Loela

Stopover in the Canaries Before Crossing the Atlantic

After a three-and-a-half-day sail in a gentle north-easterly from Tangier to La Graciosa, the 3M3As set off to explore the anchorages of the eastern group of islands, as all the marinas are full with boats about to set off on the upcoming rallies.

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Published on 30/01/2025

By Gilles Ruffet

Issue: 200

Published: Mar. / Apr. 2025

Discover this issue

Who : The 3M3A: Antoine & Magali, Arthur, Alice, Martin, Mathilde
Where: The Canary Islands
Multihull: Outremer 45
Blog : www.sailingloela.fr

The weather was playing tricks on us, and a deep low-pressure system was on the way, bringing westerly to south-westerly winds. We arrived at Graciosa, a pristine desert island. At anchor, everyone was back in their cabins: when sailing, we don’t use the forward cabin, where it moves around too much. We started school again after the three-day break, in front of a magnificent mineral landscape, in the shape of a beach of pale sand at the foot of a black and red volcano. The landscape was made up of black stones and pale sand. It rains very little on these islands, and the vegetation is limited to a few low, thorny plants. In the company of our buddy boats, we wandered around the small white village, and then took a walk along a track between the volcanoes. The desert landscape is grandiose and completely new to us. The next day, the wind shifted to the south-west and pushed us towards the coast. We set off towards Lanzarote, near Arrieta. A good swell was making waves on the beach and on the quays, so we anchored far enough away to avoid the surf. Disembarking proved impossible. Then we set off for Arrecife. Here too the marinas were full, so we tried an anchorage between the commercial port and the marina. We had a hard time finding a place for our dinghy: everything was barricaded in the marina, but fortunately we found a dock. We weren’t very reassured for either our catamaran or our dinghy: as soon as we had finished dessert, we returned to our boats and spent a quiet afternoon on board. After a few days in Fuerteventura, we returned to Lanzarote to see the island from the interior. We unfurled the gennaker and within an hour we were on the other side of the island. We were going so fast and the freezer was so full that we didn’t even cast a line. We anchored at Playa Blanca, in front of the Rubicon marina. It’s a huge tourist complex, but you can anchor in front of the breakwater and take the dinghy, with no charge. We motivated the children with the promise of a big ice cream once ashore. We reconsidered our original plan to stop in Cape Verde and finally decided to leave here directly for the Grenadines. We now have a week to prepare for our first Atlantic crossing, which should take between 15 and 20 days. We’re doing school in the mornings, while the afternoons are devoted to checking the multihull, from the masthead to below the engines. On Friday afternoon, we’ll be going out sailing to test all our repairs. We also have to prepare the administrative formalities for our arrival in the Grenadines, declare ourselves to the coastguard to let them know we’ll be crossing, and make the final arrangements for supplies and parts. We’ll see you soon, under the Caribbean sun!