18th - 22nd Oct. Mainland Europe to Islas Canarias

Hello there to be sure to be sure to be sure.
Departed Lagos, S Portugal, on Tuesday 18th for the 600 odd mile crossing to Lanzarote. After saying goodbye to the luvverly Gill, who took tran for Faro, the crew now consisted of ace wafoo pilot Chris Chadwick, Dublin ARGE (all round good egg) engineer Sean O Toole,  and meself.
Boring first day of many hours motoring followed by 4 or 5 days of fast downwind and rolly sailing. Single reefed preventered main and poled out 4 rolled genoa goose-wung all the way. Longest downwind run since the old king died don't you know. Rolling like buggery with the old Nelsonian bucket close at hand in case the gills went a bit grey, Plenty of 7 and 8 knot watches. All hands practised at being Ebco plastic sun spanner mechanics, but kissing the lower limb on the storm tossed main is a fine art and few of us managed a cocked hat of less than the size of argentina. Good job we had some of these new fangled GP-whatsits on board.
Although I say so myself, the food on this leg was jolly excellent. Each watch trying to outdo each other,,,,why we even had creme brulee and coq au vin for breakfast. Actually that was leftovers, but very nice all the same.
NO denizens of the deep or Cetacians of any sort. Not even any birds. Very sad. Caught one horse macarel, which was instantly devoured by the crew, so I had to wait a few hours before I could grill it.
Dawn on day 5 brought us the dramatic peaks of Lanzarote (I havent told you about Dawn yet. Nice girl. We keep her in the forepeak as a sort of sailor's comforter).
Wind dropped to zilch on last day, Saturday, so we motor along the E Coast of Lanza dropping in on Arecife and other places for a look-see on our way Sarf. Stupidly I've got very little in the way of charts for this neck of the woods, so I drew some pictures of imaginary islands in my school notebook instead and we use those. I've corrected them for GPS use so they should be OK. The heavens opened on us for most of the afternoon. First rain since leaving Brest in early Sep. Warm and wet.
Amazingly, just as the soft mantle of darkness settled on our weary shoulders we slipped into the rather upmarked Riviera-like marina of Puerto Calero. Here, even the binman wears Armani.
Anyway must sign orft as Chris has to get up early to catch his plane home. Busy 4 day maintainance period about to start. Loads of defects and boat not ready for Captings rounds at all at all.
ps,There is a brand new 160 ft Royal Huismann Ketch here in this harbour.........rumour has it that 100 mill of mulah was needed for her purloination. Very beautiful, but can they do porridge, rescue a stricken spithead pheasant, and wield a can spanner like we can? I sink not.
More later.

pps very sorry about disjointed nature of blog but its been difficult to find places where i can post. Also speeds etc have been too slow for photos. Will try to get some photos on ASAP while in this here marina.