Madeira to Lanzarote (and thoughts on Puerto Calero)

Well, we had a rather frustrating trip to here with it taking four days to complete 312 nautical miles. That included over 110 miles of motoring otherwise we would most likely still be out at sea somewhere.

It seems that we have had our first brush with a tropical storm. Not in the sense of being caught out in storm force winds but the wider effect they have. There is a tropical storm Humberto out in the middle of the Atlantic to the north west of the Cabo Verde Islands. For now the NOAA Hurricane Center provides information here. The practical upshot has been to severely disrupt the winds around the Canaries. We experienced extensive calms after the tenth and in one six hour period only managed to cover 15 miles or so. Normally, we reckon on an average of 100 miles a day. On the first day of this last one we had excellent winds and managed nearly 120 miles which is going like a rocket for us!

Still, we are here and now tucked up in Puerto Calerro near the southern tip of Lanzarote. We may move to an anchorage outside the capital town Arrecife if the winds play ball. You need the prevailing NE trades to be blowing there and a northerly swell or it becomes untenable.

This is a snap I took as we made our final approach and it shows the landscape of the island to very good effect.

This is a very typical marina village but it has good services - not least a cheapish laundry so we will be spending a few days here. We also will finally hire a car and do the touristy stuff on this island. Lanzarote is most famous for it's active volcanoes in El Parque del Timanfaya. They also have an interesting sounding indigenous wine industry which we want to investigate.