches.

After that, for anyone who is interested in holidaying or crewing with us, we plan to spend the rest of June plodding up the Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca, July cruising the Balearic Islands, August on the south coast of France, maybe September in the Gulf of Genoa and Corsica and October in Sardinia. Then we'll probably spend the winter in Tunisia and the summer of 2002 cruising the Greek and Turkish islands. That's the dream, anyway!

We'd welcome help with the few overnight crossings, for example Menorca or Mallorca back to the mainland (Barcelona or further north) at the end of
July, and Sardinia to Tunisia in the Autumn.

On On, Fair Winds and Love,