Our Week on the Moon

     Driving around in our rental car on the roads of Lanzarote feels more like being astronauts first exploring the Moon or Mars! Rocky. Sandy. Dessert. Since the island is volcanic, all the native life was destroyed in several dramatic eruptions in the 1800’s. While most of the inland of the island has an inhospitable terrain, the coast has some beautiful sand beaches. 

Looking out our car window on the drive 

More moonscape 

Waves and wind on the coast 

 Small fishing boats 

     Animals on the island are few and far between, but Mom and I found some to ride. We can now happily cross off “ride a camel” on the old bucket list… If it was on there to start! Camels are a notoriously grumpy lot and our camel didn’t disappoint. He made it quite clear with his stubborn grunts that he was content to sit and relax rather than take us for a ride! But he got over his obstinacy and we enjoyed a windy and scenic ride through the “moon” desert.     

My new ride  

He felt like sheep's wool 

     We also visited the national volcano park. Since the rock under the surface of the ground is still extremely hot, they can actually cook food over grills if they dig deep enough holes. They have a restaurant in the park where they cook your meal over one of these “natural grills”.

blowin' away 

Cooking over the natural grills 

Darvil has been exploring the island from under the sea. He’s spearing up a storm and we’re eating as fresh as it gets! His toolbox of spices we lugged in our suitcase from the states has been very useful in cooking up some delicious dinners. 

Comin' in from the sea 

Catch of the day- courtesy of Darv 

     We have been going to demonstrations and seminars on different aspects of sailing this past week in order to get ready for the trip. Tonight is a live helicopter rescue simulation and flare demonstration. Slowly we are getting everything in order to take off on Sunday!     

The one that got away

     48 hours of beautiful sailing weather later and we are now comfortably docked in the city of Arrecife, on the island of Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. We all got our sea legs and miraculously no one has been seasick yet (knock on wood).  And if you’ve ever thought that being on a sailboat isn’t exercise, think again! The smallest task, like pouring a glass of water, is a total isometric workout. When aboard these are the small victories. Now picture trying to go to the bathroom… 

Saying Goodbye to Madeira 

Beautiful sail weather 

     So it was all comfortable cruising on Argo until about 2 hours before we were about to arrive and then there was all out excitement on the sea! Darv’s big plan for this trip is to troll everyday we are on the water and hopefully catch a few nice fish. Second day of trolling and we hooked our first fish. This one was a fighter! It took every ounce of Darvil’s energy not to get pulled over the boat. The fish was going to be too big for Darvil to take on alone so dad joined in on the fight. But Darvil will tell you the story better, so here it is straight from the horse’s mouth:

     “When the thing first hit, it took all my body weight just to keep the thing from pulling me overboard. I had a lanyard on the rod, but the lanyard couldn’t take any of the weight because it goes from the rod to a point behind me. So if I ever let that lanyard start to tense up, it would tighten up against my waist and pull the rod to the side, and too far would cause it to slip out of my belt.  This was my first deep sea fish, so I had no idea what I was up against, but I knew I needed a winch! After 20 minutes my arms started to turn to mush, (keep in mind we were moving at a good 5 or 6 knots on a sailboat) and I needed help if anything would happen. The thing spooled the line a couple of times (and the drag was set VERY high). After an hour we got it close enough to the boat that we could see it was a blue fin tuna.  In another hour, we had it on is side right up to the back of the boat. Chas had been helping me support the rod, as I sat on the deck with my feet up on the rails. Soon, Em came back to relieve Chas as he readied the homemade gaff to hook him. He was massive, a foot longer than I am tall, and must have weighed over 200 lbs.  I really have no idea, it may have been 300. I remember thinking that we would need to come up with a good trick to get such a huge fish 5 feet up onto the deck. Just as we were going to gaff him, snap, the line broke. The line broke, and so did my heart. It was some good action, but I think I’ll be bitter about that ending for the rest of my life. This was yesterday and I still can’t move my arms.”  

Our first sight of the fish! TUNA!

He's excited now ! 

It's a big guy!  

Team work 

Givin' it his all 

So close ... 

Just before the line broke :( 

     So there you have it! We all had a good cry but then it was back to the business of sailing ourselves to Lanzarote. There’s always more fish in the sea… We made land fall in the Canaries about 11:00 am and arrived at our marina at dusk with barely enough light to dock. But with the help of a few spotlights we managed to make it in safely. This morning we had to change dock slips, and let’s just say it takes a village to dock Argo in a tight slip with windy conditions! At last head count we had 11 friendly sailors that were ready to catch a line! Dad wasn’t sure if he had enough beers to thank everybody!