It has been a busy few days in Gran Canaria, preparing for the next leg of our trip. We are anchored of Purto de Mogan on the south west of the island at the moment.
Last week on Tenerife was busy too: diners aboard Hestur and a neighbouring steel Dutch boat, a night out with our diving friends, ( who we dived/snorkelled with, when we met the turtle ) a lovely French couple, Yasi the dive master, and another couple. It was Halloween, (but it seemed scarier the next morning! ) everyone came to Hestur for ‘Tinto de Verano’ and then we headed out some dinner. Last Sunday We went to the beach bar/shack to see a fantastic lively reggae band, they were brilliant. And we got to know our two French Hitchhikers , Jenny and Guillaume. They were leaving the boat they were on and heading to Gran Canaria to look for a new one heading south. We are not looking for crew ourselves as Hestur is so well set up for the two of us, but it was great having them aboard for a few days. Guillaume is a very good guitarist, and was enthusiastic with our efforts.
We had an appointment in Las Palmas on Friday for some travel vaccines we still needed so we hired a car and drove up there with Jennifer and Guillaume, where they left us . Funny to be back there after the few weeks or so since we were there last. We bumped into some friends again who we had met sailing, and visited the fabulous Fereteria (hardware shop) where we bought some material to make sale covers, Hester didn’t have any and the UV will damage the sails without protection. We also made use of the hire car to do a big shop in a supermarket, will 90 cans of beer do? Kilos of rice, pasta, armfulls of  oranges and stacks of the long life laughing cow cheese. It was a long day in the city.
On Saturday Dan made the two sail covers! They are brilliant, needles to say, they are very smart, neat and well made. Great to have covers for the sails.
Sunday: more jobs aboard including Dan changing the fuel filter on the engine. On Saturday evening ‘Grayhound’ a beautiful cornish lugger which we had first met in Falmouth, came in to the anchorage. She is also heading for the caribbean, but she is taking charter guests for different stages of the trip. It is a phenomenal and beautiful boat which was launched last year by her two inspiring owners / skippers, and is being sailed by them and crew along with their guests. We rowed over to visit and had a tour round. It is a replica of the original Greyhound from Cornwall from in the 1700’s . A really striking boat.
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- Greyhound
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- Dan in the sail loft making the sail covers
We have some more preparations to make: filling up with water and fuel, fixing up mosquito nets on the vents and windows etc and we will be ready for our next leg south. We pan to leave on Tuesday. Today is Dans Birthday , so celebrations aboard and ashore today, starting with a full cooked breakfast!
starboardlocker 
Happy birthday Dan – what a trip you are having, we are loving the blog and seeing your photos and Charlottes sketches. It’s rather cool and damp here in Bristol, but we are easyjetting to Lisbon on Thursday till Sunday. Love Carol and Jeremy
Thank you Charlotte for all of your interesting posts over the past year or so. It does not feel like 6 years since I set off myself from Purto De Mogan to do the trip across the Atlantic to Rodney Bay, St Lucia. I still rate the trip as one of the best things I have ever done in my life and loved every minute of the 22 days we took to cross on Swiftwing. Bon voyage for your journey and I will look out for future posts and photographs when you arrive in the West Indies.
I am very envious!
Happy Birthday Dan!
Happy Birthday Dan.
It will surely be memorable and one which, I hope, you will look back on in a few decades and say, ” Oh ! Yes, that was in 2013 when I spent my xx birthday in Gran Canaria.
……… Where next time?
Lots of good wishes to you and Charlotte for the onward trip.
BPxx
Happy birthday Dan. Have a good onward passage and we’ll talk to you next time you’re in the Minch. Love, Sandy.
Hello Dan and Charlotte We wish you a very Happy Birthday Dan! We have been following all your blogs with great interest and didn’t know you were such a dab hand with the sewing machine, Dan! We would never have thought that was an essential piece of equipment to take on a long cruise! You seem to be extremely well organised for your next leg of the journey to North Africa. How lovely it must be to be enjoying so much warm weather. We are now into a very damp and dismal spell of typical English November weather. We hope to try and find ourselves a holiday somewhere warm for a couple of weeks in January or February. At the moment David is up to his ears at work and we have put his late mother’s house on the market, so we are trying to create some extra space here for some of her things which we would like to keep, so we are trying to have a bit of a clear out. We went to London on Saturday to see a performance of Midsummer Night’s Dream at the theatre. I am trying to keep going with my Tuesday walks, come rain or shine. Love to you both and Bon Voyage again Kathy and David
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