Arrival in Lanzarote,
on february 14th 2000

Monday 14th, 5:30 in the morning. Finally ! We are here after 5 and a half days of sailing ! We anchored behind a breakwater, well protected from the rather strong north-east wind blowing. The adrenaline generated by the arrival gave us the courage to make a noodle soup before going to sleep. It's soooo good to have something warm to eat. First time in three days...
Since we left Sines, south of Lisbon, on the 8th, we've had a constant 4 to 5 meter swell coming from north-west (created by gales in northern Europe). Then, another swell came from the north-east (created by the wind), which added to our discomfort. However there was quite a bit of wind, 20 to 34 knots which enabled us to sail only with the genoa (front sail) at an average 5 knots and up to 8.7 knots in bigger waves.
When we woke up monday morning (much too early for me), we found our friends P'tit Morgat with whom we were in Lisbon and who had left a day earlier than us. The trip was better for them because of the shape of their boat. She didn't moove as much as ours.

February 14th to March 9th 2000

Naos is a fishing port right north of Arrecife, with not much to see besides a very nice shipshandler, and fishing and cargo boat wrecks here and there. But anchoring is comfortable and it's just minutes away from Arrecife. Most sailing ships anchor here rather than in Arrecife which is prettier but not as safe.
Ludo spotted a shipyard where a very nice wooden boat is being built. It is a 17 meter typical canarian boat, built with very good materials. They started the construction a year ago, and they plan to finish next year. How fast, when we think it took us 5 years just to repair and get Askoy ready...

Not too touristy, Arrecife has everything we need to refill the stocks of water, gasoil and food, go to Internet, and have a drink by the seafront once in a while. Everything is within walking distance. Ludo and I had our hair cut, and every day we spend some time in the sun to get some tan. In other words, we are working hard on our new "tropical sailors look"...

After a few days here, Ludo went to meet a French sailor whose boat he saw when we arrived. Lucky (that's his name) is studying to become captain of a mercant ship. He introduced us to Swingy, an artist who is preparing an Edith Piaf tour in the island with an accordeon player whom we met shortly after, and who just about jumped on my accordeon when he saw it. He said it was rare to see another accordeon than his in the island.
A few days later, we met Erick and Kathleen, who charter on a 25 meter wooden Caïque. In no time, all these new friends took us to all the local bars. The evenings never ended before 4 or 5 in the morning. And we were already quite tired when they told us that the following week, there was the carnaval in Arrecife and that we probably had never seen anything like it.
"It's such a party ! You can't leave without seeing the carnaval !" "All right. We'll stay a little longer. We aren't going to miss a chance to party, are we ?"

We can't say they didn't warn us.
Our first carnaval evening was three days ago. We are still recuperating. Tomorrow should be ok...
Saturday, after a long evening on board of Spirit of kathleen, we each climbed on our dingy to go to town. After forcing us to finish the tequila bottle, Lucky painted our hair in red because our disguises weren't that great.
In town, the party was in every street. Music was loud. We were surrounded by monsters, draculas, insects, dragqueens. Ludo ended up with his shirt unbottoned and Lucky just couldn't resist painting a big red heart on his chest. Lucky really liked his paint bottle... There was something magical in the air. Everybody talked and danced together, as if we all knew each other. Some disguises were great, and I spent a lot of time looking around me and laughing at what I saw. Just that was a lot of fun. Then at about 4 am, Ludo's liver started to give alarm signs. It was time to go to bed.

For most of us, the following day just about didn't happen. Except for a couple aspirins and having to throw up, nothing much happened.Personnally, I was all right because I didn't drink too much. But Ludo had a hard morning, I couldn't help smiling when seeing him get up naked, with his red hair and his red heart on the chest, and close the front cabin door for some privacy while he was being sick. Next time I'll take a picture. I hope his mom will forgive me...
Monday morning, we went to visit Esprit de Katheleen, our anchoring neighbours. We began to warn them that the first one to talk about a glass of beer will be throuwn overboard, but then we took a look at them and realised they were in worse shape than us. Katheleen fell when climbing on the dinghy and looked like a hamster, Erik looked a few yars older than the day before...
We had a nice coffee, and then Ludo took a bath to get rid of his red hair and chest.

But the carnaval wasn't over yet. On monday evening there was the parade. What a show that was ! We were in the middle of our "siesta" when the music started. We got dressed and went to town. We spent hours watching the parade go by. It was very well done. There were miles of trucks and buses decorated and full of people dancing inside and around them. A huge crab attacked us in front of the beach, but the third age club, with Napoleon as a leader rescued us. We then were able to watch the dancers with feathers go by (they looked exhausted !), with cave men pursuing them, followed by a whole colony of young draculas, flamenco dancers, live ice-creams, and plenty of other undescribable walking things and creatures...

March 9th to 14th 2000

Completely isolated, Puerto Calero is a nice marina created by Manrique, a very popular spanish artist. It is a good place to repair your boat if needed. Jean-Michel, a French man who's been living here for a few years works on boats and can be of good advice. After several weeks of anchoring, the clean and warm showers of the marina were a real pleasure. It's funny how such simple things like a shower or a very basic warm dish have become at the right time a glimpse of paradise...
However, the small super market is hell ! Soft potatoes, lettuces that look like someone has walked all over them, eggs with the expiration date written by hand by who knows who, and so on.
In the marina, you a huga catamaran takes tens of people to a nice beach for the afternoon. There is also a real submarine and a diving center. For dinner, you can choose among several restaurants of all kinds, but we've never eaten well in any of the three we've tried.
The price for a night in Puerto calero is about 2000 pesetas for boats between 10 and 13 meters long. We found that a bit expensive compared to other places, but other places are not as sophisticated and modern. And hey, they're not designed by Manrique !