Seriously, we were intending to come in here tomorrow but after a trip back to Puerto Calero for reasons outlined below we spent a couple of hours being very uncomfortable and then upped anchor and came into the marina. It is a lot more comfortable here. This is a picture of one of our neighbours in the anchorage.
We also had a bit of good news as well. One of the things we are going to do is upgrade the navigation light at the top of the mast. For non yotties, you have to show a specific set of navigation lights when sailing at night. A yacht (We do qualify as such here) has to show a red light on the port side round to 113 degrees, a green one on the starboard side and a white light for the remainder astern. This is done with a single light at the top of the mast called, logically enough, a tricolour. It is supposed to be visible from 2 miles so has to be reasonably bright. For an incandescent light that equals 25 watts which drinks a lot of battery power all night. There have been LED alternatives for some time but they have till now be ludicrously expensive. Just recently they came down in price so we ordered one from our favourite on line chandler - Force4.
Of course, getting stuff delivered to the Canary Islands should be easy shouldn't it? They are part of Spain and Spain is in the EU right? Well, sort of. Las Islas Canarias are not part of the EU economic area despite being part of Spain and using the Euro. This means that all items delivered to the islands have to clear customs. Our light left the UK fine but then got stuck in customs here on Lanzarote before being sent back to the couriers depot in Madrid.
After a lot of toing and froing, we have finally got it and now just have to get it fitted at the top of the mast. Clearly, there will be a long post with photos for that. This is what the beast looks like anyway.
I should like to make a special thanks to Force 4 who have been very helpful and stock a wide range of chandlery. Click here for their website.
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