¡Feliz Navidad! (Gran Canaria)

 

We spent a laughter filled evening on anchor with the ‘Sundays’ - Ryan and Brittni. Beer, card tricks, sailing stories, quizzes and banter galore. The lack of any proper dinner though translated into a throbbing hangover the next morning. This, my angelic wife cleverly alleviated with a fried brekkie and strong coffee.

Having been gruffly shooed away from the marina office yesterday, we’ve all but resigned ourselves to not getting in.

Well Christmas miracles do happen: a mid morning call from the marina to tell us that a spot has become free.

We excitedly upped anchor, headed to the reception dock, Chez steering us in perfectly, our docking only marred by me bashing my head on the anchor on our bow as I bent down tying our lines to the potoon. As Chez dealt with the office formalities, I sat outside and rubbed the egg developing on the back of my head. Once we’d finished there, next stop the fuel dock where we topped up our diesel to brimming.

I then radioed the marineros who’d previously offered to show us to our spot on the pontoon. It turns out to be a gap about 3m wide... our boat is over 4m wide.

Undeterred, Chez gamely, and accurately wedges us in as the new neighbours and I frantically adjust the straining fenders on either side. Chez’s impressive docking is met with grudging nods of approval from the onlooking marineros - possibly not used to seeing such an ‘intelegente y guapa senora’

Once safely berthed we set about the few jobs that remain in order to get us to full readiness for the upcoming Atlantic crossing.

As I write this we’ve just finished packing our bilges with food shopping, we’ve collected the Calor gas from the chandler, topped up the phone credit, and Chez is now spraying waterproofing onto our coats and wet weather trousers - these having been utterly useless and completely saturated after the last deluge we encountered.

Next day, more cleaning and swapping things from one cupboard or bilge to another, then tracking down a Covid testing centre that’s open on the 28th Dec and doesn’t need an appointment.

....and then: with little fanfare but numerous poorly sung renditions of ‘Feliz Navidad’ - it’s Christmas Day!

We spend a far from traditional Xmas morning painting the marina breakwater wall. We added our boat’s lotus flower and our names to the numerous others who have departed on an Atlantic crossing from here before us.

We both really enjoyed this festive graffitiing, and the resulting picture isn’t too bad. Had a nice Zoom call with family half way through, and a few complimentary locals stopped to take photos of the work in progress. Once finished, back to the boat for lunch and a nap. In the evening we had a Zoom quiz with Chez’s family - Great fun. Expertly hosted by Mikey and finishing up in a draw which then required a dance off tie breaker! - This was won by Martin’s team: Laura, Jamie & Martin (who for reasons yet to be explained was dressed up as a cowboy for the day!)